A Tree Grows in Guadalajara

"A Tree Grows in Guadalajara" is the 22nd episode from the dramedy series Ugly Betty, which aired on May 10, 2007. Originally this was supposed to be the season finale, but ABC extended its full season order to 23, thus the change in the scheduling and the extension in the storylines.

Plot

The day begins with the Suarezes traveling to Mexico in an effort to help Ignacio obtain a US Visa and find out more about their true family roots, but before they take off, Hilda talks to Santos about their wedding plans, while Betty gets a message from Henry, and Hilda is wondering why she won't answer back. On the first-class flight, the entire Suarez family had their own issues: Hilda with her wedding and drinking up the champagne; Justin worrying about being the understudy for "West Side Story"; Betty trying to fill her maternal family tree and practicing her Spanish, not to mention losing one of her earrings; and Ignacio is not all that thrilled about returning to Mexico, not having been on good terms with his family when he left for New York (as an inebriated Hilda rather loudly points out on the plane, "They don't know you killed mom's husband?!").

When they arrive for the family get together, Hilda talks to cousin Clara about fretting over looking for a wedding dress while Betty questions her Aunt Mirta about her late mother, Rosa (Salazar). But it appears that Ignacio and Mirta are trying to hold back the truth since they both have a pact about why Ignacio and Rosa actually left for America. As Betty meets and greets her relatives, an elderly woman (who happens to be a Curandera) looks at her and begins to give Betty a message that hold all the answers to what she's looking for, which is a blue house that can be found in a tree that is located outside the area. Hilda and Clara thought the woman was nuts, until Betty learned that her missing earring was actually on her dress, as the woman told her to look on her sleeve.

Later that evening, Betty gave Mirta a glass of mimosa as they talk about Rosa, only to let Mirta slip out the truth about Betty and Hilda's maternal grandmother, Yolanda Salazar; it appears that she is actually alive, and not dead, as Betty and Hilda thought. The next day Ignacio comes clean to the daughters that the reason he kept it a secret was that Yolanda was against Rosa and Ignacio being together, even after sending Yolanda letters and pictures, which were sent back unopened. However, Betty is determined to meet Yolanda and takes Hilda with her. On the bus ride Hilda is enjoying the quesadillas being made at the back of the bus, while Betty sees a person riding on a moped with a goatee, who she thinks is Henry. Hilda thinks Betty is seeing things, but when Betty thinks she sees him again she get off the bus and Hilda follows, only to have the bus take off, prompting Betty and Hilda to walk to a nearby town.

As the two arrive, Betty sees the goatee Henry and follows him, only to discover his image actually lead her to her grandmother! When Betty enters the room, she sees Yolanda and tries to communicate with her. However, it turns out that Yolanda has alzheimer's, as her caregiver walks in and tells Betty. The caregiver then communicates with Yolanda, who gets up and mistakes Betty for her mother, and apologizes to her for not approving of the relationship between Rosa and Ignacio, then gives her a pair of dresses. Ignacio later arrives and see this exchange as it appears all is forgiven.

Hilda, tired of walking and arguing with Betty, meets Antonio Barreiro, a patron at a cafe where she was resting for a spell. While she rested Antonio gives her a foot rub and asks Hilda if she is making the right decision about marrying Santos, but Hilda says she is. Hilda then sees Betty with a white dress (which happened to be their mother's wedding dress) that she takes to heart as the perfect wedding dress she always dreamed of. As the family is reunited, it appears that it could be short lived as Ignacio tells Betty that his visa has been denied and that he will have to stay in Mexico. Unfortunately, Ignacio's return has also caught the interest of Antonio after he tried to sweet talk Hilda: Moments after Ignacio shakes his hands and thanked him for keeping Hilda company, Antonio makes a phone call informing his contact that Ramiro Vasquez's murderer (Ignacio) has surfaced and they might finally get their revenge.

Meanwhile, back at MODE, Daniel seems to act more peppy than ever during a conference meeting about coming with ways to improve the magazine, but everyone thinks he is not himself, prompting Alexis to move on to other business, only to be caught off guard by Wilhelmina saying that she just got Jordan Dunn to do a series of shoots...and that name prompts Alexis to end the meeting by leaving. As Jordan arrives to confront her ex, Alexis tries her best to explain, but Jordan is still bitter over this. Moments later Daniel sees Jordan, who is about to do a shoot involving bungee jumping and she invites him. The two later learn that they had some feeling for each other and the two embrace, but at the expense of Alexis, who is not happy about Jordan seeing Daniel. Daniel on the other hand believes that Alexis is jealous because she is not a man anymore and he has the upper hand. But hours later, Jordan returns to ask Alexis why she is jealous of her seeing Daniel, only to have Alexis blurt out that she should have told Jordan goodbye. As Alexis and Jordan kiss and embrace each other, Daniel sees this and walks away, and when he looks at his container, he finds that he is out of pills.

In-between the sibling rivalry, Alexis pays off a mysterious person to take care of Bradford, while later that evening a person arrives at Daniel's place to give him his pills, but as Daniel prepares to get his wallet, he is beaten up by a pair of thugs.

