In defense of El Chapo's wife joining VH1's Cartel Crew

Los Angeles Times

The addition of Emma Coronel Aispuro, the 30-year-old wife of notorious drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, on Monday's episode of the VH1 reality show has drawn condemnation. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana has even called on VH1 to cancel the show. But as Robert Lloyd points out, viewers love watching pop-culture depictions of criminals or people close to criminals, whether it's Breaking Bad or The Sopranos. "Our prurient interest in criminals is nothing new," he says. "(Shakespeare wrote some memorable monsters.) Neither is our uncertainty over how to regard them. The folk song 'Jesse James' celebrates the outlaw as a killer and a man of feeling in the same verse, just as Mexican narcocorridos tell tales of modern drug-running outlaws. (There are many about or from the point of view of El Chapo.) Scarface was a hit for Paul Muni in 1932 and Al Pacino in 1983; Warren Beatty starred in sympathetic film biographies of Clyde Barrow (of 'Bonnie and') and Bugsy Siegel. Martin Scorsese has directed a significant part of his energy toward putting organized crime on-screen in a way that effectively if not technically glamorizes it. Charles Manson — don’t get me started. And, of course, there is The Godfather, which gave one Cartel Crew star his name — Michael Corleone Blanco, the son of 'Cocaine Godmother' Griselda Blanco, who was deported to Colombia and killed there. Reportedly, there were three feature films and an HBO series in the works about her at the time."