Pablo Escobar
By Marcela Grajales
ENG 1430
There are many influential people all around the world that leave a footprint in history. Pablo Escobar was a very influential person, not only in his country Colombia, which he always felt proud of, but also to the whole planet. He was born in 1949 as part of a not very wealthy family, but with enough to eat and have an education. His family had many difficulties, just as a big part of the Colombian society made it the perfect excuse for Pablo to be a delinquent. Hemilda, his mother, was a humble teacher and his father a peasant, a man who traded cows and horses. Hemilda was always complaining about their lack of money, but will never forget about her 5 years old son (Pablo), he said “mom, wait until I grew up, I she would give you everything.” And that’s the way it was: Pablo became a very rich man by the time he was 30 years old. Although Pablo Escobar was notorious for drug dealing and being a delinquent, he was a man who was intelligent, charismatic and protective of his people.
Pablo was a very intelligent man who knew exactly where he was going. He never finished his studies and decided to deal with cocaine in the 1970’s. Thanks to his business he started to see much money coming and going; money that he was willing to share with his people. He was never a selfish person and knew that a big part of his community needed money. When he felt the necessity of serving his community, he then made the decision of getting involved into the politics. Later on he found out that he could do the same thing without being part of it. One of his main characteristics was that each word that came out of his mouth was done with his hands, meaning that everything he promised was done, which is something that not many politicians will do or have ever done.
His favorite song since he was a little kid was “si yo fuera rico,” which means “if I was rich”. As a coincidence, he became rich by the time he was only 30, not only ending with his mother’s nightmare of being poor but improving the country‘s socio-economic situation. He was changing the whole country, buying property from those who didn’t have enough money to keep it. His biggest satisfaction and pride was that he gave work to those who needed and wanted it, and shelter to those who didn’t have a place where to sleep.
Pablo Escobar was a well-known person within his community. He was a friend with lawyers, doctors, priests and even police members. Such a man was considered by members of the government, news reporters and the general public alike to be one of the most ruthless, cruel, ambitious and powerful drug dealers Colombia ever had. He was also associated with corrupt government officials and country Presidents, and killing the ones that would not cooperate with him.
When he was only twenty-five years old he fell in love with his best friend’s sister, Vicky, who was only thirteen years old. No one in her house wanted him to be her husband; that is the reason they decided to run away and thanks to Vicky’s grandmother they got married. She got pregnant and as soon as they had the baby, Pablo decided to face the enemy (the law). It was his choice whether to stay in Embigado’s jail (La Catedral) or to go somewhere else. He stayed there but never forgot about the not wealthy people who needed him. He used to receive more than a hundred letters a day from people who loved him, “it was just as a fan club” mentioned his cousin. Even though Pablo was in jail, he always felt very secure. In any part of the world if you have power and you are in jail you will get your own security and this is what Pablo was experiencing. He escaped from prison and it was then when his team was being eliminated one by one. The team was getting smaller and smaller.
He was well known for being a very good father. Even though the Colombia government was always persecuting him, he did almost everything to spend important moments with his son Juan Pablo Escobar. His assistance to his child’s birthdays and first communion were celebrations that Pablo never missed. Juan’s first communion took place in a building call Monaco. This was the perfect moment for his enemies to get rid of Pablo. A car full of dynamite exploded. Luckily the party was over and nothing happened. Pablo did not give up; he ran away knowing they were trying to kill him. He called all his family members and told them to be very careful. They were his family; they would also suffer the consequences of this war.
He was a very quiet man; no one could ever say that they saw him doing something, because even his family was innocent until he got into jail. After he made himself free again, he became very close with his cousin Gustavo, who loved velocity and cars. They started to have many races, which became one of Pablo’s hobbies. Gustavo was Pablo’s complement; he was the one in charge of the financial part. While Jaime, his confident for the rest of the life was in charge of the production of the merchandise, its development and its consumption. Pablo was the one in charge of distribution. He was a very creative person, he used to sit down with a map in his hands and trace the way out of Colombia into other countries; if they could not go this way, he would prepare an other way, but would never get stuck or give up.
In 1978 Gustavo and Pablo bought a big ranch and named it “Hacienda Napolis”; this was the symbol of all they have accomplished together. It was beautiful; it had many employees in it, people who cooked, who cleaned, who washed the horses, and those in charge of just opening and closing the doors. It is then when their family started noticing that Pablo had a lot of money but didn’t know he was the head of such a dirty business. Until today’s date his family still shares many memories, his voice and the images that reveal the intimate life of the best but worst drug smuggler of this story. The family members were very innocent almost to the end.
His mother, Hemilda Gaviria, never felt ashamed about her son; she never thought that Pablo was a criminal. He used to tell her that he wasn’t a criminal, that he was a man full of positive goals to share with everyone. He also told her many times that he wasn’t a bad man until people started attacking him. It was then when he had to start defending himself, and the only way was killing those who were in his way.
His sister, Luz Maria Escobar, remembers him as a smart guy, who knew where he was, where he was coming from and where was going. Luz recognizes that he was the one who started to commercialize cocaine around the world, but never ignored that even the better organizations in Medellin (the city where they grew up) got help in an economic way from him.
His brother, Roberto Escobar remembers him as a serious, calculating and “always thinking man”; he believes he was just completely opposite of what many people think of him.
Even though Pablo was a good person in many ways, he was also the one who caused many disasters. In 1989 Luis Carlos Galan, a political candidate, killed many of Escobar’s dreams. Days later Galan was found dead, and Pablo was the only suspect. He told his family that he knew he was not a good person in many ways, but please do not believe what everyone says. At this point the war against this fugitive was even more open; militaries were desperately looking for him, and this time with United States help. Pablo answered to this with terrorist attempts of a big size. As a result, he committed four thousand crimes against policemen, members of juries and everyone who got on his way. All this was a total nightmare to his family. His nervous mother used to sleep inside the bathroom; she was always expecting people dressed in black to come into the house killing everyone.
Finally one day after Pablo’s birthday a decade of war came to its end. He didn’t want to get caught, and giving up he killed himself on a roof. Many people could say that Pablo was responsible for the problems Colombia had, but he was just a delinquent wanting his country to improve in many ways, and Pablo is now dead and Colombia is even worse.