In other scenarios, Marc is jealous when Amanda seemingly has a new best gay friend in Tavares, who finally gets his chance to shine as his creations are noticed by Wilhelmina, who suggested that he make some changes in his designs (one of them being a shirt with coconut shell buttons on it) prior to an event she set up for him that evening. For Marc, he is not impressed with Amanda spending her time with Tavares, not knowing that Amanda is actually sleeping with the actually-straight designer, who thanked her for getting him noticed. At the event, Wilhelmina introduces Tavares to an array of gay designers, who is taken in by Tavares' ploy and plays it to the hilt. During the evening Marc sees Amanda and Tavares kissing, then confronts Amanda about latching on to "gay guys" like Tavares and might be feeding off her feelings for Daniel; Amanda sees Marc's reasoning as jealousy, but then tells Marc that Tavares is straight. However, it appears that Tavares is taking advantage of Amanda; as he talks negative about her, Marc hears this and defends her, then exposes him as a straight guy, but the guests are not worried as they embrace Tavares anyway, prompting Wilhelmina to comment that she has never been to a 'coming-in' party. And to top it off, Amanda shows off one of Tavares' designs (the coconut-shell shirt that Wilhelmina had previously disapproved of), thus embarrassing him once and for all. After the party was over, Amanda and Marc visit Christina's "Closet" (thanks to Marc's friendship with Christina) to grab some designs. When Marc shows Amanda a pair of shoes, Amanda tells him she wants them and as Marc grabs the pair, he opens the entrance to the secret hideaway and the two discovers the "Love Dungeon" as they prepare to take a look.

Finally, Wilhelmina is upset that Bradford didn't go through with the divorce papers, saying that he isn't so sure if he wants to divorce Claire, until Wilhelmina told him that she always thought of him as a person she would rather be with as she has admired Bradford since she joined MODE. So Wilhelmina suggests that Bradford do a makeover, as he begins to remember his early days as "Brad". With help from Christina, Bradford does get a new look (for his age). But at the Tavares party "Brad" is almost hit on by Marc and gets the attention of a woman, only to say that his earring was oozing a little. Bradford seems upset by the end of the party, after realizing he will never feel like "Brad" again. After returning from the party, Wilhelmina tells Bradford that she likes him better as sexy, sophisticated, mature Bradford, rather than "Brad". Bradford, is touched, and signs the divorce papers and begin his passionate evening with Wilhelmina.

Production

The Mexican setting in this episode (including the scene featuring the blue house and the tree) was actually shot around Los Angeles County and in portions of Death Valley. In addition, stuntperson Anna Mercedes Morris would make her third appearance in this episode in which a stunt double was used for America Ferrera's character.

The Blue House mentioned in the episode is a place in Mexico where the painter Frida Kahlo's parents lived. Executive Producer Salma Hayek played Frida Kahlo in the movie, appropriately titled "Frida".

There was also an error in another scene. When Wilhelmina shoves Tavarez's coconut-shell-buttons blazer back into his hands and says the line, "Fix it by tomorrow night", her mouth doesn't move.

Casting

The actors playing the Mexican relatives and natives in this episode are not from Mexico. Ana Ortiz (Hilda) and Justina Machado (Clara) are Americans of Puerto Rican descent, Rita Moreno (Mirta) and Lillian Hurst (Yolanda) are natives of Puerto Rico, America Ferrera (Betty) is Honduran-American, Tony Plana (Ignacio) is a native of Cuba, Mark Indelicato (Justin) is American of mixed Italian/Puerto Rican descent, and Arap Bethke (Antonio Reyes) was born in Kenya, and raised in Mexico. He is of German and Chilean parentage, but considers himself Mexican since he grew up there. Lilyan Chauvin, who played the Curandera in the episode, is actually French.

It was rumoured in "People en español" that Angélica Vale would appear in this episode as her La Fea Más Bella character, Leticia "Lety" Padilla Solis, but it didn't happen. She actually appeared in the following episode, but she didn't play Lety. Her character was a dental assistant who looked exactly like Lety, though.

Reception

Entertainment Weekly's Tanner Stransky notes, "I have to admit that when I realized Ugly Betty was going to put its weird, rambling subplot of Ignacio's visa woes front and center, I immediately thought, Oh, hell no. For the second half of the season, I'd been fighting yawns when this snoozefest story line worked its way into an episode. Buuuut, I'm kind of into it now that the subplot got a little bit more play. It was a breath of fresh, wholesome air in an otherwise really bitchy, shallow (but totally delicious!) season of television."^[1]

Other notes

Betty mentions "Wild Hogs" in the airline scene. "Wild Hogs" is another Disney-related property, as the 2007 film is produced by Touchstone Pictures.

In one scene Justin makes a reference to West Side Story; Rita Moreno starred in the 1961 film, and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in which she portrayed Anita.

The title of the Episode, 'A Tree Grows in Guadalajara', hints to the 1945 film and book 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn', in which the film's main character, Francie Nolan, comes of age while working to support her family, which links with the story of Betty, coming to age as an assistant to the editor of MODE magazine. The city Guadalajara is the capital of the state Jalisco in Mexico. On Betty's first day at MODE, she wore a bright red poncho with 'Guadalajara' written on it.

References

Also starring

• Christopher Gorham (Henry)

Guest stars

• Rita Moreno (Aunt Mirta)
• Justina Machado (Cousin Clara)
• Rebecca Gayheart (Jordan)
• Mykel Shannon-Jenkins (Tavares)
• Lillian Hurst (Yolanda)
• Bunnie Rivera (Yolanda's nurse)
• Lilyan Chauvin (The Curandera)
• Arap Bethke (Antonio Reyes)