Merry day after Christmas Paul, Thad, Frankie, Dan, Alistair, and Andrew!
Frankie, I think you hit the nail on the head. The telenovela the Venezuelan lady is watching is known as El Clon, and seems to be a remake of the Brazilian soap you described. In this version the story happens in Miami, with the affair between the Cuban American boy and the Muslim girl happening somewhere in the Middle East, I started calling the place Marrakech. Here is this young man visiting this girl, the only person he knows there, living with her family in this tightly controlled society, having an affair with her. Yeah, right.

And back in Miami his parents are seeing this doctor who wants to create a clone, presumably because his brother died in an aircraft accident. And somehow the father gets into this shouting match with the doctor, over what, I don't know. I cannot follow rapidly spoken Spanish.
Generally I have found American soap operas annoying, with their contrived conflicts and overplaying every situation, obsessing over squeezing everything for its emotional appeal. I get tired of feeling they're jerking me around. So it's hardly surprising that I readily adopted similar views of telenovelas. Thad, it's interesting that you met the actress Lucy Boscana. One thing that has impressed me about soaps is that they can provide stable careers for some actors, who don't have to worry, as opposed to many other actors, who can only do well while they're "hot." Paul, I'm going to have to check out Ugly Betty, which has received many accolades.
I had a good Christmas yesterday, but by afternoon I developed an upset stomach and GI tract issues, probably as a result of eating dinners the couple of nights before. So right now I'm on a liquid diet until this thing clears up, which will probably be in a day or two.