Don’t Mess with ‘Griselda’

Griselda, a new limited series from Netflix, follows Griselda Blanco, the “Godmother ‘ of the Columbian/American drug trade’s life during her most violent and successful years as the first female Narco. Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) plays Griselda, most of the dialogue is in Spanish, and it takes us on a wild ride of cocaine, violence, addiction, death, and high fashion in late 1970’s Miami. The show is not necessarily feminist, but rather is a profound and deep exploration of female rage, ambition, and psychosis.

Griselda wants the American dream, to rise to the top, gain power, status and infamy. “This country of dreams, it’s a feeling more powerful than love, the sensation that it can all be yours.” Throughout the series she “empowers”  other former sex workers to “take what’s theirs”, leave the trade, become smugglers, and join the good life. She employs “Marielitos” (Cuban refugees who arrive by boat) with the same propaganda, and raises a fearsome army. She always has a plan, and is addicted to the cartel lifestyle. She is innovative, opening and exploding the cocaine market to rich whites with her unusual tactics. She gives away cocaine for free, and employs bourgeois adjacent people (tennis instructors, chefs, etc) to deal to this new untapped market. The rival cartels cannot believe it! We cheer, even though we are too old for cocaine and too soft for violence.

Many times, people offer Griselda a way out. She rejects a distributor’s buyout offer, (15 million dollars in a cooler of cash), she flees for a “fresh start” after murdering her husband who pimped her out. However, like an addict, she can’t stay away. The thought of potential drug deals soothes her nervous system; she calms down when she holds a pile of money. She is liberated from feeling robbed, owned, and trafficked by the control she feels when she’s at the top. In her heyday, she earns 80 million a month, murders hundreds of people a year, and everyone fears her. She often says “everything I do is for my sons”, but we know her real passion is power. “I was only afraid of one man, and it was a woman, Griselda Blanco,” said Pablo Escobar.

The series shows us Griselda’s dynamism through her clothing, gait, rousing speeches, and stunning silhouette. Griselda looks slightly down on us–camera angles put the audience just below her breasts. She dresses in rich 1970’s outfits of browns and blues, wears Saint Pendants, and chainsmokes indoors, tracing shapes with the smoke, gazing at water. Her army of sex workers turned smugglers traffic kilos in their bras. The female shape is imposing, powerful, sexual, and on brand. If we drank every time a breast took center screen, or a woman humiliated a man for underestimating her, we’d be sloppy floppy on the floor!

Griselda is at once a biopic and female revenge fantasy. There are so many men (in both the cartel and law enforcement) that we lose track of who’s who, they are somewhat faceless, disposable. They’re set up to underestimate Griselda and her female counterpart June, the equally ambitious first Latina Detective in the Miami PD. Viewers cheer for both female leads, savoring their triumphs over misogyny, relishing in their struggle to climb respective ladders, shattering glass ceilings. We rejoice, but fear them both. Evil Girl Power!