Latest / The Infographics Show Podcast / The Cruel World of Drug Lord, Griselda Blanco

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The Cruel World of Drug Lord, Griselda Blanco · The Infographics Show Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Beyond Infographics, the show where we take the
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: sources you send us the complex research, the trending headlines,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and you know, the historical records, and we transform them
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: into actionable essential knowledge. You're here for an analysis of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: how women are portrayed in this massive, globally dominant media
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: phenomenon we call narco culture, that's right.
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  Speaker 2: And for this we have unpacked a really fascinating stack
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  Speaker 2: of sources. We're trying to move past all the sensationalism
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: and get into some serious academic critique. So we've got
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: analyzes or reality TV shows, meticulous deep dives into the
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  Speaker 2: historical figures that inspire these fictional dramas. Our mission today
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: is really to critique the critique. Okay, we're looking at
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: whether the on screen empowerment of women who are linked
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: to the drug trade, whether that's genuine autonomy or if
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: it's just you know, very carefully constructed, marketable version of
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: patriarchal constraint, something designed for mass consumption in a world
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  Speaker 2: that's more sensitive to feminist ideas.
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  Speaker 1: It's a huge investigation because I mean, these narratives are everywhere,
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  Speaker 1: they are beamed to us two hundred and forty seven,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: from these prestige streaming dramas to all these reality TV franchises,
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  Speaker 1: they really are. So we're asking the core question when
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: female characters get power in these hyper masculine, hyperviolent worlds,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: are they actually challenging traditional stereotypes? Are they dismantling structures
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: or is their power still, at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 1: defined and mediated by the male gaze, no matter how
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: fashionable they look doing it.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: That's the question.
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  Speaker 1: We need to unpack this whole system, and I think
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  Speaker 1: we have to start with why the world is so
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: obsessed with this stuff in the first place.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: To really understand how these women are portrayed, we first
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: have to get our heads around the enormous global market
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: that is demanding these stories. Right, the sheer cinematic fascination
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: with the narco lifestyle is well, it's fundamentally rooted in
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: the entertainment industry's interest and exploiting what the sources call
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: the spectacular nature of the cartael lifestyle.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: It's pure theater, but you know, with real world, high
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: stakes violence, and the audience is more than just receptive.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: The sources point out, there's this global appetite, a receptivity
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  Speaker 1: for role models of quick, almost unbelievable success that's ultimately
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: built on the brutal and cotuitous use of violence.
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  Speaker 2: It's the ultimate forbidden fantasy for a lot of viewers.
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  Speaker 2: You get immense wealth, designer everything, absolute power, all wrapped
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  Speaker 2: up in the thrill of a criminal.
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  Speaker 1: Enterprise without the consequences.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, academic studies suggest that the mass production of these
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  Speaker 2: narco productions is sustained not by some simple interest in
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: justice and morality, but by a deep seated fascination with
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: the violence and the high gloss glamour of the drug
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  Speaker 2: bear in life and this spectacle.
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  Speaker 1: It lets the spectator just kind of ignore the systemic
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: suffering right the countless victims that the drug trade leaves
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: in its wake. It almost sanitizes the crime itself.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: It absolutely does so, if the sources are right, the
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: main structural goal of this entire media genre isn't really
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: to educate. It's not even to entertain in a traditional sense.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: It's to create what they call a global voyeur audience.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. This audience has given this exclusive, very tantalizing invitation
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  Speaker 2: to enter the secret world of the drug traffickers and
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  Speaker 2: the women involved with them.
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  Speaker 1: You get that backstage pass to the forbidden, to the luxury,
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  Speaker 1: without ever having to pay the actual price of the
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  Speaker 1: violence and the consequences.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and what's so fascinating about this global packaging is
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  Speaker 2: how they universalize what is I mean, let's be honest,
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: a very messy, locally specific criminal enterprise.
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  Speaker 1: The sources suggest that the cultural expressions of the narco
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  Speaker 1: lifestyle are deliberately removed from their local context.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: That's a really key observation media studies. They take out
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  Speaker 2: the characteristic, often very complex political or socio economic features
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: of the actual locations that's Medellin or you know, the borderlands,
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  Speaker 2: and they just insert the story into this transnational.
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  Speaker 1: Environment, which makes it instantly recognizable.
