Written by Emi EléordFunctional supporter

Netflix’s new series Griselda shines a light on a lesser-known figure in drug trafficking and is part of a growing awareness of women running drug cartels in Latin America.
“The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco.” This disturbing quote opens Netflix’s latest drug drama, Griselda, from none other than Colombia’s infamous drug addict. It is said to have come from King Pablo Escobar. This work encapsulates the character of a woman who was deeply involved in Miami’s drug war from the 1970s to the 1980s, and was the ruthless boss of a drug empire. She earned tens of millions of dollars a month at the height of her drug empire, which expanded into New York and California and earned her a reputation as the “Godmother of Cocaine.”
Blanco is said to have had a net worth in the billions. Before being arrested in February 1985 She was charged with manufacturing, importing, and distributing cocaine into the United States (she was released in 2004 and died in Colombia in 2012). Her story is the subject of a new six-part crime drama starring Sofia Vergara and produced by Narcos and Mexico showrunner Eric Newman and Narcos director Andrés Bize.
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Previously little known in mainstream culture, Blanco is now a household name due to increased interest in drug lords such as Escobar, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo. It is attracting wide attention. The 2006 documentary film Cocaine Cowboys and its sequel Cocaine Cowboys II: Hustlin’ with the Godmother (2008) first introduced Blanco to English-speaking audiences. Since then, she has appeared in several documentaries, films, and songs.
Griselda’s timeline begins in 1964 with Blanco and her sons fleeing Colombia with no money and a kilo of cocaine hidden in one of their suitcases, to her rise as a feared queenpin. I’m drawing. “She is largely believed to be one of the key figures in bringing cocaine into Miami in the ’70s and ’80s. She recognized the market, saw the business opportunity and took full advantage of it.” says author Deborah Bonello. Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin American Cartelshe told BBC Culture.


Blanco subverted society’s expectations by using women as drug mules, taking advantage of the fact that women were seen as less suspicious to law enforcement. In the series, cocaine was sewn into the bra worn by her drug mule, who smuggled it into the United States undetected.
The show follows a similar format to the series Narcos and Narcos: Mexico, with flashbacks that focus on Blanco’s psyche and provides insight into the woman behind a powerful drug empire. . It depicts Blanco working hard to get promoted, achieving success, and then falling down.
Vergara’s role in “Griselda” is a departure from her more comedic roles on “Modern Family.” Here she plays a chain-smoking, powerful woman who is smart, tough, intimidating and cold, but also vulnerable.
The Colombian-born actress spent a long time preparing for her role, making sure her performance stayed true to the story. She said: “It was very important to me to get the look right because I needed to disappear. I didn’t want anyone to think about me or my last role.” [her Modern Family character] Gloria Pritchett. She wanted to get inside Griselda’s head and really understand her spirituality, where she was coming from,” Vergara said in production notes.


The series reveals the ruthlessness of a woman known as “Black Widow” for her alleged role in the deaths of her three husbands. It also depicts her devoted mother turning to her crimes as a means of caring for her sons and justifying her actions. According to Vergara, “In her original world, she did what she knew she was supposed to do. But her truth is, it’s only the real thing that can tell you why she did what she did.” Only Griselda.”
As a woman in a dangerous, male-dominated environment, Blanco rebelled against stereotypes and social norms. She embraced her criminal persona and named her youngest son Michael Corleone after the crime boss from the Godfather movies. Blanco, who had an abused and impoverished childhood, seemed to think that in order for her to survive a toxic, macho world, she had to be twice as tough as men.
Women who supported the drug empire
But Blanco wasn’t alone. There are other women who have reached high positions within drug cartels and become bosses.Women such as Guadalupe Fernández Valencia Highest ranking woman in the Sinaloa Cartel A person who ran a logistics company and laundered money for El Chapo began to attract public attention. Mallory Chacon RossellA Guatemalan known as the “Queen of the South”, she ran one of Central America’s largest money laundering and drug trafficking organizations.
“Mallory is very interesting because she is educated,” Bonello says. “Although she was beautiful and in some ways fit that stereotype, she was virtually unknown. Nevertheless, at one point the U.S. Treasury Department determined that she was one of Central America’s most prolific human traffickers. I said she was alone. How could that be? How could she be so powerful and yet unknown?”
This question got Bonello thinking about how power in organized crime is defined through the veil of violence, and who is the most violent person in the room. “The way that many women exercise their power comes in many forms, although violence is not incapable of violence.” In Griselda, this is reflected in Blanco’s clever use of her power and charm to It is shown in the way she organizes acts of violence by her many hitmen.


Bonello has lived in Mexico for the past 15 years, reporting on the organized crime and drug underworld. From early on, she knew that all the stories centered around men and a few women, like El Chapo’s wife Emma Coronel, who were mentioned in the news in ceremonial positions, the glamorous wives of mob bosses. It became clear that it was.
She began investigating several of the women whose names had come up in the drug lord’s court, which opened up a world of unreported information that she used in Narcas. “There was so much information in plain view that no one was really interested. And the more cases we looked for, the more cases we found. It depended on PACER. [Public Access to Court Electronic Records] To access indictments, transcripts, and plea agreements for research. We also spoke with lawyers, immigration lawyers, and people who knew the women, contacted them, and visited their locations. ”
delicate balance
The makers of Griselda are similarly exposing under-reported aspects of drug trafficking. They say that while portraying Blanco as a nuanced character, they were careful not to create a story that glorified Blanco and the world in which she operates. “This series is about the horrific lengths this particular person went to to provide for her family. We spoke honestly about her impact and the horrible things that happened as a result of her actions. Omitting them would be detrimental to this story of ‘victims,”’ says Vergara, who is also an executive producer on the series.
She argues that the show does not condone Blanco’s choices, but instead highlights the impact the drug empire had on Miami society as a whole. The show’s creators do not intend to glorify her, but instead portray the complexities of a woman who, through ingenious and cruel tactics of her own, managed to build a multibillion-dollar empire in a country that was not her own. We aimed to unearth the story.”


Although Blanco is depicted as living a lavish lifestyle, the series focuses on the brutality of the drug underworld. This is a story about the dangers of greed, power, and horrific criminal activity. At the end of the day, there are no winners. Like other people in the world of Narcos and beyond, Blanco’s life is a parable for the long prison sentences or untimely deaths that occur to most people involved in the drug trade.
Blanco hired hitmen known as pistoleros to carry out assassinations on motorcycles in the United States, shooting his enemies at point-blank range. In an ironic twist of fate, Ms. Blanco ended her life this way in September 2012, at the age of 69, outside a butcher shop in Medellin (she completed a nearly 20-year prison sentence and died in 2004). (deported to Colombia).
However, despite the intentions of the program makers, there is always a risk that drug culture TV shows and films still glorify that lifestyle, especially for viewers who may not have been affected by the drug war.I had a question about how Pablo Escobar was portrayed as an antihero In Narcos. People cheered him on, but Colombians remembered how he terrorized the streets.
According to Bonello, “Most Latin Americans have been directly affected by organized crime or know someone who has been victimized by organized crime. The biggest threat, and for many people living in southern Latin America, it’s more personal.” The U.S.-Mexico border. The challenge is to create content that doesn’t glorify things. ”
Griselda premieres on Netflix on January 25th.
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