Griselda Blanco's only surviving son watched the Netflix series about her and thinks his family 'deserved a little more'
Griselda Blanco's surviving son has spoken out about the Netflix series for the first time.
"The Real Griselda," a podcast hosted by the "Cocaine Cowboys" director Billy Corben, premiered Tuesday.
The son said that after watching the series, he believed his family "deserved a little more."
On the heels of Netflix's "Griselda," based on the life of Miami's "godmother of cocaine," Griselda Blanco, her only surviving son is speaking out for the first time about his thoughts on the hit series.
On "The Real Griselda," a podcast hosted by the filmmaker Billy Corben, whose "Cocaine Cowboys" documentary franchise introduced the world to the infamous Colombian drug lord, Michael Corleone Blanco opened up about how he felt while watching the show.
"It's a rush of emotions. It's very surreal," he told Corben (at the 3:40 mark). "I'm not going to lie to you; it was very emotional. There was a point where I found myself gasping for air. I found myself happy. I found myself sad."
He added: "I feel that the story, our story, my family's story, the Blanco family's universe, it's so complex and so legendary it should be shown respect when it comes to storytelling. I think the story deserved a little more."
The fictionalized series stars Sofía Vergara as Blanco, who became one of the most successful (and dangerous) drug lords in the world in the 1970s and '80s before her arrest in 1985. She would become known as "The Black Widow" for how she eliminated her foes, including being accused of killing several husbands.
The first installment in Corben's six-part podcast focused on the first episode of "Griselda." The younger Blanco complimented the way his mother's children were depicted as being a major focus in her life.
"I liked that wherever my mother went, we went with her," he said. "So I liked the fact that they tried to humanize the character. That was nice. That's probably it."
He said that for the most part, the episode was "far from accurate." He specifically called out the part when his fictionalized mother is struggling to sell 1 kilo of cocaine in Miami in 1978.
"It was quite embarrassing," he said (at the 5:30 mark). "The lady was the No. 1 cocaine distributor in the world by 1975. She created the industry."
He added: "You could say my mother was the first official whale because nobody had hundreds of kilos. Nobody had the laboratories. She pioneered the routes. She pioneered everything in the modern-day cocaine industry as we know it."
In the podcast episode, the younger Blanco said his mother had already established a drug empire in New York City in the '60s before going to Miami, which was not explored in the series.
The older Blanco, who was shot and killed by an unknown gunman outside a butcher shop in Medellín, Colombia, in 2012, had four sons. Her three oldest — Dixon, Osvaldo, and Uber — were killed.
Before "Griselda" premiered, the younger Blanco sued Netflix and Vergara to stop the streamer from releasing the series. In the suit, viewed by Business Insider, he claims the creators used his "private artistic literary work" without permission or credit, which has created "irreparable harm."
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