RESEARCH NOTES: NARCO NOIR

A news story from Honduras was the starting point for NARCO NOIR, leading to Detective Emilia Cruz’s first deep-cover assignment as a taxi driver.

The assignment unexpectedly puts Emilia in proximity to her long-lost brother Rafa Gamboa, a former telenovela actor-turned-Santa Muerte folk priest introduced in PACIFIC REAPER.

Emilia still wants to kill him for the assault she can't remember.

Gamboa's complicated backstory is finally revealed in NARCO NOIR, through the medium of a movie production using one of Acapulco's most picturesque spots and Acapulco real estate listings.

Needless to say the plot of NARCO NOIR turns Emilia’s world upside down.

HEADLINE NEWS

PHOTO: Author’s copy of The Miami Herald

“Honduran taxi driver’s death sparks anger.”

This was the featured story on the front page of The Miami Herald international edition on Saturday, 23 November 2013, reporting from Tegucigalpa, Honduras:

Benjamin Alvarez Moncada pulled his taxi to the front of the taxi stand behind Los Dolores church and half a block from the Honduran capital’s main police station. He was the first in line, so he was the one to die, the other drivers said.

It’s as simple as that.

The article went on to describe the victim, who was affectionately known as Don Mincho, and the ongoing extortion scheme collecting from the taxi drivers. The extortion payment was termed a “war tax.” When the amount demanded exceeded drivers’ total income, they filed a complaint with the police. What happened next was simple retaliation, according to a driver who refused to be named:

“They killed Don Mincho because he was first in line. It was nothing against him. They attacked the collective, not the person. And if we go back tomorrow, they’ll kill another one of us.”

The random murder in Honduras was shocking, but I knew random murders were happening in Mexico, too. Cartel sicarios killed randomly as tests of loyalty, competitions to impress a jefe, or because they were in a bad mood or drunk or high. Putting the Honduran crime in Mexico as a plot for the Detective Emilia Cruz series would still ring with authenticity.

Note: I bought the newspaper in the Panama airport while traveling for work:

LIGHTS, CAMERA . . . SINFONIA DEL MAR

PHOTO: Moe Tripper via tripadvisor.com. “Just around the curve from the La Quebrada, a concert hall hanging on a cliffside.”

Not far from the famous cliff divers at La Quebrada on the west side of Acapulco Bay, this outdoor amphitheater has 3 sections of concentric blue concrete benches funneling down to a stage embossed with a compass rose. It’s a fantastic place to watch the sunset and often hosts concerts, but it’s also littered with trash and an evening hangout for a rough element.

In NARCO NOIR, Sinfonia del Mar becomes a soundstage for a Hollywood movie.

Notorious narco kingpins Pablo Escobar and Joachim “El Chapo” Guzman both wanted to have movies made of their lives. Following in their infamous footsteps, so does fictional fugitive cartel jefe Diego Barrielos Luna.

Will that desire become his undoing?

REAL ESTATE IN ACAPULCO

What's for sale in Acapulco, home prices and the appeal of different neighborhoods play a role in NARCO NOIR. Not only does Emilia's undercover role mean she has to live somewhere besides the Palacio Real hotel with boyfriend Kurt Rucker, but her brother's clandestine activities means he has to check out homes for sale across the city.

Search terms like "Acapulco casas en venta" and "en venta casa" brought me to home listings from local real estate companies. I wasn't looking for hi-rise condos in developments with pools and playgrounds but for single-family homes in residential neighborhoods. From the listing, I'd surf Google Earth and YouTube to see if a particular listing fit the story.