Griselda is now the most watched series on Netflix, surpassing Fool Me Once in popularity since its debut. The six-part series, which will be brought to our screens by showrunner Eric Newman and director Andrés Baiz—the creative duo behind Narcos is a dramatized account of the life of Griselda Blanco, a real-life figure who rose to prominence as a leader of the Cartel in the US cocaine trade in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Blanco was associated with hundreds of homicides, including the killings of her own husbands, and was dubbed the “Cocaine Godmother” or “Black Widow” due to her vicious actions. The cast is led by Sofia Vergara of Modern Family as Blanco, with additional stars including Christian Tappan and Juliana Aidén Martinez. However, how true is Griselda? Continue reading to learn all there is to know about the real-life tale of Griselda and to hear from Newman and Baiz on the blend of truth and fiction in the six-part series.
True Story Behind Netflix’s Griselda Series
The adage “truth is stranger than fiction” may not apply to Griselda Blanco’s real world, where reality is harsher. Dramatizing the life, business acumen, and downfall of “the Godmother,” one of the deadliest and highly paid drug traffickers in America during the 1970s and 1980s, Griselda is based on the real-life experiences of Colombian drug trafficker Griselda Blanco and stars Sofía Vergara as the ambitious and deadly head of a Miami cartel. She went under several aliases, including “La Madrina,” “The Black Widow,” and “La Dama de la Mafia.” But for those who opposed her, Griselda’s name became connected to death.
Griselda, which consists of six one-hour episodes, was conceived by Andrés Baiz, the director of each episode, and Eric Newman (Painkiller), reuniting the team behind Narcos and Narcos: Mexico. Along with Baiz, Vergara, and Luis Balaguer from Latin World Entertainment, Newman, Doug Miro, Ingrid Escajeda, and Carlo Bernard executive produced the series. The co-showrunners of the series are Escajeda and Miro.
Tudum is told by Miro, “Griselda is no different from Hamlet, or Macbeth, or any great play where a character has hubris.” “Griselda’s acts of violence were a development of her conceit and sense of dominance. However, I find it incredibly significant how many sequences in the programme are based on fact, and how much truth there is overall.
Although the baroque score by Carlos Rafael Rivera (the Emmy-winning composer of The Queen’s Gambit) and Vergara’s intense emotional dynamism heightens the tragedy and villainy of Griselda in this dramatised tale, the producers made great efforts to ensure that the production was firmly rooted in reality.
Authenticity is really important to us,” adds Newman, who co-wrote the Narcos and Narcos: Mexico series director and executive producer Andrés Baiz. “Authenticity in the time period and character truths, as well as the setting. Searching for the truth, even in cases where we are unable to know it, is another motivator for us. You won’t find an interview with Griselda Blanco that reveals her innermost thoughts and emotions. Therefore, it becomes crucial to create it in the most genuine way possible.
The authors claim that while combining and condensing some dates to keep the storey tight for the short-lived series, it highlights her horrors and accurately portrays Blanco’s life. Learn about some of the real-life tales that were portrayed in Griselda, as well as some even more outrageous realities.
Which drug cartels in Medellín was Griselda Blanco associated with?
The early cocaine shipments into New York City, where Griselda and her second husband, Alberto Bravo (played by Alberto Ammann), resided in the early 1970s, were orchestrated by the two women. Federal prosecutors found twelve individuals guilty on January 26, 1976, of conspiring to distribute enormous quantities of cocaine and marijuana that were smuggled out of Colombia; nevertheless, they were unable to apprehend the individuals at the head of the operation.
Alberto Bravo, his brother Carlos Bravo, and a colleague, Griselda Blanco a woman who purportedly dresses female couriers in contraceptive bras and girdles were named in the indictment as those leaders, according to a New York Times report from the time. Blanco was given a 15-year jail term, but as she had already left for Colombia, she was unable to serve her time. It would take ten more years to find her.
Did Griselda Blanco murder Alberto Bravo, her second husband?
According to some estimates, Blanco has well over 250 assassination orders. She is suspected of being involved in 40 homicides alone in Miami. However, there is one that she is said to have done herself: Alberto Bravo, her second husband. When Blanco returned to Colombia in 1975, it seems that he started to suspect Bravo of being connected to millions of cash that went missing.
After an argument, Blanco, 32, took out a revolver. Bravo shot her in the stomach with an Uzi submachine rifle. Following a gunfight, Bravo and his bodyguards were found dead. Bravo was the only direct death that June Hawkins-Singleton, a former Miami police investigator who worked on the investigation in the US, said they could link to Blanco. “I have no doubt that she may have done several of these, but we were never able to obtain anyone to confirm this or to speak with her about it.
What about Griselda’s first husband?
When Blanco was thirteen years old and working as a prostitute, she met her first husband, Carlos Trujillo, a street hustler. The couple separated in the 1960s, leaving them with three boys. In the 1970s, she allegedly had him slain. In 1983, when he returned to Colombia, she supposedly also had her assassin husband, Dario Sepulveda (portrayed by Alberto Guerra in the series), slain. Because of the brief lives of her husbands, Blanco acquired the moniker “Black Widow.
Was Griselda Blanco actually a cocaine smuggler who used bras?
In the 1970s and 1980s, Blanco was almost exclusively mentioned in news articles as a cocaine trafficker using bras. However, she went one step further and established a factory to produce the specialised clothing for smuggling. “It wasn’t like it is now, when everyone goes through a scanner or they’ll have a female attendant to search you,” said Newman of the 1970s and 1980s. “These men were customs officers back then, and nobody was stopping a stunning woman who was passing through with a cocaine-filled bra.” It was almost genius-like.
Did Griselda Blanco use ships to carry drugs?
Presumably, in that case, yes. Bravo and Blanco were accused of making an even more daring smuggling attempt, which Newman and Miro intended to commence the series with. “When [the United States] celebrated its 200th anniversary in 1976, nations from throughout the world sent something in observance of this historic accomplishment.
The Gloria, a three-masted square-rigger from the 19th century, was donated by Colombia, according to Newman. According to legend, Griselda orchestrated the concealment of a substantial cocaine cargo in The Gloria’s hold during its passage into New York Harbor. Nobody noticed anything while everyone was staring. She also sold the cocaine in New York after offloading it whenever she could.
