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¿Plata o Plomo? 'Narcos' Falls Short With Colombian Audience

'Narcos' has moved on to cover Mexico's history of drug trafficking, but can we move on from the first two series' explosive portrayal of Pablo Escobar and his "empire?" For Colombians, the answer is simple—yes, we must.

By Amy E.Published 5 years ago 4 min read
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The Famous Scene of Escobar's Death

"¿Plato o plomo?" The signature line of Escobar in the Netflix series, translating very loosely as "money or a bullet," encapsulates in a roundabout way reactions to Narcos. Some absolutely love it, contributing to its huge financial success and a string of nominations in various award ceremonies; some would rather avoid it altogether. Over the years the show has gained huge international success. Its fast-paced action, addictive plot and stunning cinematography would surely guarantee popularity across the board. As a fan myself, I loved that it showed the beauty of South America and used Spanish-speaking actors rather than anglicising the plot. Although my opinion may be similar to that of many European and North American viewers, it doesn't take much scrolling through social media to find that Colombia disagrees entirely.

Colombian nationals, fundamentally, are tired of ‘narco-series.’ They are especially tired of those that are westernised, glorified and disregarding of the normal Colombian population. Criteria of which Narcos ticks all the boxes. I, of course, don’t want to act like I’m speaking for the entire country’s audience. Yet when I reached out to students to gain their insight, many were eager to share their opinion about this period of history that many want to forget. Esteban gave me a deeper understanding into Colombia’s general perception of such programmes.

“Dramatisations of drug trafficking are made for profit and not for the purpose of really telling the story. This can be seen when a series shows the luxury lifestyle of the traffickers, but not the suffering experienced by the Colombian community so that they could have these luxuries.”

Whether Narcos glorifies cartels is undisputed by Colombia’s audience. Yes, it shows their brutality. But we never see the effects it carries upon normal people. Between 1996 and 2005, somebody was kidnapped on average every 8 hours due to the narco-conflict in Colombia. Given that in 55 years 220,000 people have died due to the actions of drug trafficking, it’s undeniable that every Colombian has a difficult connection to this era. When Escobar’s violence is shown in a myriad of explosions, shoot outs and ruthlessness all you can think is—is this representing history? Or is Guamont International using such large-scale bloodshed to attract more viewers?

Guamont, a French production company, have been heavily criticised by Colombian journalists for westernising the story. The representation of gringo heroes swooping in from America to a ‘third world’ country is perceived as exalting America’s War on Drugs, ignoring the key role played by Colombians themselves. Central figures in Escobar’s downfall are completely disregarded, such as Guillermo Cano and Luis Carlos Galán, a journalist and a politician murdered for uncovering government corruption and cartel involvement in politics. They receive little to no mention in the series. Clearly, the scriptwriters can’t include every single person involved in bringing down Escobar – but when completely fictionalised characters have more screen time than real people, the production of the series is likely to come under fire. I asked if it was right that non-Colombian production companies take this story to make money; Laura and Esteban disagreed with the idea that it was wrong, as amongst Colombians there can be a discussion about the events and differing opinions. A lot of the time even the nation can’t truly comprehend what happened. “The important thing is that the story is told without profit as an end goal, that it is objective and shows different points of view regardless of nationality.”

From a linguistic standpoint, accents are a serious negative amongst the Colombian audience. They are forced to listen to a Brazilian Escobar, whose wife and mistress are Mexican, and enemies are Venezuelan, Spanish, Argentinian and Puerto Rican. Instead of presenting Escobar as a true Antioquian, speaking with the Paisa accent that is native to the area where he grew up, Wagner Moura upholds his Brazilian voice throughout the performance. Despite having moved to Medellin to perfect the specific dialect, some Colombians can’t help but cringe. A whole layer of Moura’s performance is marred by his lack of vocal authenticity. By stripping Escobar of this, an integral part of his character is lost. This was something Maria, a first-year student at Bristol, agreed with when I asked if this accent was important for his portrayal. “It is, yes. The so-called gift of Escobar was that he was a young Paisa like any other who could ‘succeed.'

Undoubtedly quick to question the popularity of the series, I lastly asked each student what they thought of its success. Fundamentally tired of this part of their history is taken as a lucrative opportunity, all were in agreement it was damaging for Colombia’s reputation today.

“Many of the people who aren’t from Colombia that I’ve spoken to about this issue have misconceptions about what Colombia currently is,” Laura tells me. “They think we are still in that era of drug trafficking and violence perpetrated by the cartels.”

This interpretation is sadly the outcome of Narco’s widespread success. But next time you sit down to binge-watch some episodes, it’s worth considering the other side of Escobar’s glamorous narrative: the Colombian people themselves.

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