TUCSON - For decades, telenovelas have relied on a dependable romantic formula: two women competing for the love of one man. Tierra de Amor y Coraje changes the equation.
In the new TelevisaUnivision production, three brothers fall for Clara Barrios, the determined ranching heiress played by Sofía Castro. There is even a fourth man circling her heart, turning the traditional love triangle into something closer to a romantic pentagon.
Castro, who takes on her first leading role in a telenovela, is not interested in judging Clara or asking audiences to forgive her for having feelings for more than one man.
"I think women need to let go of that prejudice and have the freedom to do what we want, to be free, to love whomever we want and however we want to love," Castro told this reporter during an interview in Tucson, Arizona.
The actress said the series deliberately reverses one of melodrama's most recognizable dynamics.
"Melodrama has always been about the good woman fighting the bad woman for the love of a man," she said. "I think it is great that they changed the story a little, and now there are three brothers fighting for the heart of the same woman."
Those brothers are Juan, Jerónimo, and Lalo Coraje, played by Emmanuel Palomares, Brandon Peniche, and Emilio Osorio. The fourth suitor is Ivan Arana's Falcon. Each develops a different connection with Clara, complicating both their family bond and a much larger battle over land, power and buried wealth.
"Her heart is divided into three, and that is valid because all three are very sweet and very good," Castro said. "She has a different history with each one."
Then she took the argument beyond fiction: "In this story, and in life too, you can love as many people as you want," she said. It's a powerful statement and a bold interpretation, particularly considering that the showrunner is her father, the uber producer José Alberto "El Güero" Castro.
Castro acknowledged that Clara's choices are likely to provoke debate among viewers. But she said neither fictional characters nor real women should be reduced to their romantic decisions.
"You can never judge your characters because you have to embrace them and understand where they come from and what their story is," she said. "Every person and every character, in fiction and in real life, is a world of their own."
That does not mean Castro and Clara share the same romantic circumstances. The actress married businessman Pablo Bernot in 2024 and joked that, unlike her character, her heart belongs to only one man, who showed his support attending the Tierra de Amor y Coraje premiere in Tucson last week.
Beyond the multiple romances, Castro describes Clara as a woman driven by loyalty, justice and a fierce attachment to her family's land. "She is a fair and determined woman, with enormous love for her land, her father, and her (deceased) mother. She is always searching for the truth."
Castro said she recognizes herself in Clara's determination to defend her convictions. The character's romantic dilemma, however, is only one element of a much larger story.
Tierra de Amor y Coraje follows the Coraje brothers as they fight to protect their Arizona ranch from Rogelio Barrios, Clara's powerful father, played by Sergio Goyri. Rogelio wants control of the valuable mineral deposits beneath their property, escalating a longstanding rivalry between the two families.
Clara returns to Arizona to take responsibility for her father's legacy, only to become emotionally entangled with the sons of his greatest rival. Her arrival places her at the center of a conflict involving family secrets, betrayal, ambition, and murder.
The production updates Irmãos Coragem, the landmark Brazilian telenovela created by Janete Clair in 1970. El Güero Castro developed the new version with Fernando Garcilita, moving the story to the American Southwest and giving its classic family conflict a contemporary Western setting.
"I am very happy, very proud of this project and very grateful to my father for giving me this opportunity," The Mexican actress said. "I gave Clara my heart, my entire soul. I gave her everything."
Castro said the greatest challenge was not filming Clara's kisses or intimate moments with her different romantic interests. It was sustaining the emotional weight of a protagonist throughout the entire production. "We need to remove some of the cliché surrounding those scenes," she said. "Actors are trained and have the professional integrity to do any kind of scene. You cannot simply put a label on intimate scenes, kissing scenes or action scenes."
"Playing this character was an important challenge because you carry the weight of an entire story alongside the other three protagonists," she added.
Much of the telenovela was filmed on location in Arizona, using ranches, desert roads and mountain landscapes to build its modern cowboy world. The cast also includes Mar Contreras, Paty Navidad, Dalilah Polanco, Iván Arana, Arantza Ruiz, Minnie West, Daniela Martínez, Arturo Peniche and Natalia Esperón.
The first episodes of Tierra de Amor y Coraje are already available in the United States on ViX, with five new episodes released every Friday. The telenovela premieres on ViX in Mexico on Sept. 4 and on Las Estrellas on Oct. 5. TelevisaUnivision will also broadcast the production in the U.S. in the near future.