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  Speaker 2: Instantly recognizable, and easily identifiable to any consumer, doesn't matter
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  Speaker 2: where you're watching New York, London, Sydney, Mumbai. The story
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  Speaker 2: of the powerful criminal just gets streamlined for quick.
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  Speaker 1: Export and the ultimate backdrop, the real world genesis for
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  Speaker 1: so many of these contemporary narratives, both fictional and reality based,
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  Speaker 1: is the just utterly violent historical reality of the Miami
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  Speaker 1: drug war of the nineteen seventies and eighties. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: this isn't just generic crime fiction. It is deeply rooted
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  Speaker 1: in a very bloody, very specific history.
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  Speaker 2: You cannot understand this genre without that historical context. It's
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  Speaker 2: non negotiable. By the mid nineteen seventies, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: disco era is booming, and cocaine rapidly replaces marijuana as
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  Speaker 2: the high profit.
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  Speaker 1: Drug of choice, and Miami becomes the hub.
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  Speaker 2: Miami quickly transforms into the main hub for smuggling at
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  Speaker 2: from South America. By nineteen eighty one, Miami was trafficking
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  Speaker 2: an astounding seventy percent of the US's total cocaine supply,
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  Speaker 2: plus massive quantities of other illicit goods, and.
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  Speaker 1: The amount of money flowing into the city. It just
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  Speaker 1: fundamentally changed its character. It brought all this opulence, sure,
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  Speaker 1: but it also brought a level of violence that well,
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  Speaker 1: it shocks the nation.
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  Speaker 2: And that violence wasn't subtle, It wasn't confined to the shadows.
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  Speaker 2: It spilled spectacularly into the public sphere, which is exactly
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: why it became such a potent media fodder in the
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: first place.
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  Speaker 1: The historical turning point that gets cited again and again
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  Speaker 1: in documents and books is the Dayland Mall shootout July eleventh,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, walk us through that because it's it's a huge moment.
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  Speaker 1: So you have two members of a Colombian drug gang
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  Speaker 1: who walk into a liquor store inside the Dadeland Mall,
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  Speaker 1: a totally normal suburban shopping center, and they shoot two
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  Speaker 1: men in broad daylight.
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  Speaker 2: The sheer audacity of it, the cold blooded nature of
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  Speaker 2: the killing in such a public place, it just terrified
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  Speaker 2: the public in a galvanized law.
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  Speaker 1: Enflacement, right, and a police officer quickly dubbed the murderers
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  Speaker 1: the coke caine cowboys. That term stuck, and it effectively
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: named the drug war that was now just raging openly
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  Speaker 1: in a major US city.
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  Speaker 2: It turned this beautiful, sun drenched city into a complete
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  Speaker 2: war zone. The statistics are I mean, they're horrified when
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: you look at the escalation there, Stark.
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  Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy nine, the year of the Dayline shootout,
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  Speaker 1: Miami recorded three hundred and forty nine murders okay. Just
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: two years later, by nineteen eighty one, that number had
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  Speaker 1: skyrocketed to six hundred and twenty one murders.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: And that represented the highest increase per capita any American
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  Speaker 1: city had ever recorded. The violence was just overwhelming the system.
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  Speaker 2: And you mentioned the system being overwhelmed. That brings up
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  Speaker 2: one of the most chilling images from the source material. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: the institutional infrastructure, you know, the police, the medical examiners,
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  Speaker 2: the Morgue, they just couldn't keep pace with the carnage.
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  Speaker 2: Our sources note that by nineteen eighty one, the city
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  Speaker 2: Morgue had such an overload of unidentified and unclaimed dead
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  Speaker 2: bodies from drug violence that they were forced to rent
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  Speaker 2: a large refrigerated semi trailer truck to handle the overflow.
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  Speaker 1: Just think about that visual for a second. A major
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: American city having to use an industrial meat locker to
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: store human remains.
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  Speaker 2: It was a grim necessity that shockingly lasted until nineteen
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  Speaker 2: eighty eight.
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  Speaker 1: And this volatile, blood soaked environment is precisely where our
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: central female figure in narco history operated.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: We're talking, of course about Cursel de Blanco. She stands
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  Speaker 2: as the central historical figure used to craft well virtually
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: all female led cartel narratives, fictional or otherwise.
