Ana Joaquina Velarde is the main antagonist of the Mexican telenovela "El Privilegio de Amar" ("The Privilege of Loving"), transmitted in 1998. She is loosely based on Doña Luisa, antagonist of the Venezuelan soap opera "Cristal" (1985) played by Argentine actress Zoe Ducós.
Despite her desire to free her soul from sin, Ana Joaquina continues to harm many people without showing remorse. She not only seeks salvation, but also revenge on the woman who, in her own view, seduced her son.
She was portrayed by Diana Bracho in the first stage and by Marga Lopez in the second stage.
Biography[]
The young seminarian Juan de la Cruz comes to visit his mother Ana Joaquina's house, a religious fanatic who always imposed his will on his son and instilled the vocation to serve God. The young Luciana, a dreamy and innocent girl who falls in love with Juan de la Cruz works at Ana Joaquina's house. One night, carried by their passion for youth, they surrender with tenderness and innocence. Upon knowing it, Ana Joaquina runs to Luciana, who by then already expected a son of Juan de la Cruz.
A bitter and judgmental woman, she raised her son Juan de la Cruz to be a priest, believing he was the key to keep her soul out of the fires of hell (something she's pathologically obsessed with and afraid of). She hates Luciana, seeing her as the reason for everything bad that happens in her life. She's the first to figure out Cristina is her granddaughter and tells Juan de la Cruz in confession. She later grows obsessed with the idea of taking Victoria, Cristina's daughter with Victor Manuel, away from Cristina to protect her from so-called perdition.
Ana Joaquina kills Trujillo
After a while Ana Joaquina meets Trujillo, a wicked man whom Luciana married and then divorced, largely because of her mistreatment. They ally against Luciana, but Trujillo learns the truth about Cristina and blackmails Luciana in exchange for telling what she knows.
Desperate and with no other solution, she decides to give in to the blackmail and arranges to give him a sum of money, but they fall out and she runs away, but falls into a ravine and is unconscious. Trujillo quickly prepares to leave, but Ana Joaquina and her accomplice Fidencio are inside the cabin.
Trujillo swears he will not tell the secret to anyone, but Ana Joaquina is irreducible and decides to kill him by shooting 3 times, so that he does not tell what he knows.
Ana Joaquina begins a series of evils such as killing her maid Chepa (which was reported by Fidencio when giving information to Luciana.
In later chapters, she learns that Fidencio was the son of the woman who had come into the church and burned herself for Ana Joaquina for stealing from her husband, and was seeking revenge for it. Fidencio burns the house, but he and Ana Joaquina are taken to the hospital
There she shows everyone who she really is by confessing all her crimes and stating how much she hates Luciana. Fidencio dies in the instant.
Later, Ana Joaquina's hospital is taken to jail, where she ends up tormented by her acts of cruelty and desperate for the possibility of going to hell.