Helena Furtado

Helena Furtado Santamarina is a major character in TV Globo's soap opera Salve-se Quem Puder. She is Luna's biological mother and currently is married to a wealthy bussinessmen (crime lord and real big bad of the plot), Hugo Santamarina.

She is portrayed by Flavia Alessandra, who also played Dafne in Caras e Bocas, Érica Castro in Salve Jorge and Heloísa Barcelos in Além do Horizonte.

Story
Possui por volta de 42 anos Before marry Hugo, Helena lived in Mexico with Mario and they daughter, Luna. They tried to leave Mexico to USA, but just Helena got the visa to live in United States, promising return to take her daughter and husband. But she meets Hugo Santamarina, who made her believe her family was slaughtered by dealers, marrying her. While she suffered the "deaths" of her former family, since now she was Santamarina's wife, her family believed she forsaken them and she had the contempt of her former husband, while her daughter Luna grew up in a search for his biological mother, who leaved her when she was only four years old.

Coming to Brazil with her new husband, Hugo, Helena becames a wealthy businesswoman, owner of emporium Delicia.

Personality
When introduced, Helena is seem as a protective, careful and loving mother over her step-children, or at least, Téo. Besides, she seems like an average rich woman, being sometimes arrogant and severe.

At this point, could seem that her actually abandoned her biological daughter, Luna, and her former husband, Mario, for money, but eventually is discovered that she actually ever loved them and does not know they are alive, felling guilty of they supposed deaths. Sometimes she may seem like a tough, arrogant and even cruel, especially with Luna, but she is really a woman who suffers because she thinks the daughter and husband she loved so much died because of her. She never stopped loving her daughter, contrary to what thinks Luna and implies with her only because she finds the whole situation involving the girl strange and wants to protect his current family. Although they are not her biological children, Helena loves her stepchildren as if they were her own and is a helpful and loving stepmother.

Despite being measurably antagonistic towards Luna, Helena doesn't is an actual villain like Ursula (though Affably evil), who will really try to destroy Luna/Fiona, including put Helena against her, or her currently husband.