Digest: Do you want to teach your children everything you've learned about life?
Tamargo: I think I will try to guide them down the less bumpy road, but I think they have to hit some of those bumps on their own. That's good for you and gives you a true sense of what life is, as opposed to parents who shelter their children that everything is okay. You know what I tell my kids when they're in a bad mood or angry? "Good, be pissed off, you're entitled to that. Don't disobey me and yell at me, but you can be in your own energy." It shows them respect, boundaries. I hope that they go through as many experiences as they can, hopefully not too painful. All I can do is be there and be supportive, but I can't really live their lives for them. I think parents make that mistake. God lends children to you, they're not really yours. It's like a library card: You check them out and when they're due back, you take them back.

Digest: What does being on a soap opera mean to you?
Tamargo: I have a lot of fellow actor friends who are starving, who don't have a job and would give anything to be on my show. I find that soap operas, more than any other medium, really touch people's lives. It's this dream world. You don't think about it when you're in a scene, but the underscore of that is tremendous. I have mail to prove it from people who say, "I was in bed for three months." When someone is destitute or has no one or is an 80-year-old woman in an old home, [escaping into a soap] makes a big difference. To this day, when I get recognized, I still feel like I have to say, "I'm just like you. My work is a little bit different and has a lot of smoke and mirrors attached to it, but I'm a human being just like you. I buy eggs just like you. My kids go to school."

Digest: Coming from telenovelas, which end after a few months, how is being in a steady job for five years?
Tamargo: It's awesome; are you kidding? The only thing that I miss is that every time you're on a Spanish soap, you're doing a new character, so that's very exciting. But sometimes you get a character you don't want to do, but because you're on-contract you have to do it. It's a double-edged sword. And you don't end a soap and go, "I don't know if I'm going to work again." They try to use the same actors all the time; they just rotate you. Sometimes you're the lead, sometimes you're not.

Digest: You hosted LA CENICIENTA (a Spanish version of THE BACHELORETTE). How do you feel about reality TV?
Tamargo: Here's the thing: We live in a very voyeuristic society. We love to know everybody's business. ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, E!, what is that if it's not that? It's delving into everybody's private stuff. Really, that's what it is. Granted, it's on the entertainment level, but nevertheless, we are drawn to that. Reality TV is not going to go away because, as a society, we yearn for it, we want it. Actors have a valid complaint [that reality TV is taking away jobs], but it is what it is and instead of complaining about it, do something. If you don't like it, write your own show, produce your own thing. I don't necessarily think it's great; I don't watch any of it. I only watched my show because it was my show. [Reality TV] doesn't appeal to me.