by Peyter Peyffer

It's on a fateful autumn day that I meet international superstar Salvatore Súarez, who debuted as young, impressionable and daringly sexy teenager Emmanuel Saga in La Saga de Emmanuel, a Mexican telenovela that ran for ten seasons and gave Súarez his stardom. "I mean, after La Saga, nothing was the same for me. It got me out of a tough spot," says Súarez, although he stays tight-lipped on what that tough spot actually was.

That's one of the various mysteries surrounding Súarez. Entire social media accounts are dedicated to uncovering the "real" identity of Súarez before he turned up in Mexico City at fifteen, with no memory of who he had been before. "I don't think I was anyone important. No one missed me enough to look for me, so now it feels good to be embraced and loved by so many," he says casually when I brought up the recent rumour that he would really be missing soap star, Albertine Florez, who has gone missing twenty years ago. "People miss Albertine, I understand. Honestly, all the attention, I take it positively. I embrace the love, you know?"

It's his most recent role as Saturno Gonzalez, Evelyn Betterave's new soulmate in Betteraves & Betrayals, that propelled him to the forefront of alien civil rights. "When Maple [Maple Defleuvier, the show's showrunner] told me about Saturno's alien identity, I was on board right away. What a privilege to be playing such a complex character and representing such a diverse community. I'm beyond grateful."

Excerpt from Forever Soapy, October 2XX8.