September 30, 1996 (1996-09-30) – May 2, 1997 (1997-05-02)
Salsa e Merengue is a Brazilian telenovela produced and broadcast at the 7pm timeslot by TV Globo, from September 30, 1996 to May 2, 1997, in 185 episodes.[1]
A rich woman named Bárbara gives birth to a dead child, however without her knowledge, her husband Guilherme exchanges the child's body for a baby whose mother is poor and cannot afford to raise the child. 30 years later, Eugênio, the exchanged child, develops leukemia and is in need of an urgent marrow transplant. The donation of a blood relative is required for the surgery and with the risk of his son dying, Guilherme tells Bárbara about the exchange. The two go in search of Anabel Muñoz, Eugênio’s birth mother.
Anabel never told anyone about the pregnancy, but never forgot the son she had with Urbano. Anabel later met her late husband Félix Munõz, with whom she had five other children: Valentim, Remédios , Amparo, Assunção, and Antônio. With Eugênio’s reappearance in her life, Anabel is forced reveal the truth. Eugênio, who thought he was the son of millionaires, discovers that his real family is poor. The tests show that Anabel’s bone marrow is incompatible with Eugênio. Because of this, Anabel reveals another secret: Valentim is also Urbano's son. Valentim is faced with the situation of having to donate bone marrow for a brother he doesn’t know. To make matters worse, Eugene and Valentim fall in love with the same woman, Madalena.[2]
