'Narcos: Mexico' Season 2: Actor Jesse Garcia worked for 8 months in Mexico and says it's portrayed really bad
There is a lot to look forward to in the second season of ‘Narcos: Mexico’. There’s the famed “white storm” that Ángel Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna), the “El Padrino” of the Guadalajara cartel warned about in the trailer. There is a further rise of Gallardo. There is the high-octane action we saw in the trailer. But what is perhaps the most anticipated part of the tale is how the Americans would avenge the torture and subsequent murder of one of their own: DEA agent Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña).
The end of season one witnessed the infiltration of an American task force inside Mexico. This task force has very specific aims -- one, to find out why Camarena was murdered, and two, to disrupt Gallardo’s empire. And leading this team is DEA agent Walt Breslin (Scoot McNairy). Part of this task force is Sal Orozco played by Jesse Garcia.
In a casual chat with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), Garcia spoke about his character, some of the aspects of Season two of ‘Narcos: Mexico’, the titular country, and representation of people of color in films and TV.
Orozco, per Garcia, is also a DEA agent. His character, unlike many of the main characters, however, is not based on one person in particular; rather he is the amalgamation of several different DEA agents. And his and the rest of the team’s job is “to bring down the bad guys”. Garcia explained: “So, the DEA agents and the Mexican police and military -- we formed this kind of a team that is looking for the people who killed Kiki and take them down. But as they research this stuff, they come across bigger cases.”
Pausing to wonder out loud how much he was allowed to give away before the show’s release, Garcia added, “So, yeah. They come across a bunch of stuff that they weren’t planning on coming across.”
He explained that both the DEA agents and the Mexican police had different rules guiding them. This, of course, leads to some “inner turmoil” and obvious trust issues. “Even within the Americans, you’re not really sure who’s willing to do what it takes, to you know, get the job done,” said Garcia.
For ‘Narcos: Mexico’ Season two, Garcia had to work off and on for almost eight months in the country. “Mexico is beautiful,” said the actor. “How Mexico is portrayed in the media is really, really badly [sic], and Mexico City is a wonderful, beautiful city.”
While based on a true story -- the beginning of drug wars in the country in the early ‘80s -- one can’t deny that a show like ‘Narcos: Mexico’ adds to the perception of the country in the eyes of the viewers. This is particularly more so in a politically-charged environment as Donald Trump’s USA, where the president has spent a considerable part of his campaigning in badmouthing the southern neighbor. “You know, there are drugs everywhere. There’s violence everywhere,” said Garcia. “This show is almost kind of a docu-series on what happened in the 70s, 80s, and the 90s. I don’t think it’s glamorizing it -- you can look at it any way you want… People create their own stories, whether they want it to be negative or positive.”
‘Narcos: Mexico’, thanks to its storyline and setting, features a huge Latinx cast. However, on being asked if there was any room for improvement in the shows and films, especially in terms of people of color, Garcia said, “do I think there is room for improvement? Of course, I do. There are different stories to be told and ‘Narcos: Mexico’ is just one of them,” adding, “but for me, it’s like if you have a problem, instead of just b*tching about it, come up with a solution; write and produce your own stuff. Otherwise, you're just another bird squawking in an atrium full of loud birds.”
'Narcos: Mexico’ Season 2 will return to Netflix February 13.