The exportation of Narconovelas from Latin America to the world has contributed on

the building of stereotypes about the region's culture.

The narconovela is a cultural product exported from the latin american region to the rest of
the world. There are also cinematographic pieces that contribute to the narcoculture, which
has been built mainly by books, soap-operas, and music that show the way of life of those
who have been victims of the Narco context.

According to Karina Tiznado Armenta, an academic from the Universitat Autònoma de

Barcelona, there are some general characteristics and four types of women in narconovelas:
the ​mulas, prepago, sicarias​ and ​jefa narco.

They are usually portrayed the same way, they come from a low class life and aspire to be
part of the higher class but in illicit ways. Often they use their bodies and sexuality to
accomplish their goals for a better life and even though they are usually witty, they would
rather thrive next to a narco as their woman instead of finding the way to educate themselves
or making their own legal business.

The constant in the content that makes part of narco culture is that all women’s goal is to get
money, what changes is the way in which they pursue it. A particular case is Sin Tetas No
Hay Paraíso, a soap-opera which protagonist’s main goal in life is to get plastic surgery in
order to find a narco husband that will give her the high class life.

“Nuevamente, una mujer es quien protagoniza otra historia del narcotráfico, aunque,a
diferencia del personaje de Rosario Tijeras, María tiene una “justificación” paraincursionar en el
mundo del tráfico de drogas, la de querer buscar una vida mejor a raíz de que se entera de su embarazo.
De acuerdo con Stacey D. Skar (ibid), aunque las protagonistas de María, llena eres de gracia y Rosario
Tijeras se caracterizan como mujeres transgresoras de tradiciones religiosas, sexuales y económicas,
ambas historias recurren a las mismas prácticas culturales que, tradicionalmente, han definido los
límites de lo femenino en Colombia, así como en otras naciones latinoamericanas.” 104

This quote talks about the movies Rosario Tijeras ans

One way to measure how this narcoculture has contributed to the building of stereotypes is
the representation of latin american people on Hollywood. For example, the movie ​El
Mariachi,​ which according to Pablo R. Cristoffanini

“​El Mariachi ​llega a un pequeño pueblo mexicano, ​Santa Cecilia​, en busca del responsable de
la muerte de su novia, ​Bucho.​ Este último es una expresión del nuevo arquetipo del malo
latinoamericano (jefe de una banda de narcotraficantes) y domina y controla todo el pueblo que vive de
la droga. Después de algunos feroces combates preliminares con los hombres de Bucho, ​El Mariachi
encuentra dramáticamente a la sensual y bella Carolina (Salma Hayek), que es la dueña de la única
librería del pueblo. Carolina tiene una relación con Bucho y la librería misma es una de las coberturas
del negocio de la droga.”
This quote shows how not only the men are represented as vengative, violent and involved
with drugs. On the other hand, women are represented sensually and in a romantic
relationship with some Narco. In this movie, Carolina is supposed to be educated, she owns a
library, nonetheless she is involved with the town’s local drug dealer.

Other example of the perception the world has about latin american people is the illustration
made by the Czech artist Martin Vargic in 2014 in which he drew a map of Latin America
and replaced the country’s names and some regions as well. Mexico is Tacos with regions
like Sombreros and Burritos, Cuba is Cigars and Colombia is Drug Kingpins.

Of course the reason for the stereotype comes from some kind of truth, what important drug
dealers like Pablo Escobar did, could never be forgotten by the world. Besides, it is part of
the history of the country which represents its own reality on the screen.

“La perspectiva marxista o más bien dicho neomarxista, liga los estereotipos a situaciones
históricas de legitimación de la explotación social, racial y sexual. Ahora bien, el contexto histórico en
el que se generan los estereotipos es un aspecto central y que siempre debe ser tenido en cuenta, pero
existen mecanismos psicológicos tras la intensidad de los sentimientos que las representaciones sobre
los “otros” generan y que no pueden ser reducidos a razones de ventajas sociales y económicas.”

