The telenovela is historically distinct from the American soap opera. While a soap opera tends to go on indefinitely, its Latin American counterpart has a closed format, which eventually arrives at a dénouement, even if it takes one hundred or two hundred episodes. The dénouement is significant because of the expectations it awakens in the television audience. The telenovela promises a conclusion, which consists of the triumph of love over insurmountable obstacles. This positive outcome generates a sense of complicity and identification in the viewer, who seeks the gratification of a happy ending after months of witnessing the emotional ups and downs of the actors and the plot.

The Factory of Dreams: Photographs by Stefan Ruiz, Essay by Pablo Helguera

Margarita Isabel as Alejandra Madrigal de Horta in Amarte es mi Pecado (Loving You Is My Sin), 2003.

Pablo Montero, left, as Emilio Valtierra in Duelo De Pasiones II (Duel of Passions), 2006.

Fernando Colunga as Franco Santoro in Mañana es para Siempre (Tomorrow Is Forever), 2009.

Laura León "La Tesorito" as Refugio Urbina in Dos Hogares (Double Life), 2011.

Daniel Berlanga, Miguel Angel Biagio, Sherlyn, and Daniel Habit as Damian, Samuel Cisneros Castro,"Conny" Concepción Pérez Ávila, and Alberto in Corazones al Límite (Hearts to the Limit), 2004.

Helena Guerrero as Adoración in Una Familia Con Suerte (One Family with Luck), 2011.

Ernesto D'Alessio as Juan Jiménez in Heridas de Amor (Wounds of Love), 2006.

Amarte es mi Pecado (Loving You Is My Sin), 2003.

View of Studio 9, 2003.

Daniel Cortes, CEA, Televisa Acting School, 2004.