''Chispita'' (English title: ''Little Spark'') is a Mexican

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar Drama (film and television), drama genres around the w ...

produced by

Valentín Pimstein Valentín Pimstein Weiner (9 August 1925 – 27 June 2017) was a Chilean Television producer, producer of telenovelas. Biography Pimstein was the seventh child of nine in a Belarusian Jewish family (from Minsk), which owns a glass shop in Bar ...

for

Televisa Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April ...

in 1982. It's an original story by Abel Santa Cruz, the telenovela is a remake of the 1979 Argentinean telenovela ''Andrea Celeste''. Lucero starred as child protagonist,

Angélica Aragón Angélica Espinoza Stransky (born 11 July 1953), known as Angélica Aragón (), is a Mexican film, television and stage actress and singer. She is daughter of the Mexican composer José Ángel Espinoza "Ferrusquilla". She is recognized for her ...

and Enrique Lizalde starred as adult protagonists, Usi Velasco starred as co-protagonist,

Alma Delfina Alma Delfina (née Martínez Ortega) is a Mexican actress. Acting career She started her career in 1974 in the telenovela '' Mundo de juguete''. In the 1970s she was active principally on movies. In the 1980s acted in soap operas like ''Guadal ...

and

Leonardo Daniel Leonardo Daniel (; born 26 July 1954) is a Mexican actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the t ...

starred as young co-protagonists, while Renata Flores starred as main antagonist.

Plot

María Luisa and her husband had a terrible car accident, her husband dies and she lost her memory completely and she is not able to remember anything at all. Because of this incident, María Luisa forgot that she had a daughter, Isabel, who became an orphan and was therefore taken to the orphanage of Father Eugenio, where Isabel begins to live on and grow. When Isabel is 10 years old, she was adopted by Don Alejandro, a respectable man, widower and with 2 children, Juan Carlos y Lilí. When Isabel is taken home, she meets Gloria, the maid, who becomes her friend, and so does Juan Carlos, but not Lilí or Miss Irene, Lili's tutor. Together, Miss Irene and Lily try to make life impossible for Isabel. Then, a woman named Bertha appears, who turns out to be María Luisa's sister, and she contacts Isabel and encourages her to look for her mother due to her strange disappearance. Meanwhile, María Luisa decides to name herself Lucía, due to her lack of memory, and she gets a job in the orphanage directed by Father Eugenio. When Isabel meets Lucía, they befriend each other, without knowing the familiar ties.

Cast

Main

* Enrique Lizalde as Alejandro de la Mora *

as Lucía * Gastón Tuset as Father Eugenio *

as Gloria *

as Juan Carlos de la Mora * Elsa Cárdenas as Hermana Socorro *

Manuel López Ochoa Manuel López Ochoa (7 July 1933 in Torno Largo, Tabasco, Mexico – 25 October 2011 in Los Angeles, United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in No ...

as José *

Aurora Clavel Aurora Clavel (October 29, 1934 – May 19, 2025) was a Mexican film and television actress who was noted for her roles in the movies '' Tarahumara'' (1965) and '' Once Upon a Scoundrel'' (1973), as well as in numerous telenovelas, such as Mama Lu ...

as Flora * Renata Flores as Irene * Inés Morales as Pilar * Samuel Molina as Rogelio * Josefina Escobedo as Directora * Roxana Chávez as Olga * Beatriz Moreno as Lola *

Rogelio Guerra Hildegardo Francisco Guerra Martínez (8 October 1936 – 28 February 2018), known artistically as Rogelio Guerra, was a Mexican actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a pr ...

as Esteban * Usi Velasco as Lili * Lucero as Isabel / Chispita

Recurring

* Alberto Mayagoitia as Ángel Guardián * Hilda Aguirre as Tía Beatriz

Reception and music

Due to its international success, it was decided to make a special album by

Timbiriche Timbiriche (also known for a brief time as La Banda Timbiriche) was a Mexican pop music group. The group started as a children's group in 1981 and managed to evolve successfully into adulthood. Timbiriche is considered one of the most iconic Lat ...

that included the main theme. However, Lucerito did not sing the theme, but in a special performance by Timbiriche and Lucerito, they sing it together. The

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

was recorded in Spanish and Portuguese languages. In

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, this telenovela has been broadcast 8 times and Chispita dolls has been sold. Chispita's

opening credits In a motion picture, television program or video game, the opening credits or opening titles are shown at the very beginning and list the most important members of the production. They are now usually shown as text superimposed on a blank scree ...

is almost a copy of another

: ''Pai Herói'' (Lit. ''Father Hero'') also had its

episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a serial (radio and television), series intended for radio, television or Streaming media, streaming consumption. Etymology The noun ''episode'' is ...

s beginning with a

jigsaw puzzle A jigsaw puzzle (with context, sometimes just jigsaw or just puzzle) is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaicked pieces. Typically each piece has a portion of a picture, which is comple ...

being assembled, of which the

pictures An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be displayed through other media, including a project ...

was a

child A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...

in a

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

, beyond others resemblances. ''Pai Herói'' is a Brazilian

produced in 1979 by

Rede Globo TV Globo (stylized as tvglobo; , ), formerly known as Rede Globo de Televisão (; shortened to Rede Globo) or simply known as Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965 ...

, and written by Janete Clair. It was a great success in

. Brazilian watchers noted that

fact A fact is a truth, true data, datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to Fact-checking, check facts. Science, Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by ...

in 1984, when SBT had exhibited ''Chispita'' in the country. The jigsaw intro has the curious point that it was never completed specially in a specific part of the board, but in the progress of the story, new pieces were added and in the last episodes a shaded form appears as a woman walking with Chispita. After the revelation of Chispita's mother identity the shade changed to a full color image of Chispita's mother.

Awards

References

External links

* {{Televisa telenovelas 1980s 1982 telenovelas 1982 Mexican television series debuts 1983 Mexican television series endings Television shows set in Mexico Children's telenovelas Televisa telenovelas Mexican television series based on Argentine television series Spanish-language telenovelas Television series about orphans