A Netflix series I became hooked on last year that is called “Queen of The South” is about the Mexican drug cartel. At the beginning Teresa was just a money changer, cleaning dirty money on the street. She gets a drug dealer boyfriend that is pretty successful in this cartel. After his betrayal and supposed death, Teresa makes a run for it to escape the cartel and death. She is captured and then put to work as a drug mule. She faces many hardships and her boss takes a chance on her in order to test her loyalty. Time and time again, Teresa is given trust and never lets down her boss. She makes her boss a lot of money and they decide to go into business together. Eventually she holds more and more power because of her knowledge and willingness to survive. They are both powerful women and unlike many cartels that would be led by men, this cartel is one of the most ruthless and successful in the country.
Many people doubt Teresa but eventually she owns the entire cartel after killing off her competition. This series is very interesting because although the characters are primarily from Mexico, there is still a major disconnection between everyone. The rich and the poor, the cartel and non cartel, the workers and the bosses, nobody is considered equal. Teresa struggles even more because not only is she a woman but she worked her way from the very bottom. People expect her to show mercy but she shows none, in fact she is very harsh to people.
There is an instance of the Self and Other theory when Teresa is captured by the cartel and she is treated like a caged animal. She is the “Other” and the Cartel boss seeking revenge for her boyfriend’s betrayal is the “Self.” At the end of season 4 she becomes the “Self” and the old bosses are either dead or broke making them the “Other” now.
These two pictures show the difference of person growth and power Teresa shown from the beginning of the series to the end. When she finally became the cartel boss instead of the drug mule fearing for her life. She truly beat all the odds and worked hard to get her spot in the cartel.
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