Sos Mi Vida

Martín and Esperanza, just about to kiss.

"Sos mi vida" (in Spanish, "You're my life") was a 2006 Argentine telenovela about Martín Quesada, an important businessman and driver of Formula One, and Esperanza Muñoz, "La monita", a poor girl working at the "Quesada Group" firm. Martín Quesada is orphan, his only living relatives are his cousins Miguel and Debbie. Miguel works at the Quesada Group and takes advantage of his relation with Martín. Other people at the firm are Alfredo (Martín advisor), Mercedes (secretary), Kimberly (maintenance), and Félix Pérez Garmendia or "Falucho" (lawyer). Martín lives with the family housekeeper Rosa and her grandson Tony. He also adopted 3 orphan siblings, José, Laura and Coqui; but the definitive legal adoption is not done until the end. He has a possesive girlfriend, Constanza Inzua.

Esperanza Muñoz lives at the neighbourhood of La Boca, at a "conventillo" (a group of several low-income small houses sharing a common courtyard and some services, similar to a Mexican "vecindad"). An orphan as well, she lives with her adoptive mother Nieves, and Nieves's son, Enrique "Quique" Ferreti. Kimberly lives there as well, same as the unsuccessful actress Nilda Yadur, "La Turca", those two are Esperanza's best friends.

Initially, Constanza is Martín's girlfriend, and Quique is Esperanza's boyfriend. Martín and Esperanza falled in love and the telenovela focused on their relation. Unknown to them for the whole run of the telenovela, however, Constanza and Quique has a similar relation as well.

The series was remade in Mexico as "Un gancho al corazón".

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Tropes used in Sos Mi Vida include:

• Actor Allusion: Happens several times.
  • During the carnival at the conventillo, Martín dresses as Zorro, and he escapes he is seen by Constanza and Debbie. "Did you recognize him?" "Yes, that was Padre Coraje" (a former character of Facundo Arana)
  • When needing to get into a slum searching for a killer, Esperanza dressed like "Cholito", a former character of hers from Muñeca Brava. Martín points that she resembles someone he knew (because Facundo Arana was part of that telenovela as well).
  • When Falucho defied Alfredo to a duel, Miguel boasted Alfredo that he was not a man of honour (in reference to the telenovela Hombres De Honor).
• As Himself: Nicolás Repetto
• Betty and Veronica: Martín = Archie, Betty = Esperanza, Veronica = Constanza
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Miguel and Falucho
• Bored with Insanity: Debbie once thought she was a genius and that she should be a "new Debbie", and do serious stuff, like using black clothing, read books, work in the firm, etc. When Constanza ordered her to do stuff, Debbie complained that "the new Debbie does not follow orders from you", but as Constanza insisted, Debbie proposed that "the new Debbie will take a rest, and the former Debbie will return for a while".
• Break the Haughty: To take revenge on Esperanza, Constanza got a voodoo deal that would leave her face full of ugly spots. To make it work, she requests Debbie to go to Esperanza's house and retrieve some personal clothing of her; but Debbie lost it afterwards, so she took one of Constanza instead. Constanza prepared the sorcery... and wake up the next morning full of spots herself.
• Surprise Incest: Played with. After learning some things about her lost father, Esperanza confronted Nieves and asked, is Quique's father my own father as well? (implied question, "did you allow us to be lovers for so many years, hiding that we were brothers?") Quique overheards that, get horrorized, and run away to take refuge in a chapel, full of shame. Nieves answer: "No!", but Quique had already fled.
• Camp Gay: Lalo, the wedding planner of Martín and Constanza
• Catch Phrase
  • Debbie: "Can I tell you three things?" ("¿te puedo decir tres cosas?")
  • Nieves: "Oh, holy virgin!" ("Ay, virgen santa")
  • Nieves: "Jesus, bless me" ("Jesús me favorezca")
  • Quique: "I didn't do anything, sir" ("yo no hice nada, señor")
• Clothing Switch: When Quique thought that Esperanza died in a plane crash, he dressed like her and run away.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: The "Ice Queen" would be Constanza, who does not care about any man except Martín; and even in that case it's not because of love but because of interest in the social status. Quique fell in love with her at first sight, she initially flat rejected him, then considered him a mere sexual toy, and finally embraced him when she lost Martín.
• Don't Split Us Up: Constanza, who did not want the adopted children at all, theatened them many times to give them back for adoption and split them to different families.
• Double Meaning: Angered because they helped Constanza to be with Martín, and then she rejected to pay them, Miguel and Falucho left compromising photos at several locations, forcing Constanza to guess them by riddles and retrieve them. For the last one, they gave a very easy riddle, suggesting that the last photos are in the room of Esperanza. First, she replies with a sarcastic tone "Are you kidding? they're in the conventillo!" (noting that the riddle was too easy). Then, she gets mad and shouts "ARE YOU KIDDING?! THEY'RE IN THE CONVENTILLO?!" (noting that they left the photos at the home of her arch-nemesis).
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Constanza's mother appeared for the Constanza-Martín wedding, she remembered old times and suspected that they could have had the same father... meaning, they are siblings! Constanza told this to Miguel and Falucho: very well, the Evil Plan is history, it was fun while it lasted, perhaps we can steal money from some business operation to have something to do... but Constanza did not give up. She wanted advise on how to prevent Martín from hearing such news: she was willing to get married to him even knowing about the Brother-Sister Incest, and luring Martín into it! Sorry, Constanza, but you are on your own, Even Evil Has Standards. They were not siblings after all: Constanza's mother was just mixing years and peoples, and all the commotion was unjustified.
• Fostering for Profit: When Martín go bankrupt and broke with Constanza, she kept the children with her. Not because she liked them: she though that it was the only reason why Martín would return to her.
• Generation Xerox: At the end of the series, Martín and Esperanza had a daugther, and Constanza and Quique had a son. They turned out to be teenage versions of Esperanza and Quique, who fall in love as well.
• Gone Horribly Right
  • Miguel and Falucho arranged the liberation of Alfredo's wife, who had became a serial killer, hoping that she would try to kill everyone. They were right: they were her first victims.
  • When a new judge managed the adoption process, Constanza plotted to show her that Esperanza was a bad influence on the children. The judge agreed, and denied Martín the definitive adoption. She gave it to someone else: Constanza!
• Good People Have Good Sex: the relations of Martín and Esperanza are always passionate, while those of Constanza and Quique are brief and unsatisfactory.
• Hands-Off Parenting: Played with. Martín does his best to be a good parent, but Constanza, Miguel and Falucho, who want to remove the adopted kids from the scene, always tell the jury when something happens that could be considered Hands Off Parenting.
• Incompetence, Inc.: The Quesada Group.
• Karma Houdini: Despite of all the evil things she had done all the time, Constanza's only punishment is not having Martín: she had a happy ending with Quique. Same goes for him, who has cheated Esperanza with her arch-enemy all the time, and barely gets a complaint.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Martín and Esperanza had both said "Sos mi vida" to the other at romantic contexts.
• Love Triangle: Martín, Esperanza and Constanza
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Constanza thinks that the source of all her problems is Esperanza, and everything would be fine if she was not in the scene.
• Must Have Caffeine: Either Kimberly must prepare a coffee for Mercedes, or Esperanza one for Martín, daily. There's almost no day when such thing is not mentioned... and if Kimberly s not at work for whatever reason, Mercedes suffers coffee deprivation.
• Pie in the Face: So, Esperanza is in love with Quique, has never said it, and actually arranged a web of lies telling he was his brother. Now the truth is known. How do mature adult people deal with such a thing? What about a Pie in the Face?
• Police Are Useless: If there is a crime in progress, a missing person, a kidnapping, a serial killer on the loose, you may call the police but they will never be able to help at all. Even worse, they may show up to take someone under arrest, which is always the wrong one.
• Riches to Rags: Done during some months. Martín Quesada slowly lost everything: his driver licence, the "Quesada Group", his wealth, his adopted children, even his house. For some time he had to live at another room of the conventillo.
• Self-Parody: Debbie once interrupted the filming of "Sos mi muqui", a Show Within a Show with the same plot than the real show. After it, Debbie is hired to write the scripts.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Constanza is eager to defeat and humilliate Esperanza, but there's a problem: she's not a proffesional boxer like her. So she trained in boxing in secret, put all her anger in the training, defied Esperanza to get to a ring and settle things once and or all... and Esperanza won by knock-out with a single punch. Closing credits, try again tomorrow.
• Tell Me About My Mother: Esperanza was not orphan after all, her mother was alive and had escaped many years ago. Nieves knew this, and never said a word. Esperanza broke with her when she discovered that she had kept such a secret from her her whole life.
• Ultimate Job Security: Touched by hearing that Quique had no job (and still thinking he was Esperanza's brother, intead of his boyfriend), Martín hired him to the Quesada Group. Each day he made a mess worth being fired, but he was always forgiven. However, this lasted until the day when Nothing Is the Same Anymore, Martín just had enough of Quique and fired him, forever and definitely.
• Uptown Girl: The main romance of Martín and Esperanza follows this pattern, but also Constanza and Quique.
• What the Hell, Hero?: When Alfredo was suspected of a crime, Martín fired him.
• Working with the Ex: Martín broke with Esperanza when he found out that Quique was his boyfriend and not his brother, but she still worked at the firm.