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  Speaker 1: Blanco was an absolutely pivotal major trafficker in Miami at
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: that time. Her legacy is defined by just unparalleled ruthlessness
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  Speaker 1: and strategic violence.
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  Speaker 2: The scope of her terrifying reputation is probably best summarized
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  Speaker 2: by a quote that is because legendary, and it's allegedly
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  Speaker 2: attributed to none other than Pablo Escobar himself. He said,
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  Speaker 2: the only man I was ever afraid of was a
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  Speaker 2: woman named Grisel de Blanco Chilling. She was feared and
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  Speaker 2: known universally as the Godmother, the Black Widow, and La Madrina.
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  Speaker 2: This figure of genuine history, historical female criminal power, is
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  Speaker 2: the foundation upon which all these contemporary shows, both fictional
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  Speaker 2: and reality, are built.
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  Speaker 1: So that sets the historical stage a place of unimaginable
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  Speaker 1: violence and money. And now we've got to move from
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  Speaker 1: that historical context to the modern media stage, where the
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  Speaker 1: critique begins. How does current reality television exploit or dilute
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  Speaker 1: this historical legacy?
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  Speaker 2: So if the historical narratives are often trying to sanitize
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: the past, how does modern reality television deal with the
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: legacy of the drug trade, specifically focusing on the descendants
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  Speaker 2: of these drug figures.
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  Speaker 1: And for that we turn to the analysis of the
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  Speaker 1: VH one show Cartel Crew, which ran for three seasons
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  Speaker 1: starting in twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 2: The academic analysis appropriately labels this whole genre narcoreality. It's
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: a new, highly effective and deeply cost efficient vehicle for
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  Speaker 2: reaching those transnational markets we were just talking.
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  Speaker 1: About, right, Because reality TV sells a media drama, personal conflict,
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  Speaker 1: high emotional stakes, it's perfect for global exit exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Cartel Crew follows individuals living in Miami who have direct
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  Speaker 2: family ties to the drug trade and they're attempting to
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  Speaker 2: navigate a legitimate life.
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  Speaker 1: And the sources didn't just casually watch this show. They
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: did a pretty methodological analysis. How did they study these characters,
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  Speaker 1: particularly in relation to this idea of empowerment.
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  Speaker 2: They analyzed the eight core characters meticulously using a quantitative methodology.
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  Speaker 2: They had this sheet that recorded sociodemographic aspects, relationships, instances
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  Speaker 2: of violence, and importantly, instances of objectification or sexualization, all to.
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  Speaker 1: Try and quantify the level of empowerment these women achieved.
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  Speaker 1: And what was the single most critical academic finding that
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: defines the whole show.
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  Speaker 2: The core finding is that even when the leading female
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: characters in Cartel Crew successfully attain positions of economic or
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  Speaker 2: professional power, even when they launched successful businesses, their autonomy
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  Speaker 2: and their agency continue to be mostly mediated by.
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  Speaker 1: Men that is a crucial distinction.
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  Speaker 2: It is.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's pause on that term mediated agency for you,
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  Speaker 1: the listener, What does that practically mean in the context
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: of the show.
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  Speaker 2: It means that while the women might be running the
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: business or making decisions, the source of their authority or
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: the ultimate constraints on their choices still fundamentally comes from
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  Speaker 2: the men.
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  Speaker 1: In their lives, whether those men are currently present, absent,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: or incarcerated exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Their role, while it looks modern and independent, is still
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  Speaker 2: fundamentally defined by a male gaze, even though that role
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: has been reconfigured and made to appear more fashionable and
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: universally appealing for a modern international audience.
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  Speaker 1: So the patriarchal vision is still the hidden engine under
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  Speaker 1: all that surface glamor.
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  Speaker 2: You got it, And that mediation is immediately obvious when
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: you look at the symbolic association these women have to
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: the drug world. They aren't self made in a vacuum.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: They are products of a legacy.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: That's the show's entire premise, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: It is, with only one single exception, every single female character,
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  Speaker 2: and that includes Mura Ramirez, cut Fls, Laura, Stephanie Seveto,
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  Speaker 2: Nicol Zavalla, Diana Cassiano's Salome Jackson, Ali Cabrera, and the
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: high profile guest Emma cornell Iesporo is defined by an emotional, sexual,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: or family relationship with a man involved in drug trafficking.
