The telenovela focused on the life of an illegal immigrant to the United States and the lives of those she left behind in Brazil.

They eventually meet, due to unlikely circumstances, but part again, as she has set as her ultimate priority to reach the United States or bust.

While she comes to the U.S. to live as an illegal immigrant, he remains in Brazil and, despite many trials and tribulations, he becomes a successful rodeo cowboy.

The main subplots were: Unlike most Brazilian soap operas, América featured different styles of music for each milieu.

Vila Isabel had only traditional samba, other parts of Rio de Janeiro included Brazilian pop and funk, São Paulo was scored with Brazilian country music and Miami, with a mix of American pop and Latin music.

"Take Me Home, Country Roads" - Happening While being cited as a pop culture phenomenon previously, the soap opera received greater exposure in the media after a long-running (2005) storyline between two gay characters included a scene in which they share a kiss.

The scene was scheduled to be air in the final episode, which created much anticipation from the gay community in Brazil.

However, Rede Globo, the soap opera's production company, elected not to run the scene, much to the surprise of the writers, fans and actors involved.

The event led to a number of protests for equal rights, condemning Globo for their actions.

[citation needed] Brazilian animal rights organizations criticized the telenovela because rodeo was favorably exposed in the story.

[3] Several non-large-scale protests happened in several cities and activists tried to exhort a nationwide boycott campaign against the series.