Gonzalo Barr

Compare and contrast:

(1) The review in The Washington Post of Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s The Queen of the South (2004, Andrew Hurley, translator) –

…a story of betrayal and revenge. The betrayed is Teresa Mendoza, a Mexican in her early twenties whose boyfriend, a pilot and drug-runner named Raimundo Dávila Parra, aka Güero, is killed when his plane is shot down by a couple of hit men…

Until then she had been, or had seemed, just another pretty girl attached to just another daredevil, […] she is transformed by betrayal and its aftermath. …

(2) An excerpt from the news –

[Mexican beauty queen Laura] Zuñiga, 23, was picked up late Monday [December 22, 2008] at a military checkpoint in the western Mexican state of Jalisco while traveling with seven armed men in two vehicles carrying 100,000 dollars in cash. Authorities said they found two AR-15 rifles, three pistols, 633 cartridges and 16 mobile phones in the vehicles.

A judge on Friday ordered “the cautionary measure” of 40 days detention for Zuñiga and the men “for probably committing crimes” relating to drug trafficking and transporting weapons, the office of Mexico’s attorney general said.

Zuñiga was picked up along with Angel Orlando García Urquizar, “presumed to be one of the leaders of the Juarez Cartel,” the statement read.

Police earlier identified Zuñiga as García Urquizar’s girlfriend.

An earlier post on other cases of Art vs. Life is here.

Photo composite: Laura Zuñiga being crowned Miss [Mexican state of] Sinaloa and line-up photo released by the state of Jalisco attorney general’s office, The Washington Post; Sources: review of Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s The Queen of the South (2004, Andrew Hurley, translator), amazon.com; news story posted December 27, 2008, Breitbart.com, “La Reina de Sinaloa,” in Río Fugitivo, Edmundo Paz-Soldán’s blog at El Boomeran(g) (Dec. 24, 2008) and Pablo Ordaz, “Detenida en México una reina de belleza con un arsenal,” El País (Dec. 24, 2008)