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  Speaker 1: So they're inherently defined as narco wives, NARKA mothers, or
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: narco daughters. Yes, can you give us some specific examples
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  Speaker 1: of those links, because they really established the gravity of
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the legacy these women are dealing with.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Oh, the show leans into the heaviest legacies possible. Ramirez
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  Speaker 2: Diriano's partner is Michael Blanco, who is the son of
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: the original godmother, Griselda Blanco. Wow Cat Flores's father worked
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: for Pablo Escobar and was murdered when she was only
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: four years old. Stephanie Savito's father is cited in the
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: show's context as one of the kingpins of the Miami narco.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Ring, and then Emma cornell icepuro.
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  Speaker 2: Right when she appeared, she was explicitly discussing launching a
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: narco brand in honor of her husband, Joaquin El Chapo
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Guzman just cements that dependency on the figurehead.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: So the show's very existence is entirely reliant on the
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: men's past power, and yet the show tries to sell
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: this narrative that these women are now liberated, offering these
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: small acts of defiance that supposedly challenge the older, more
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: passive female stereotypes of the genre.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: The analysis does acknowledge these as limited transgressions. For instance,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: kat Flores frequently and very publicly insults a male associate,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: and she criticizes her child's father, Eddie Soto, for his
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: disloyalty okay, And in another instance, Niicol Zavalla actively challenges
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: the stereotype of the self sacrificing woman who just accepts infidelity.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: She ends a relationship with a guy named Torri over
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: simple flirting.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: So these are modern behaviors that deniate from the traditional
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: expectation that women in the cartel world have to tolerate
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: their partner's multiple relationships and constant betrayals exactly.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: But the analysis suggests that these small steps forward, these
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: personal transgressions, are systematically undercut by the larger patriarchal business
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: system in their offer bring within.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: And we really need to look closely at Maria Mira's
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: story here because she is the central entrepreneur figure, the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: one trying the hardest to claim her independence.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Marie's narrative is the most comprehensive case study of mediated agency.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: She is actively launching her successful cosmetics brand and at
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: the same time trying to force her way into an
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: equal partnership in Michael Blanco's Pure Blanco clothing.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Line, and she tries to assert herself on major legal issues,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: like debating his demand for a prenuptial agreement.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: She does, but she loses that battle. Despite her challenge
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: in her financial independence, she ultimately signs the prenup against
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: her will, and she's convinced, as the source material describes,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: through sentimental blackmailing.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: So this isn't legal coercion, this is social and emotional
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: coercion within that patriarchal structure.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Precisely, the man uses the promise of family stability and
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: emotional connection to override the woman's legal and financial self interest.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: That distinction between legal power and emotional or social power
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: is just critical. If she has independent money, why does
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: she cave?
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: She caves because the ultimate power currency in this specific
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: subculture is still the sanctioned relationship in family structure, which
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Michael controls. And what's more, Michael and his business partner
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: actively dismiss and size line all her attempts to get
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: involved in the pure blanco.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Business, reinforcing that the main money is the men's exclusive domain.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, and the most telling detail, the one that really
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: defines the unequal exchange, comes later after she has proven
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: her own success go on. The punchline of her journey
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: arrives in the third season. Marie has successfully launched and
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: grown her own cosmetics line, proving her acumen and her drive.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: So she's a success in her own.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Right, absolutely, Yet she is convinced, for reasons tied to
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: their relationship, to transfer half of her successful independent business to.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Michael, even though he had consistently refused to share any
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: percentage of his drug legacy funded businesses with her.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Right, but she answers her success to him. This action
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: fundamentally reinforces male financial hegemony and control even within her
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: own success story. It proves that her agency was always conditional,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: and the.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Constraint isn't always subtle, is it? Sometimes it's just outright
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: misogyny hurled at the women on screen.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Oh, the show is rife with explicit examples of disdain
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: in patriarchal demands. When Michael discovers Marie used to earn
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: money through webcamming under a pseudonym, He delivers this vicious,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: classic insult. He tells her she cannot turn a whore
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: into a housewife.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: It frames her past entirely in terms of sexual morality,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: attempting to devalue her present professional efforts. It's a devastating
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: way to shut down her independence.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: It doesn't stop there no Later.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: When she exercises legitimate financial skepticism and questions his marijuana
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: business in California, he just dismisses her concerns with a
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: blatant patriarchal demand for submission. He says, you got to
