at about the same time, tito's mother returned from the countryside with her daughter. since laiza, who used to be raúl roldán, had her sex change operation after arriving at buenos aires, both she and tito feared an emotional shock by their mother, so laiza refused to tell her mother that she was, in fact, her daughter, posing instead as a friend of the roldáns. her mother knew laiza was raúl all along; she just pretended not to know, leading everyone else in her family to many situations where they thought that she had alzheimer's disease. laiza roldán was played by a real life transsexual actor, florencia de la v.