Volver a Empezar (telenovela)

"Volver A Empezar" (Spanish for "to start again", literally "to return to starting") is a popular Mexican telenovela of the 1990s, filled with action, intrigue and light hearted moments.Produced by Televisa in 1994, it is one of Mexico's most popular soap operas in history.

Plot

It stars Mexican diva Yuri as Reni, Puerto Rican singing legend Chayanne as himself, Carlos Miguel as Poncho and Pilar Montenegro as Jessica. Reni is a 26 year old whose father leaves her a fortune upon dying, and who dreams of someday meeting Chayanne, who is (in real life and in the soap opera) an international singing star and teen idol. The dream comes true because Renis boyfriend, named Santiago (played by Rafael Sanchez Navarro) is a music producer and he arranges for the meeting to happen after one of Chayanne's concerts.

As the drama unfolds, Reni becomes famous and she and Chayanne start a close friendship which later turns into romance. Santiago becomes increasingly jealous and evil. Reni becomes afraid of Santiago and starts seeing him less and less. Then Santiago's lawyer, Tony, played by Guillermo Garcia Cantú, starts to develop an interest for Reni.

While all this is going, in Reni's house, her sister Sandra, (played by Claudia Silva) becomes increasingly jealous of Reni 's success and the fact their father left Reni the family fortune. Unknown to the TV viewer for most of the soap is the fact Sandra had a degenerative mental illness and that was why Reni's father left Reni the fortune and not Sandra.

Sandra and Santiago have a diabolic plan where they will make Reni have an accident during one of her concerts, and the plan works, leaving Reni paralyzed and with amnesia after her fall. Eventually, she recovers her mind and begins to walk again, and she plans her return to the world of show business under the name of Chakira (not to be confused with the real life singer Shakira). She uses that name so not to tip off her enemies as to who she really is and that she's still alive.

Through all of this, and before Reni's accident happened, a fan of hers, Lalo, (played by Eduardo Changerotti) becomes her friend and falls in love with her, causing the ire of Jessica, (Pilar Montenegro), who has just broken up with Poncho (Carlos Miguel). Jessica becomes enemies with Reni and her attraction towards Lalo in turn makes Poncho mad and jealous too.

Chayanne had to go away from Reni because of his professional compromises and Tony started to move in on her. He became her greatest friend during the time she was in the wheelchair, and a great deal of love grew between them.

Tony ended up protecting Reni from Santiago, who ends up paralyzed. Jessica moved to Guadalajara, Jalisco after finding she was suffering a terrible disease, Lalo purposely gets himself killed in a motorcycle crash, Chayanne decides that he and Reni should stay only as good friends because of their busy singing career schedules, Sandra gets committed to a mental hospital, Reni starts using her real name again and makes a big comeback into the musical world, she goes on tour, and Tony gets married to her and later on, they have a family. Then the ending trademark for Mexican soap operas "El Fin" appears.

Cast

Main cast

* Yuri as Renata "Reni" Jimenez
* Chayanne as Chayanne
* Claudia Silva as Sandra "Sandy" Jimenez
* Rafael Sanchez Navarro as Santiago Ugalde
* Fernando Ciangherotti as Eduardo 'Lalo'
* Alejandro Aragon as Francisco
* Guillermo Garcia Cantu as Tony

Supporting cast

* Maria Elena Saldana as Tina
* Luis Couturier as Gabriel Jimenez
* Carmelita Gonzalez as Encarnacion
* Silvia Suurez
* Pilar Montenegro as Jessica
* Carlos Miguel as Poncho
* Raul Alberto as Mike
* Mauricio Islas as Freddy
* Paco Ibanez as The manager
* Luisa Huertas as Magda
* Beatriz Martinez
* Vilma Traca as Teodora
* Roberto Tello as Coreano
* Ricardo Barona
* Sussan Taunton as Rita
* Radames de Jesus as Paul
* Margarita Isabel as Aurora
* Jose Luis Avendano
* Gustavo Bermudez
* Leonor Llausas
* Patricia Martinez as Agata
* Fernando Pinkus
* Jaime Puga
* Roberto Ruy
* Isadora Gonzalez
* Karyme Lozano