Yo Soy Betty, la Fea

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Literally: "I'm Betty, The Ugly One" (1999-2001). The most famous hispanic Soap Opera in the world, a Dramedy that also subverts the paradigm of the beautiful heroine by instead starring an ugly one.

Since in Hispanic countries everybody and their cat has watched it (the Mexican adaptation's finale was actually a real parade!) and the full soap is available in Netflix worldwide, the spoilers in the following description will go unmarked. Don't worry, Ugly Betty watchers: it's very unlikely that the adaptation will use the same plot points, even if it shares the overall plot.

Beatriz Pinzón is a very intelligent woman in her late twenties, has a degree in Economics and a Master in Finances, is perfectly trilingual, and is extremely clever. She also is extremely unattractive, with any possible redeeming feature hidden under her unflattering clothes, her bad hair, her orthodontic treatment, her big nerdy glasses and her cringe-worthy laugh. Since she has been considered ugly since her birth, she has very little confidence in herself, and her parents being very overprotective doesn't help her with this at all. Her only friend is Nicolás Mora, a fellow neighbor and classmate, who is as unattractive and nerdy as she is.

Unable to find a job at the same level as her knowledge because her incredible resume is hidden by the photo attached to it, Betty lowers her expectations and applies to a secretarial job in a fashion company, Eco Moda, since they are the only company that doesn't require a photo. The Human Resources man instead hires Patricia Fernández, a very attractive lady; however, Patricia is the best friend of Marcela Valencia, the fiancée of the new president of the company, Armando Mendoza, and, suspecting that his very jealous fiancée wants to spy on him - and since he needs a competent aid - he hires Betty as well. After all, Patricia is a total airhead, and Betty has the plus of being unattractive. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Well, for a start, Betty falls in love with her boss.

Mind, Betty knows that her "Don Armando" will never notice anyone like her, and so she decides to instead demonstrate her love by being the best secretary possible, even if that means clashing with Patricia (who likes to think of herself as much more important than she is), with Marcela (who works in the company too, and knows Armando's personality too well), with the head designer Hugo Lombardi (a Flamboyant Gay who disliked Betty since Day One due to his very rigid concept of beauty), with Daniel Valencia (Marcela's brother, investor, and The Rival of Armando since childhood), and in general with... pretty much everyone. She endures a lot of mistreatment, including being shunted off to a closet as her office. Unexpectedly, she finds support and friendship in the secretaries of the company, dubbed the Ugly Squad ("Cuartel de Feas" in the original spanish) by Lombardi.

Armando begins to trust more and more in Betty, who little by little influences the policies of the company. To him, she is the hideous but trustworthy secretary, who also happens to know a lot of Economics. However, Armando's very ambitious plans for the company begin to fall apart when the first collection of clothing produced under his administration fails badly, with the logical loss of money. Afraid of losing his position, his parent's trust, and the company (in that order), he and Betty create a plan involving a takeover by a ghost company, and tax evasion. Then Armando's best friend and company vice-president Mario Calderón suggests to him that he should ensure Betty's loyalty by romancing her...

Tropes used in Yo Soy Betty, la Fea include:


  • Beautiful All Along
  • Brainless Beauty: Patricia Fernandez and Aura Marí­a, among others.
  • Breakfast Club: The secretaries of the company, dubbed "The Ugly Squad" by Hugo Lombardi, because none of them have perfect, supermodel looks. Besides Betty, they are an elderly lady, an angry Woman Scorned in her forties, an angrier Christmas Cake over 6 feet tall, a dark skinned woman who likes to play tarot, the attractive but short (and ditzy) company receptionist, and the fat Big Eater gossiper who, ironically, is the only happily married one, and the best adjusted of all the group.
  • Broken Aesop
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer: a good chunk of the cast.
  • The Cameo, Special Guest and Celebrity Star: Oh, boy. There was a lot of people who appeared at this soap at some point, including several singers, the actress who starred Brazilian soap Xica da Silva, and at one point every single one of the candidates of the Miss Colombia beauty pageant of that year, and the President of Colombia (The latter two were justified, since the storyline involved Betty in the preproduction of the pageant, and the President, who happened to be in the city of the pageant, wanted to appear in the soap. Both things became plot points).
  • Camp Gay: Hugo Lombardi.
  • Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Subverted.
  • Casanova Wannabe: Freddy and Nicolás. The latter acknowledges his lack of physical attractiveness, but both fail to understand that their attitude is the real cause of them being still single.
  • Catch Phrase: Patricia's "Yo estudié seis semestres de Finanzas en la San Marino" ("I studied six semesters of Finance in San Marino College"). The joke is that the college she mentions so proudly is a Fictional Counterpart of a third-rate university.
    • "El diablo es puerco" (The Devil is a Pig), a phrase always spoken by Betty's father, Don Hermes. Particular because it hits the nail while really saying nonsense.
  • Celebrity Paradox: in one chapter Mario Duarte, the actor who interpreted Nicolás Mora, appeared as himself in his role as a singer, and even meets his character (albeit they aren't shown at screen at the same time). Nicolás later comments in how some people think they look "a bit" alike, and then wonders loudly why Mr. Duarte is considered more handsome than him.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Marcela, albeit she has reasons... and eventually is proven right.
  • Cosmetic Catastrophe: Betty's first makeover attempt, done without adequate oversight, ends this way.
  • Cultural Translation: Ugly Betty. It is, however, popular here, and there are many multinational re-makes.
  • Fallen Princess: Patricia is a subversion: after her divorce, she falls in status, but instead of becoming nicer, she acts as the Alpha Bitch she always has been, clinging passionately to all the symbols of her former status.
  • Flamboyant Gay: Hugo Lombardi. Luigi Lombardi from the Mexican version La fea más bella is an even more blatant example, especially because Flamboyant Gays in Mexico usually assume Italian names.
  • Follow the Leader: forget the Trans Atlantic Equivalents; after the soap aired there was a boom of bad-planned soaps who tried to cash in the "non-pretty heroine". And Betty itself was halted and heavily reworked by its author because a soap named "La mujer en el espejo" (about an unpretty woman who becomes beautiful after a Deal with the Devil) aired just before.
  • Generation Xerox: The last episode ends with a scene very similar to the first scene of the opening...
  • Huge Schoolgirl: The tallest secretary of the "Ugly Squad", Sandra Patiño, is what happens with this type of character once they leave the school, but retain the complex.
  • I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me
  • Informed Deformity: The majority of the members of "The Ugly Squad".
  • I Just Want to Be Beautiful: Betty, of course. Not out of shallowness, but because of her experiences: people are judged and treated according to their looks.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
  • Kavorka Man: Armando Mendoza. Yes, he is sort of good-looking and seems to care for his loved ones and friends, but most of the time he is a neurotic Jerkass with a tendency to be overly bossy, and barks to everyone on sight when things doesn't go as he likes. Most of his hookups don't like to repeat.
  • Liz Lemon Job: Betty has traces of this, and this was inherited (and expanded) by later incarnations.
  • Lost in Imitation: Most of its remakes tend to forget that Betty is legitimately considered unattractive -the actress was beautiful, but consistently and deliberately styled to look otherwise with the positive physical features remaining being treated in the script as negatives, and on top of that she is insecure and awkward acting, with many annoying tics that remain even after the definitive makeover. The remakes tend to make Betty quirky looking and slightly awkward at best, to flat out attractive but considered "ugly" only because she is disliked at worst.
  • Love Dodecahedron
  • Meaningful Name
  • Mentor: Catalina Angel
  • Meganekko: Betty's makeover transforms her into this archetype.
  • Multi National Shows
  • Naive Everygirl
  • One Steve Limit: Beatriz Pinzón and Marí­a Beatriz Valencia
  • Opening Theme: A cover of an old Tango, "Se Dice de mí" specially modified to suit the gender of the protagonist
  • Overprotective Dad: Hermes Pinzón, Betty's father. He seems to notice all the awkwardness and ugliness of his daughter, but still insists on advising her against men with "bad intentions" and drives away any prospective son-in-law.
  • Pet Homosexual: Inverted; the homosexual designer has traits of this type, but he is too moody to be anyone's mascot, and instead treats his elderly secretary as his pet.
  • Platonic Life Partners: Betty and Nicolás.
  • Playing Cyrano: Mario Calderón, for Armando. Subverted because none of them are interested in Betty (at least in the beginning).
  • Reality Subtext: Ana María Orozco and Julian Arango, the actors who interpreted Betty and Hugo Lombardi respectively, got divorced during the soap. Their respective characters were ideological opposites, and is believed that the bitterness both held for each other helped to make their confrontations more realistic.
  • Revenge of the Nerd: ¡Y cómo!
  • Romantic False Lead: Michell
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: She does. Betty's apeareance significantly improves towards the end of the soap opera.
  • Shoot the Money: the chapters filmed in Cartagena de Indias.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Patricia. Prides on her beauty, her (brief) time studying finance in a (third rate) university, and her rich ancestor. The truth? She is a vain, shallow and egotistical empty-head, whose time in college was only to find a husband (who quickly got rid of her when he realized what she was like), and whose own family wants nothing with her. Nobody denies she is pretty, but anyone else in Eco Moda is nicer than her - even the Woman Scorned, even the Jerkasses. She tries to live the same way as she did when she was maintained, and that only hastens her fall. She frustrates Marcela, her only friend, by gleefully ignoring every bit of advice the poor woman gives to her. The only person who actually likes her is Nicolás, who is so charmed by her beauty that ignores every clue he is given about her real personality.
  • Spin-Off: Ecomoda, which only lasted a month.
  • Spinoff Babies: The atrocious Animated Adaptation Betty Toons.
  • Stepford Smiler
  • Stupid Boss: Gutiérrez, who sprouts Gratuitous English all the time, is easily distracted by any good looking female (but treating the non-good looking ones worse than nasty), and is only competent enough to avoid being a Pointy-Haired Boss by a pinch.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: Daniel Valencia
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Marcela.
  • Upper Class Twit: several:
    • Patricia, even if she has no money, still brings her uselessness with her.
    • Maria Beatriz, who only appears long enough to collect her cheque and go back to Europe for another plastic surgery procedure.
  • Virginity Makes You Stupid
  • Yawn and Reach: Nicolás tries this, but fails almost every time.
  • Your Cheating Heart
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