Betty Suarez
Beatriz "Betty" U. Suarez is a central fictional character and heroine of the American dramedy series Ugly Betty. She is portrayed by America Ferrera, who won a Golden Globe and SAG award for her portrayal of the character, as well as the Outstanding Actress in a Comedy award for the role at the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Background
Betty Suarez lives in the Jackson Heights neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. There she attended Queensborough High School, graduating in 2002, where she was salutatorian and received a Regents diploma. She never went to the Senior prom, staging an anti-prom with her best friend Trina, who later got invited. Betty and Trina never spoke again. A member of the Music Association; she received an award for playing the cymbals and triangles. Betty also performed as a mascot for the basketball team, for which she was named "Most Inspirational Basketball Mascot"; as she was the yearbook editor, it is possible she gave this title to herself.
She attended Queens College, in Flushing, Queens, described as "one of America's best value colleges" She graduated QC in December 2005, with a BFA in Media, Cum Laude. She was treasurer of the Latina Women's League, yearbook editor, and a contributor for the school newspaper, the Knight Journal. It should be noted that her real goal is to become a magazine publisher, which explains her journalistic credentials.
For the summer before attending college, and two summers during college, she worked at Corona Cones as a "Soft Serve Specialist/Weekend Night Manager". There she "managed a crew of 2 (including self)", "initiated and maintained soft-serve machine during the double-scoop crossover", and fulfilled "party clown duties as needed".
Suarez then worked at Pro-Buy store #8474 as a part-time human resources coordinator, from summer 2004 to August 2005. She designed the monthly "What's Up, Pro Buy!" employee newsletter.
Suarez then had two internships. In the summer of 2004, she was at the weekly magazine Politics & More, collaborating on research for the July 2004 cover article on Presidential hopefuls and their wives. Next summer, she interned at Daily Dermatology Magazine; her stay at this Flatbush, Brooklyn publication focused on research for a five-part series of articles on pores for the then upcoming Wide World of Skin convention.
Suarez is fluent in English, Spanish and some Mandarin Chinese . She can also speak some Portuguese, as she called a spa in Brazil for one episode.
She is a "yearly fundraising participant", won the 2004 Rotary Club Speech Contest, coordinates the Neighborhood Watch program for her area, was a math tutor, a County Chamber Singers, honorary member of the local Historical Society, and even at one point the New York Mets baseball team's batboy.
At Mode
Pleasant and common in appearance everyday, while Suarez may not be the most attractive woman in New York City, she makes up for that in confidence and intelligence. Despite her unattractiveness, she does land a job at the prestigious fashion magazine Mode, where she serves as the personal assistant to Daniel Meade, the magazine's new boss, who was put in place by his father after the previous editor, Fey Sommers, was killed by having her brake lines cut. Despite Daniel's less-than-enthusiastic reaction to working with her, Betty does win him over and together they become an unlikely team in the world of fashion. Despite their working relationship, Daniel is known to be a womanizer, and Betty offers him no temptation. She keeps her job because of her attitude and skill. Despite having a majority of her first check being taken out for taxes, Betty's earnings at Mode is around $37,810 a year.
However, at work Betty is not liked by fellow co-workers, who feel threatened by her presence: Wilhelmina Slater, the magazine's Creative Director, who wanted the job Daniel got, and her cohorts Marc St. James and magazine receptionist Amanda Tanen. All three are determined to make sure that they sabotage Betty and Daniel at any cost. But not all co-workers are like the previous mentioned three, as Betty finds an ally in Christina McKinney, a seamstress whose knowledge about what goes on at Mode will play a part in their alliance.
