“El Caballero de Rauzan” -Revival

Julio Jimenez, Osvaldo Rios, and Ronaldo Ayaso have got a strong bond with each other: Talk about past and present with three “Gentlemen at Rauzan.”
By Jenny Gamez Alfonso
Photo by Leo Queen

21 years ago, the TV drama which took the scriptwriter Julio Jimenez to fame captivated the whole country. The main character is a radio announcer in Medellin, Ronaldo Ayaso, and his costars, two young women Judy Henriquez and Lucero Galindo, fight over love of a mysterious man in the drama. Only his butler, Hernando Casanova, knows that his master is affected by catalepsy, he gets in suspended animation and can be buried alive any time.

The story captured the people so much that everyone-business people, employees, and housewives-forgot his or her own duty when “El Caballero de Rauzan” started at 8 PM sharply.

However, nobody even imagined that by orders of Bernardo Romero, the producers endured the rush behind the cameras to make the drama. For example, the parked truck in front of the studio in Gravi carried the grass wilted in the harsh light every 30 minutes. When the Rauzan gentleman was going to walk in a downpour, the studio got water-soaked and the cast caught a cold. With each explosion, they couldn’t work until the in-studio smoke dissipated and the shooting fell behind for many hours. The elegant street where the growler of the star went through was made of the cloths, set behind the performers, and moved throughout s single scene with long lines. Their extremely dedicated works received a lot of gratitude, and the drama won almost all awards at that time, including the most important “Antena de la Consagracion” award presented to all the cast by Fernan Martinez in Medellin at the end of 1979. All glory converged on the third work of Jimenez at the time. That may be the reason why RTI stuck to its revival and has realized it 21 years later.

They already started shooting some of the new scenes. While everyone is busy working on it, CROMOS would like to be a witness of the extraordinary inheritance which includes the mysterious name changed from “El Caballero de Rauzan 1 (Ronaldo Ayaso)” to “El Caballero de Rauzan 2(Osvaldo Rios)”, wealth, women, and debt.

“El Caballero de Rauzan 1”

Just like in 1979 the cloak was heavy and everything in Ronaldo Ayaso’s first fitting session seemed perfect. Everything but the location was the same with former “El Caballero de Rauzan.” Although Ayaso doesn’t remember the ending any more, he must have got married the role that Lucero Galindo played and have kept loving the woman played by Judy Henriquez forever. I also remember the surprising catalepsy seizure of his role well.

“I read some books on neuron-psychiatric diseases to understand catalepsy, and had to learn how to control every face expression to look like really dead in the first scene the director Fabio Camelo wanted.”
Ayaso, or El Caballero de Rauzan 1 told that this drama succeeded due to two reasons. “That was a blockbuster for that age, and it took up the mystery of disease instead of romance, which was sensational and was not one of the classical Mexican dramas.”
He knows it’s inevitable that these two works will be compared, but believes the new version has an advantage because “Who watched this 20 years ago will praise the new version. I can already guarantee it.”

That is a legacy of the “El Caballero de Rauzan” empire which will be left to the second version. Except that word, everything is vulgar, though. “I’ll leave my wealth, women, and debt to you, my son. Don’t be overwhelmed by impulse of youth. Especially be patient at the night of your wedding because newlyweds make love until the next day. That night you will be busy messing up her wedding dress.”

“El Caballero de Rauzan 2” -Continued loving forever

I may sound like I’m repeating myself, however, it was Julio Jimenez himself that persisted on casting Osvaldo Rios to the main role when RTI made a suggestion on creating the new versions. More than 2 months before, when shooting one scene of a TV drama that he himself called the successful work, Rios said, “Julio is one of the Latin American excellent authors. That is a wonderful offer because the great produce team and the cast that does their work properly will join him.”

Rios thinks like an entrepreneur. For this reason, after “Blanco’s Widow (La Viuda de Blanco)”, the drama in which he played the leading character, his partner RTI also grabbed a commercially big chance for its success just like 21 years ago.
The first reason why Rios guarantees its success is scientific.
“Love is a universal principle, and is something like salt which dominates collective unconsciousness. It is incorporated in gene’s memory of all mankind and we cannot help accepting it when the extremely impressive example like this is shown.”

Mr. Rios had an experience about this second version in Chiapas, Mexico. A Colombian he happened to know talked how wonderful the first one Ayaso had starred was and said firmly that it was the great story. Now he is satisfied with being dressed in elegant costume of the end of the 18th century and collecting the materials on catalepsy. He wants this drama to be a hit of the year.

El Gran Caballero

30 years ago when Julio Jimenez just started his career, he did every job related to mass media.
That’s why now he wants to leave that kind of work to those who have his script come to life. However, this time his persistence as for his noble gentleman was exceptional. He seldom talks the new version of his old work, though. He dramatized only one story of Felipe Perez a few years ago, and he left it to Bernaldo Romero. Today he just directs the scripts.
He is on his vacation this year. He is planning to travel to the US, Madrid, and Morocco before he goes back to what he called “the prison,” writing the new drama for more than 18 months without help.

And thus we should pay attention to the other side of himself or his criticism in order to understand Jimenez. He complains young actors’ lack of individuality or even their voices, talks the difficulty of encountering a good director, and criticizes the TV stars’ pretension and even his country. He believes “we are easy to envy, indifferent, conformist, lack of a sense of unity, and have no memory” about Columbian. And he says with confidence.
“We have something to put up with a lot of sarcasm. Everything goes well by writing books and laughing.” Jimenez is Mr. Big behind the scene. He still remains a founder of El Caballero de Rauzan empire even 20 years later.