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: know your place, woman, You gotta be there for me.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: The message is crystal clear. Your job is to be supportive,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: not critical, especially when it comes to my money.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: And other characters face the same marginalization, just channeled through
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: different avenues.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Oh like Stephanie Oscevedo.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Correct. Stephanie Oscevedo is constantly marginalized in her music career
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: by the narrative, which accuses her of using sex to
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: secure deals, a rumor that Nicole Zavalla also perpetuated, linking
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Stephanie's rising popularity to a relationship with Lil Wayne.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: So regardless of their actual professional efforts or talent, the
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: default narrative always defines these women by their sexuality or
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: their relationship status.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: It constantly minimizes their genuine attempts at autonomy.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: We've established how pervasive the male gaze and this mediated
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: agency are within Cartel Crew, but the study did identify
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: a few characters who managed to represent something closer to
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: genuine subversion, women who found a pathway to autonomy outside
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: that traditional glare of the men's business.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Yes, the study highlights two particular figures, Cat Flores and
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Diana has Theanos as genuine autonomous entrepreneurs. And what's critical
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: here is the timing of their independence. They successfully managed motherhood,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: domestic stability, and economic stability while their partners were incarcerated.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: When the men were literally absent, their true authority and
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: competence really shown through.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: And Diana offered an additional layer of transgression, didn't she
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: She did.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Diana Costianos is specifically noted for intercepting with gender representation
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: by being openly bisexual, openly having both female and male
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: partners during the series run.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: So that's a transgression not just against the patriarchal business structure,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: but against the traditional heteronormative social expectations of the narco world.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, their economic independence achieved through necessity and competence, granted
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: them a nonconditional authority.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: And finally, Salome Jackson completely shifts the focus away from
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: the materialism and the narco glamour.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: Salome Jackson takes on what the sources described as a
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: pro social type of entrepreneurship. She actively rejects the criminal legacy. Instead,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: she organizes a fundraiser for migrant families and travels to Washington,
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: d C. To lobby for the gig law, which is
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: related to gun control, following the tragic killing of her younger.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Sister, so her focus shifts from accumulating material goods the
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: classic narcotrope, to civic and social engagement, which.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Places her in direct opposition to the more traditional views
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: expressed by someone like Marie, who advocates for gun use
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: education rather than banning them.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: If you, the listener, are finding this beyond infographics analysis valuable,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: please take a moment to rate the show five stars.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Wherever you listen. It helps us tremendously in continuing to
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: look into these complex topics So.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: To summarize Part two, Reality TV, like Cartel Crew, successfully
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: sells the idea of female power and independence, but when
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: you meticulously analyze the plot points, you find that power
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: is almost always conditional.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: The women are defined by their male connections, or if
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: they do achieve true autonomy, the do it through non traditional.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Means, like Diana and Kat handling the home front finances
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: when the men are locked away, or Salome shift activism
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: pathways that put them outside the immediate direct line of
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: cartel power but grant them genuine self sufficiency.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: That's the reality TV filter. Now let's turn to the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: ultimate case study of female power that actually broke the
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: mold historically, Griselda Blanco, and how high budget fictional media
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: is forced to struggle when adapting a character who is
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: truly autonomous and truly monstrous.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: Grisel de Blanco, known by her monikers the Godmother, the
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Black Widow, or law Madrina, remains the historical benchmark for
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: a female criminal leader who achieved autonomous power.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: And revisiting her nonfictional life provides the starkest possible contrast
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: to the mediated agency we just saw in reality television.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: Her history is one of just unimaginable brutality. Starting from
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: her childhood in Medellin, Columbia, during that volatile era known
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: as Love Valencia.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Born into profound poverty, Blanco's life of crime and began
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: shockingly early. I mean she was a preteen.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she was allegedly eleven years old when she committed
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: her first murder. She supposedly shot a ten year old
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: boy whom she had kidnapped for ransom after the payment
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: failed to materialize.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: And before this she was already a pickpocket and later
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: became a sex worker. Her trajectory was set immediately and brudely.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: That background defined her entire adult career. She was married
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: three times, and famously, the sources confirmed she killed all
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: three of her husbands, which cemented that nickname Black Widow.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Her success wasn't due to an inheritance or a simple relationship.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: It was rooted in this unique and terrifying blend of
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: sharp business acumen, gritty determination, and a relentless campaign of violence.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: She was a true innovator. She's credited with pioneering specific
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: large scale cocaine smuggling techniques, like designing special bras and
