When 33-year-old Mariel Colón isn’t performing Mexican music at festivals, she’s defending drug traffickers like the notorious El Chapo in court.
Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent Kate Linthicum joined host Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today” from Mexico City with the story behind the singing attorney, who goes by the stage name La Abogada.
Colón was a recent law school graduate when she began working for Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Linthicum explained that Colón started as a translator but developed a friendship with El Chapo.
“She’s meeting all day with him ahead of the trial, translating for his English-speaking attorneys,” Linthicum said. “But she also sees this man who has been in isolation in prison for years at this point, and he seems lonely and isolated. So she tries to find a way to connect with him and starts talking about what she likes. She likes singing, for example, and he says, well, I like music too. And so they start talking about music, and soon she’s learning some of his favorite Mexican songs to be able to sing for him in person there in the jail.”
Colón, who was born in Puerto Rico, developed a love for Mexican ranchera music while learning songs to sing to her boss.
“She starts learning more about the music and singing and meeting musicians who play this,” Linthicum said. “And she decides to launch a career in music. She’d gained fame by representing El Chapo because he did eventually ask her to join his trial. And so with her new Instagram followers and all of the interviews she’s been giving on Spanish language TV, it starts to make sense for her.”
Colón found fame among people who were fans of El Chapo and other cartel leaders. Linthicum explained that many in Mexico see the kingpin as a figure who stole from the rich and gave to the poor.
Colón performed at a recent music festival in Mexico. Linthicum talked about her reception.
“There aren’t so many women in this genre,” she said. “There are definitely Puerto Rican people singing this kind of music generally. So they didn’t know entirely what to make of her. But by the end, I think she had won a lot of people over.”
While Colón works to launch her singing career, she has become more in demand to represent other drug kingpins. But, Linthicum said, Colón always makes time to see El Chapo.
“She is one of the only people who actually gets to see El Chapo on a regular basis,” said Linthicum. “As his attorney, she can visit him twice a month at the supermax prison in Colorado where he lives. He doesn’t get other visitors. So she is really one of the few intimates that El Chapo has at this point. But she cautioned that even though she’s getting these great stories from him, she can’t use that in her music because of attorney-client privilege.”
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