I just heard a pretty intense anecdote about Mauricio Ochmann that’s worth sharing. The actor who played El Chema in the series — a character based on the real-life Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, the founder of the Sinaloa Cartel — experienced an encounter that few people ever do.

He was on the road, traveling normally, when his driver told him they needed to stop for gas. Strange considering the trip was short. After passing a couple of checkpoints, they arrived at the gas station, and that’s where things got intense: someone recognized him, knocked on the car window, and said, “The boss wants to meet you.” Ochmann got out, and suddenly he found himself surrounded by seven or eight trucks. The boss stepped out, hugged him, and explained that they needed to intercept him this way just to meet him. The conversation was calm, even friendly.

What’s interesting is that Ochmann didn’t know who the person was at first. Later, he looked it up and found out that he was indeed a heavy hitter. Months later, he saw a news report that the guy had been killed. The actor reflected on what might have happened if that confrontation, which led to the man’s death, had occurred that very day, at that very moment. Quite a lot to think about.

But here’s the important part: Ochmann eventually decided to stop portraying El Chema, and it wasn’t because of that encounter. During his tour visits in Mexico and the United States, he realized that among his fans were children from five to thirteen years old who admired him solely for being El Chema, not for his acting work. That made him reflect. He realized that, although for him it was just an acting exercise, the message reaching the new generations was to normalize and glorify organized crime and violence. He decided it was important to step away from that.

Meanwhile, Rafael Amaya is preparing a new project about the same story, but from the perspective of Emma Coronel, the wife of the real-life El Chema. It’s interesting how the same character and story can be told from completely different angles.