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: girdles with hidden pockets for female careers to transport.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Product and most famously, she pioneered the use of hitmen
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: operating from motorcycles for these quick, devastated assassinations.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: That innovation in violence is a hallmark of her ruthlessness,
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: and her criminal lifestyle was clearly a point of profound pride.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: For her, which is evident in the fact that she
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: named her son Michael Corleone.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: That naming choice, it just speaks volumes. It reveals a
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: deep seated narcissism and a romanticization of the criminal life.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: She saw herself as part of this grand cinematic legacy,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: a godmother on the level of the Godfather, even as
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: she was committing these real world atrocities.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: And this brings us directly to the controversy surrounding modern
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: adaptations like Netflix's miniseriies Griselda, which have been widely criticized
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: for applying a fictional filter to sanitize or humanize figures
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: like Blanco for mass consumption.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: The criticism focuses heavily on what's called the sympathy critique.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: The show was often accused of taking significant creative liberties,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: presenting her not as a criminal mastermind driven by power,
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: but as a sympathetic figure.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: Right, framing her either as a desperate housewife who needs
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: to resort to crime to make a living, or as
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: someone who's esa escalating violence was just a response to
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: abuse and sexism she endured.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: But the historians and documentarians who know the true story,
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: they argue that this narrative of victimhood and motivation is
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: just it's false.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: The reality gap is enormous.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: It is the true Blanco, according to those who studied her,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: was a stone cold killer and a true sociopath from childhood.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: She was not someone who agonized overkilling young children.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: In fact, one historian source notes that she reportedly laughed
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: out loud when she heard a rival's child had been
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: accidentally shot, and she immediately promoted the killer for his effectiveness.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: That level of casual, pathological cruelty, it just doesn't fit
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: the sympathetic anti hero mold that fiction needs.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: And the narrative that she did it all for her boys,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: that she was driven by maternal necessity to escape poverty,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that also crumbles when you look at the evidence about
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: her financial choices.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: It absolutely does. Early in her career, when she was
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: already established but not yet at her peak islands, she
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: was offered a massive fifteen million dollar.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Buyout, which would be well over fifty million dollars today.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Over fifty million dollars, a chance to leave the business
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: entirely and walk away with generational wealth, and she flatly
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: refused the offer.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Which completely contradicts the sympathetic motivation that she was just
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: trying to provide a good life for her sons. She
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: chose the path of greater power and escalating violence over
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: guaranteed financial peace and stability.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Exactly, and the casting decision for the Netflix series itself
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: also became a flashpoint for this fictional filter controversy. Sophia
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Vergara's casting Yes It drew intense criticism for actively glamorizing Blanco.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Critics argued that the choice made Blonco too beautiful and
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: presented her as a sexpot, ignoring that the real Blanco
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: was often described by law enforcement and her contemporaries as
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: dumpy and fat, especially in her later years.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: So it was a strategic change. It visually reinforced the palatable,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: romanticized narrative the show was pushing, making a true historical
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: monster conventionally attractive and thus more digestible for a global audience.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: That's seeking an anti heroin.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: We should probably i menagine that this whole endeavor wasn't
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: just a subject of critical controversy, it also resulted in
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: real legal action from the family.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: That's right, Blanco's surviving family members sued Netflix and the producers.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Their primary allegation was that the series relied on recorded
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: conversations with her son, Michael Corleoni Blanco, who was not
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: compensated for the use of his family stories and intimate
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: knowledge of his mother's life.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: And despite her reign of terror, her end came in
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: this very specific, almost theatrical manner that perfectly reflected the life.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: She led walk us through her final years and her death.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: Blanco was eventually arrested in nineteen eighty five in Irvine, California.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: She was initially sentenced to fifteen years on drug conspiracy charges,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: but while in prison, she faced the death penalty in
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Florida for multiple murder charges, including the shocking death of
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: a two year.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Old boy, but the prosecution's case against her famously and
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: bizarrely collapsed.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: It did the prosecution's key witness, a notorious hit man
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: named Jorge Ayala, was said to testify against Blanco, but
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: the trial was just utterly derailed when it was discovered
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: that Ayala had been engaging in telephone sex with secretaries
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: in the state attorney's office.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: You can't make the stuff up.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: You can't. And this profound scandal compromised the integrity of
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: the prosecution so severely that they were forced to offer
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Blanco a plea deal.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: So she pleaded guilty to three segment degree murders and