Betty has also found herself embroiled with the Meade family in more ways than one. Bradford trusts her because she can keep Daniel's financial responsibilities intact while Daniel trusts her because she can deliver and take charge. She is also aware of Claire Meade's problems with alcoholism (she slapped a bottle right out of Claire's hands), but learned later that Claire was the person who killed Fey; when Claire told Betty that she wanted to leave the country rather than face murder charges, Betty talked her out of it and convinced Claire to turn herself in, and does just that. Betty was also impressed by Alexis Meade's recent sex-change to the point of where she asked Alexis about where she can buy a hormone patch so she wouldn't use bleach to get rid of her mustache. When Daniel and Alexis began feuding over the ownership of Meade Publications, Betty stepped in and played mediator and forced them to talk it out in front of their mother while in bumper cars at Coney Island. Thanks to Betty, both Daniel and Alexis agreed to a truce until the matter over the company is settled.
Family and personal life
At home, Betty has to deal with her father Ignacio and sister Hilda, who feel that she's been taken for a ride at her job and are concerned that she's being used like a puppet because of her appearance. However, her nephew Justin is the only person who supports Betty and thinks she should continue pursuing her dreams.
Interestingly enough, Betty believes her job will help solve the legal hassles she has to deal with in trying to get a HMO provider for her father, who has a heart condition and has been told not to drink any products that contain caffeine, like coffee. But those efforts have Betty questioning the real reason why her father has avoided the doctor when it is discovered that he has been using a Social Security number and name of a deceased person who, if he had lived, would've been 117 years old. She would later learn that her dad fled Mexico after he fell in love with her mother, who was married at the time to a wealthy banker who was abusing her while he was working for them as their chef. When she left her husband to be with Ignacio, the banker then threatened to kill Ignacio with a knife, but Ignacio in turn beat the man to death in self-defense. Ignacio's admission could raise consequences for the family if he is deported back to Mexico and in the process could face prison time in that country.
Romantically, the unattached Betty also had to deal with her ex-boyfriend Walter, who dumped her but wanted back in whether she liked it or not. Betty and Walter were once an item and her family thought that he would be the person who would marry her, but he dumped her for Gina Gambarro, the Suarez's next door neighbor. When Betty found out that Gina used him just to get a TV (which she later broke), Betty decided that she wanted nothing to do with Walter, despite Gina's explanation of what happened. However Betty did take him back and was willing to work out their relationship, which was hampered by Betty's family being more supportive of Walter, especially Hilda, who wanted to keep the two together. But that became more difficult now that Betty has exhibited feelings towards Henry, the accountant that works at Betty's workplace.
When Betty found out that Henry left the message with Hilda during the holidays, she lashed out at Hilda, who told her that she thought Betty would have her heart broken, but came to realize that Betty was capable of making her own decisions. Unfortunately, after getting hints that her romance was over as evidenced by Ignacio and Claire Meade, Betty finally parted ways with Walter after he decided to take a job as the assistant manager of new Pro-Buy store in Maryland. However, after saying goodbye to Walter and just as she was finally about to ask Henry out now that she is a single woman, Henry stuns her by telling her that his ex-girlfriend Charlie has come to New York to work things out, thus breaking Betty's heart. As a result of this, Betty told Henry that it would be best to remain friends despite their attraction to each other. In Secretaries' Day, a semi-conscious Henry told Betty that he loved her. In the following episode, A Tree Grows in Guadalajara Betty believes she sees Henry in Mexico. She follows the apparition and discovers her grandmother's house. Her grandmother, mistaking Betty for her mother Rosa, encourages her to fight for her love. Betty resolves to fight for Henry.
In the season 1 finale, Betty and Henry seem to be off to a good start in a relationship, when Charlie comes back into the picture, saying she is pregnant with Henry's baby. Henry decides to move with her to Tucson, and he tearfully and regretfully says goodbye to Betty. However, later, while getting a filling done at her dentist, the dental technician blurts out that Charlie had been cheating on Henry with Dr. Farkas for two months and urges Betty to go after Henry. This plan, however, is shoved aside when the police show up at her door, telling her that Hilda's fiance, Santos, was killed in a robbery. Betty chooses to go tell Hilda, thus letting Henry go with Charlie to Arizona.
