please let’s talk about juliana’s eyes and how they only seem to soften for valentina, and how valentina must feel being on the receiving end of those looks
Listen. My mom has a phrase for this: mahal kaayo ang iyang pahiyom.
Roughly translated, it means “her smiles are very expensive.”
See, Juls has had a hard life. In Texas, she lived below the poverty line, in a trailer park. Her dad was a deadbeat who never really treated her like his daughter – and it got worse when he turned out to be a hitman, which she only discovered before he was arrested and sentenced to death for murder. In the last month she’s been shot at, attacked, threatened with rape by Alacran and forced to flee to Mexico to hide for who knows how long.
She doesn’t trust or like most people, because they have shown her the worst that humanity has to offer. She’s hard because she’s had to be, because people have always looked down on her, because she’s always been told by everyone, except maybe Lupe, that she isn’t good enough. She didn’t even begin to dream about becoming a fashion designer until she met Val; Lupe had to convince just to aim for going to school instead of working. That kind of oppressive thought weighs down a person, and if you are to have any hope, you have to have your guard up.
But Juls as a person? She is kind, generous, and loving in a way that, if you can get her to trust you, is effortless and giving. Lupe is the only one we have ever seen her smile for, encouragingly and happily because that’s actually the kind of person Juls is. Her joy is so hard earned, that she gifts smiles to the people she loves when they are feeling down. But given her life? Juls really has to dig deep to find something to be happy about, so it costs a lot to get her to really smile, the kind of smile that shines in your eyes.
Her smiles are expensive because her happiness is so rare.
Until she meets Val.
And it’s like she lights up the freaking ROOM, because it’s so easy with Val. It is easy to trust Valentina because she’s so open with her feelings, there isn’t a lying, malicious bone in her body. Juls can afford to be soft and tender around her, mostly because when they first met, Val was the one who already was so vulnerable and sad. And Juls couldn’t bear to see that because she’s a kind person, so she lowered her walls and let her joy out, just to so Valentina could match her smile. It’s par the course with her M.O. to use her own joy to lighten others’ spirits.
But then, Val opened up to her and suddenly, someone else was making her smile.
A LOT.
EFFORTLESSLY
INCANDESCENTLY.
And so she gives her smiles freely. Generosity begets generosity. Val is so generous with her love, that tenderness just pours out of Juls as a result, without her consent. She couldn’t help it if she tried. (To be fair, she doesn’t try very hard at all).
And for Valentina? All she has ever known is a soft and open Juls, who looks at her with warm, kind eyes. Who only gets hard and angry when she’s hurt or scared. A sad and hard Juls is abnormal to her. She associates warmth and tenderness with Juls so much, she can’t even fathom the idea of her beloved Chivis not loving and cherishing Juls the way she does. Because Juls is only ever soft around her. Because just being around Valentina makes Juls feel safe. Settled. Secure.
These kids are the softest OTP I have ever seen. All they want is to eat their breakfast in peace and make out. They are the sane, soft, healthy, giving core of this INSANE telenovela, and they are just better together.
(In fact the show’s plot depends on it, since they function as the lynchpin/bridge of the entire damn show. There’s a reason why the plot lives and dies on their together status: they’re the only ones who have met players and influenced all seven major storylines. Between the two of them, they have all the pieces to break the premise of the show, and they have for a while now. But, another post for another time).