The previous quote explains that according to the marxist perspective, stereotypes are directly
related to the legitimation of social, racial and sexual exploitation. Connecting that point to
the thesis it is very clear how generalizing on characteristics of groups of people perpetuates
said alleged conducts. It also says that the context in which stereotypes are generated is also
relevant for its development, meaning that there might be some truth to it. This is why the
self-representation of the victims of the violent context Drug Dealing put society on, should
create content for themselves rather than promote the idolatry of characters as evil as the
Drug Dealers Latin America had to see.

The matter of adoration of this characters is explained by Karina Tiznado Armenta:

“No obstante, en ocasiones algunas de estas manifestaciones artísticas, voluntaria o

involuntariamente, pueden considerarse como apología de esta misma violencia, sobre todo en el caso
de la música, aunque no por esto podemos afirmar que sean culpables directos del conflicto del
narcotráfico.”

The issue goes from the unintended adoration of big Drug Dealers that people who live in
miserable conditions and aspire to thrive in similar ways to the intended exploitation of how
relatable the content might be to the victims of the real violent context.
 "Colombia es un país sin remedio. Esto es un desastre por donde se le mire y entra uno en un
estado de pesimismo y de amargura que le permite a uno ver las cosas con más claridad".

Para el actor paisa, discutir si se deben seguir haciendo narco novelas, es un debate que no
tiene mayor sentido. El asunto es de plata. Punto.

"Hacer una novela de narcotraficantes más o menos vale 200 a 300 mil dólares el capítulo. Y
produce unas tres o cuatro veces eso. Eso usted no lo controla con nada. Este negocio produce tanto
dinero que esto no se va a acabar" (El Espectador, 2018)

The previous is an interview to a Colombian actor who says Colombia is a country doomed
to be a disaster and that discussing if narconovelas should keep being produced is pointless
because it is a matter of money. He explains how rentable is to produce this kind of content.
Tiznado refers to the multimedia character of narco culture and to the representation of
reality versus the exploitation of the context to gain money. It is a problem for society,
because the stereotypes can cause discrimination for latinos all around the globe. In times
like the last few years where governments of right wing like Trump discrimination has been
very notorious.

“Si bien, una parte de lo generado a raíz narcocultura es el resultado del trabajo profesional de
especialistas en cada ramificación que de ella se desprende: literatura, pintura o música, que reflejan, lo
más fielmente posible, la realidad y el sentir de la población, no podemos olvidar que, en algunas
ocasiones, aparecen “artistas al vapor”que explotan, de forma amarillista y/o morbosa, el tema del
narcotráfico con fines puramente lucrativos.”(Tiznado, p. 71)

In conclusion, the creation of content related to the narco culture doesn't necessarily have to
be bad. Nonetheless, it has been exploited for lucrative purposes and harmed the image
latin people project to the world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cristoffanini, Pablo. “Estereotipos y mitos: La representación de los ‘latinos’ en el cine

norteamericano.” ​Sociedad y Discurso,​ no. 7 (January 8, 2005).
https://doi.org/10.5278/ojs..v0i7.792​.

“Estereotipo de los colombianos... ¿culpa de las narconovelas?” Accessed April 2,

2019.
https://www.elheraldo.co/tendencias/estereotipo-de-los-colombianos-culpa-de-las-n
arconovelas-203230​.

“La narconovela colombiana: ¿una cultura?” ​Libre Pensador​(blog), February 13, 2017.
https://librepensador.uexternado.edu.co/la-narconovela-colombiana-una-cultura/​.
“Los estereotipos de los latinoamericanos sobre nosotros mismos.” BBC News Mundo.
Accessed April 2, 2019.
 https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2015/10/151021_hay_festival_debate_estere
otipos_yv​.
“Robinson Díaz: Nunca se dejarán de hacer narconovelas porque se venden como pan
caliente.” Text. ELESPECTADOR.COM, December 6, 2018.
https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/nacional/robinson-diaz-nunca-se-dejaran-de
-hacer-narconovelas-porque-se-venden-como-pan-caliente-articulo-827674​.
Tiznado Armenta, Karina. “Narcotelenovelas: la construcción de nuevos estereotipos de
mujer en la ficción televisiva de Colombia y México a través del retrato de una
realidad social.” Ph.D. Thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2017.
http://www.tdx.cat/handle/10803/459153​.