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: was sentenced to twenty concurrent years instead of facing.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: The death penalty, and she was released surprisingly early, though
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: considering the severity of crimes. Due to declining health. She
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: was released in two thousand and four and immediately deported
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: back to Columbia. She lived a quiet, comfortable life, probably
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: due to the millions she had stashed away, until September three,
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: twenty twelve.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: And at the age of sixty nine, while walking out
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: of a butcher shop in Madelin, she was assassinated, and.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: The poetic grim irony of her demise is just inescapable.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: It is the the ultimate closing of the circle of violence.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: She was shot dead on the sidewalk by a gunman
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: riding on the back of a motorcycle.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: The signature killing method the use of motorcycle hitmen that
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: she herself was credited with popularizing and professionalizing during the
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: height of her bloody reign in Miami decades.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Earlier, and her violent legacy extended beyond her own death
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: to claim her immediate family as well.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Tragically, yes, three of her four sons, Dixon, Uber and Oswaldo,
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: followed her path into the drug trade. They all serve
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: prison time or on the same period as their mother,
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: and chillingly, they were all subsequently killed in Columbia after the.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Release, and the only surviving son, Michael Corleon Blanco, is
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: the one who eventually participated in the reality TV we
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: discussed in Part two. The cost of the Godmother's autonomous
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: power was just immense.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: We've established that the narrative inclusion of these transgressive female
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: characters is often driven by purely economic interests, you know,
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: creating mass consumer products for an international market that's sensitive
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: to feminist themes, rather than a genuine desire for emancipation.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to a fundamental academic question. When women
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: do succeed in male dominated criminal hierarchies, when they achieve
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the power of a Griselda Blanco, what kind of leadership
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: model must they adopt to survive.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: The core reality, as suggested by the studies, is that
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: the structure of oppression, represented by the cartel or any
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: organized criminal enterprise, it remains unchanged.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: It doesn't matter who's in charge. No.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Women who successfully invade these hyper masculine territories, whether they
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: are cartel bosses or highly effective hit women, they must
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: adopt and internalize distinctly masculine qualities. This amine involves what
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: is termed a Macha style of aggressive public authority to
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: earn respect and reach the top of the hierarchy.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: So the system remains patriarchal even if a woman is
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: running it. To survive, they have to become a woman
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: version of the male tyrant, perpetuating the existing violence system exactly.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: But you mentioned that academic research suggests female leaders might
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: not always default to the Grizelda Blanco model of hyperviolence,
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: despite the need for ruselessness.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: This is where the crucial nuances of gendered criminal behavior
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: emerge in modern studies. The general hypothesis is that women
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: leaders are generally less likely to use overall violence, violence
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: against other women, and violence against the state compared to
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: their male counterparts.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: And why is that?
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: It's because women's trajectories into leadership often specialize them in
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: nonviolent strategies on the way up, things like managing complex
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: money laundering networks or focusing on caregiving and interpersonal networks,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: for example, managing the logistics and emotional support in human
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: smuggling operations.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: That offers a fascinating contrast to the Griselda model, the
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: violent pioneer who made the rules through bloodshed, and we
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: can directly compare her to a modern low profile leader
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: and Adena Ariano Felix.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: And Adina Arianofelix, who has led the Tijuana cartel since
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, offers a perfect strategic contrast to
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Blanco's spectacle.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: And she did not rise primarily through physical violence or
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: theatrical acts. She used her formal education. She has an
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: accounting degree to manage the complex finances and money laundering
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: operations for her powerful brothers.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: So when the last male sibling, Eduardo, was arrested in
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: late two thousand and eight, Anadina stepped into the void
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: during the apex of a brutal, bloody turf.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: War, she inherited war. How did her accountant, Queentin's style
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: affect the operations and the level of conflict compared to
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: the aggressive leadership of her male relatives.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Academic studies that looked at this transition are pretty compelling.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: They compared the outcomes under Anadina's leadership against a synthetic
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: control group built from similar male led organizations in similar conflicts.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: And the results.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: The results show that her tenure resulted in significantly less
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: cortel related homicides, fewer homicides of women, and a demonstrable
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: reduction in violence directed against the state.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: That's consistent with the hypothesis that female leadership can exert
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: a stabilizing influence, prioritizing business stability over personal vendettas or
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: public spectacle.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Exactly style, Jill is characterized by preferring alliances and strategic
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: negotiations over the high profile, devastating wars of her brothers.
