Sofía Vergara’s role as the notorious drug lord Griselda Blanco in Netflix miniseries Griselda was more than just a job to her. In a recent interview with Variety, Vergara talked about how the murder of her elder sibling helped inform her portrayal of the real-life Colombian criminal who died in 2012. Vergara’s brother Rafael was killed in 1996 by a Colombian cartel in a botched kidnapping attempt, as reported by the Independent.
The impact of her brother’s death was devastating. She said it “destroyed my mom. It changed our lives completely.
We didn’t know what was happening, why he had been killed.” Vergara said that after watching the documentary Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami in 2006, she learned about Blanco’s links between Colombia and Miami. “There are some real similarities between Griselda and Sofía, and not just their place of birth but their path: the unlikely rise of a single mother showing up in America going, ‘All right, here I am,’” the series’ showrunner Ed Newman explained to Variety.
“Once you get into that, you realise how fated it all is.” Here’s what we know about the Modern Family alum’s earlier life – and her brother’s untimely death: Where is Sofía Vergara from? {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Actress Sofía Vergara at the Miami premiere of Griselda on January 23.
Photo; Getty Images","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/23/c6265f1b-f5b0-42ca-87f3-478f910b1f86_496e4901.
jpg"} Actress Sofía Vergara at the Miami premiere of Griselda on January 23. Photo; Getty Images According to her IMDb profile, 52-year-old Vergara was born and raised in the lively city of Barranquilla, Colombia. Her mother, Margarita Vergara Dávila, is a housewife, while her father, Julio Enrique Vergara Robayo, works in the meat industry.
Per the same bio, she went to private school, and went on to study dentistry until she was discovered by a photographer at a beach and began her modelling and acting career. How many siblings does Sofía Vergara have? {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Sofía Vergara is one of six siblings born and raised in Colombia.
Photo: Handout","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/23/f5df7bd9-48d1-4af8-97e0-fc9cfb787463_d7491f3d.
jpg"} Sofía Vergara is one of six siblings born and raised in Colombia. Photo: Handout Vergara is one of six siblings. Although they are very private, Vergara did open up to the Daily Mail about how her other brother was severely impacted by Rafael’s death.
“My other brother, who was very close to him, became an alcoholic and then a crack addict because of the trauma,” she said. What happened to Sofía Vergara’s brother Rafael? According to Metro, Vergara’s brother Rafael was murdered on the streets of Bogota in 1996 when he was just 28 years old. “We come from a successful family, and he knew he was a target for kidnapping,” Vergara told the Daily Mail.
“He always had bodyguards. Then one day he went out alone and was shot dead [in a kidnapping attempt]. I was devastated.
” In the same interview she explained that “unfortunately, in Colombia at that time, the tentacles of narco traffic were everywhere,” and that “everything was touched by it.” She added: “My brother was a nice guy – a good guy. But he took a wrong decision and unfortunately he paid for it.
We all paid for it.” She moved her family to the US {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Sofía Vergara with her son Manolo Gonzalez Vergara.
Photo: @manologonzalezvergara/Instagram","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/23/1a720f2b-b1a2-429c-8f4a-27d14c418839_1638767f.
jpg"} Sofía Vergara with her son Manolo Gonzalez Vergara. Photo: @manologonzalezvergara/Instagram After the death of her brother, Vergara made the decision to move her family – her mother, sister and younger brother – to the States to live with her, per Variety. “It was hard, because I had to take responsibility for my whole family,” she told the publication.
She once called out Perez Hilton over his reporting of her brother’s death {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Sofía Vergara has topped the list of America’s highest-paid actresses eight times. Photo: EPA","url":"https://img.
i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/23/4e08750b-c5eb-4a64-86ab-3bdb5967f52a_f0d1b7f4.jpg"} Sofía Vergara has topped the list of America’s highest-paid actresses eight times.
Photo: EPA Back in 2013, it was reported that her brother’s case had been reopened by the authorities – but the actress snapped back at the claims. “This is not news. This is disrespectful,” she posted on X at the time, linking gossip site Perez Hilton’s article about the rumoured investigation.
“We already know everything we need to know about my brother’s death.” {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"Sofía Vergara wasn’t impressed when some US outlets reported that an investigation into her brother’s death had been reopened.
Photo: @sofiavergara/ Instagram","url":"https://img.i-scmp.com/cdn-cgi/image/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/08/23/79bcd514-24fe-4bb6-bb72-3313fe6413b8_84f7c76a.
jpg"} Sofía Vergara wasn’t impressed when some US outlets reported that an investigation into her brother’s death had been reopened. Photo: @sofiavergara/ Instagram It seems Hilton learned his lesson, as he’s since removed the post and responded to Vergara’s tweet at the time, writing: “@SofiaVergara I’m sorry you found this disrespectful. It was written with compassion and not meant to offend.
Truly.” In a recent interview, Sofía Vergara admitted the murder of her older brother Rafael helped inform her portrayal of the real-life Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco in this year’s Netflix hit Vergara’s older sibling was shot in 1996 when he was 28 years old and the actress has opened up about how it ‘destroyed’ her mum and ‘changed our lives completely’.
