{"id":18618,"date":"2022-08-17T08:50:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T12:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2022-08-22T09:12:01","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T13:12:01","slug":"the-cartel-among-us-the-demand-for-spanish-language-factual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/the-cartel-among-us-the-demand-for-spanish-language-factual\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cartel Among Us & the Demand for Spanish-Language Factual"},"content":{"rendered":"

Executive produced by Selena Gomez, the true-crime docuseries Mi Vecino, El Cartel<\/em> (The Cartel Among Us<\/em>) premiered earlier this summer on TelevisaUnivision\u2019s recently launched streaming platform ViX+. Over the course of three episodes, the series delves into the murder of Juan Jes\u00fas Guerrero Chapa and how it helped to expose the insidiousness of the Mexican cartels in the U.S., spotlighting their particular impact on the insular community of Southlake, Texas. Director and showrunner Esther Reyes talks to TV Real Weekly<\/em> about how The Cartel Among Us<\/em> came to be, familiarizing herself with the case at its center and the demand for Spanish-language factual content.<\/p>\n

After Blackfin Productions and Jordan Rosenblum, the company\u2019s senior VP of development, came upon the story of Chapa\u2019s case, they decided to reach out to native Texan Gomez, who came on board with her production shingle July Moon Productions. \u201cBlackfin and ViX+ then brought me on as the showrunner and director of the series, and the rest is history,\u201d explains Reyes, who had not heard about the case prior to being approached about helming the docuseries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs documentary filmmakers, though, once we take on a project, we make it our jobs to thoroughly research, do our homework and familiarize ourselves with the subject at hand,\u201d says Reyes. \u201cWe quickly became as familiar as we could with the case; but once we began doing interviews with journalists who were there each day covering the trial, as well as the lead prosecutor, defense attorneys and family members, that\u2019s when we really got a chance to peel back the onion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reyes, who began her career working in public television, not only enjoys telling the stories of everyday people but also documenting the unfurling of a story over the course of making a documentary. In The Cartel Among Us<\/em>, \u201cbecause it’s a true-crime series, we are examining the case retrospectively and doing so via the perspectives of the newspaper journalists who reported on the case and the lead U.S. prosecutor, as well as the family members of some of the defendants involved. However, what\u2019s also intriguing is that this particular case has not been entirely adjudicated. It is still evolving. The authorities are still putting the pieces together as we speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the initial aftermath of Chapa\u2019s murder and the unspooling of the cartel threads surrounding it, it stunned the affluent and otherwise placid Dallas suburb. \u201cAs Dallas Morning New<\/em>s journalist Alfredo \u201cFreddy\u201d Corchado puts it, \u2018These kinds of crimes may happen in Mexico, but Southlake is another world entirely,\u2019\u201d says Reyes. \u201cYou just don’t expect these kinds of events to happen in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

True crime\u2019s ongoing popularity is undeniable, which Reyes attributes to its voyeurist appeal, as well as the opportunity it gives viewers to play armchair detectives. A bilingual true-crime series, The Cartel Among Us<\/em> also speaks to the demand for Spanish-language factual content.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most exciting aspects to this series, and something that drew me in, was the chance to produce a bilingual true-crime series,\u201d says Reyes. \u201cGrowing up bilingual in the U.S. with one foot in each culture, you become accustomed to watching television and films in both languages. And very often, that\u2019s also how we communicate\u2014going back and forth between English and Spanish. Each language allows you to express different aspects of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Latinx storyteller and a Latinx consumer of content, my favorite types of series are just like any other American viewer, and that\u2019s something that, in my view, we as U.S. storytellers have to keep in mind\u2014our international Latinx audience is watching and is hungry for much of the same type of content as other subcultures,\u201d adds Reyes. \u201cAnd particularly in the U.S., I believe we love and enjoy the same TV as the other guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reyes also notes that those from the Latinx community are the most frequent moviegoers, a data point that she believes that streamers are starting to notice and act upon. With the growth of Latinx viewership and the rise of more Latinx content, Reyes hopes that there will also be increasing numbers of those from Latinx backgrounds behind and in front of the camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Latinx culture is so varied and diverse, that\u2019s something that a lot of folks don\u2019t realize\u2014from each unique country\u2019s customs to their history and culture, to their food and music,\u201d says Reyes. \u201cI\u2019d like to see the richness of our stories being told and represented on the screen by Latinos and consumed by the greatest potential global audience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director and showrunner Esther Reyes talks on how the ViX+ original docuseries The Cartel Among Us came to be, familiarizing herself with the case at its center and the demand for Spanish-language factual content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1033,"featured_media":18619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[6389,6392,6391,6390],"class_list":["post-18618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-esther-reyes","tag-televisaunivision","tag-the-cartel-among-us","tag-vix","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Cartel Among Us & the Demand for Spanish-Language Factual - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/the-cartel-among-us-the-demand-for-spanish-language-factual\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Cartel Among Us & the Demand for Spanish-Language Factual - TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Director and showrunner Esther Reyes talks on how the ViX+ original docuseries The Cartel Among Us came to be, familiarizing herself with the case at its center and the demand for Spanish-language factual content.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/the-cartel-among-us-the-demand-for-spanish-language-factual\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-17T12:50:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-22T13:12:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2017\/07\/cartel-among-us-vix-plus-0822.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"338\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chelsea Regan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chelsea Regan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/the-cartel-among-us-the-demand-for-spanish-language-factual\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/the-cartel-among-us-the-demand-for-spanish-language-factual\/\",\"name\":\"The Cartel Among Us & the Demand for Spanish-Language Factual - TVREAL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-17T12:50:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-22T13:12:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/2a2c6d8fb3c7c8b4220b8877ecffb79a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/the-cartel-among-us-the-demand-for-spanish-language-factual\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/the-cartel-among-us-the-demand-for-spanish-language-factual\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/the-cartel-among-us-the-demand-for-spanish-language-factual\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Cartel Among Us & the Demand for Spanish-Language Factual\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\",\"name\":\"TVREAL\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/2a2c6d8fb3c7c8b4220b8877ecffb79a\",\"name\":\"Chelsea Regan\",\"description\":\"Chelsea Regan is the managing editor of World Screen. 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