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: She was able to effectively win the brutal war she
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: inherited within two years, and then reportedly negotiated a business
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: deal with the powerful Siniloa cartel to avoid further high
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: cost conflict.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: Which ensures the financial longevity of the Tiwan organization. The
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: goal shifted from dominance through terror to dominance through market
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: share and operational discretion.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: That speaks to an entirely different form of ruthlessness, a
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: financial and administrative kind.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: It does. However, the analysis is nuanced. While her use
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: of outright homicides dropped dramatically, the data did show that
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: Enadina briefly increased the frequency of disappearances.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: That's a critical finding.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: It is because it suggests she may prefer more subtle,
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: lower profile of violence compared to the public spectacle of homicides.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: She still needs to exert coercion and maintain control, but
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: she opts for a method that draws less massive state
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: and media scrutiny.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Reflecting her overall highly discrete management style. She is still ruthless,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: but her coercion is rationalized and calculated to achieve stability
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: and reduce state intervention, which is ultimately better for the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: bottom line.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: It's effective power, but it's decidedly less cinematic.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: That's the key difference, isn't it. The women who achieve
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: genuine power in the real world criminal hierarchy, the Nadinas
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: are strategic and quiet because noise draws attention and arrests.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: They haven't dismantled the patriarchal criminal system. They have only
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: adjusted their methods of control to suit their gender trajectory.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: They've moved away from the loud, spectacular violence of a
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: Griselda Blanco toward the quiet, financial ruthlessness of a stabilizing force.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Both require absolute, non negotiable ruthlessness to survive and lead,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: but only one model sells well on television.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: What we have seen throughout this analysis is a deep
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: and fascinating tension at the heart of narco culture media.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: Modern narratives have to exploit the idea of female agency
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: to a heeled, to a global audience, But as we
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: saw with the Deep Seed and structural Constraints and reality
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: shows like Cartel Crew, these women are habitually confined to
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: a secondary, mediated role where their success is only ever
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: conditional on their proximity to or their relationship with, powerful men.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: And even when media chooses to portray a figure of genuine, autonomous,
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: historically recognized power like Grisel de Blanco, the tendency of
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: fiction is to apply this heavy filter. It softens the
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: brutal reality of the lifelong, sociopathic ruthlessness that was required
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: to reach that echelon.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: They'd rather recast her as a sympathetic victim of circumstance
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: than the monster she historically was.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: So we find that the true subversion of the female
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: stereotype in narcomedia is most often cosmetic. It's a marketing
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: strategy that reinforces patriarchal structures while attracting international audiences that
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: are sensitive to modern feminist themes.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: In the authentic agency we identify, whether it's in the
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: contemporary cases of cac Diana and Salame, or historically with
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: the quiet power of Anadina Ariano Felix, it often surfaces
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: in less spectacular forms, quite financial acumen, strategic negotiation, or
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: social activism.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: These are the non macha, non blanco pathways to.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Control, but the media it remains addicted to the bloody spectacle.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: So here is a final provocative thought for you to consider.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: We've thoroughly explored the wide gulf between the brutal, unvarnished
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: reality of figures like Criselda Blanco and the restrained, sympathetic
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: narratives presented for global television. If the only female drug
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: lord we seem willing to consume and celebrate is a
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: fictionalized one, one who is made more sympathetic, who has
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: given conventional beauty, and whose crimes are framed as justified
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: reactions to abuse. What does that truly say about our
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: contemporary acceptance of women wielding power on their own terms,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: especially in spheres that are violent, hyper masculine, and fundamentally ruthless.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: Is it true power we are celebrating or is it
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: just a curated fantasy.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: That is where we leave our analysis for today. If
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: you found this beyond infragraphics analysis valuable, please take a
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: moment to read the show five Stars wherever you listen.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: It makes a huge difference to us. We'll be back
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: next time with another topic pulled straight from the sources
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: you share with us. Thank you for listening.