Sebastián Marroquín
Benefitting The United Nations Refugee Agency
Love doesn't make Sebastián Marroquín blind to the damage done by his father, Pablo Escobar. But he does credit the infamous cartel kingpin for giving him the tools to reinvent himself, far away from his long, dark shadow. As a child, Juan Pablo Escobar (his given name) was treated to everything a kid could want: swimming pools, go-carts, exotic zoo animals, until his father's crimes forced the family into a life of hiding where no amount of money could ensure their safety. The extreme violence left a lasting impression on Marroquín, who changed his name and has dedicated his adult life to making amends with his father's victims. He has met with over 150 families and was declared by the World Peace Organization an ambassador of peace.
Wise Words
“I’m trying to use my father’s story in a very responsible way, just to invite others, not to imitate him in any way.”
“Having, let’s say $4 million in cash, but at the same time watching that you have no food, you have no freedom to buy food, but you have the cash to buy all the stock of food in Medellin City, that’s a big contradiction and that’s a big lesson in life and you have to wait for seven days until the police can move from this exactly the same place you are hiding, that’s very extreme.”
“So we couldn’t even turn on the lights and we couldn’t make any noise and we felt in danger every single second of our lives. Sadly, these kind of situations are never shown in the TV series.”
“Money is not everything in life and freedom is more important than money.”
“There was a lot of blood behind the money he used to help the poorest people in Columbia.”
“I remember a 13 year old kid who approached to me and he said, thanks to your dad I have a home and I have the possibility to study and to be someone else. So it’s very difficult to accept these kind of a stories and at the same time, when you look at my father’s violent side, you will see that he killed many, many people, that he put a lot of bombs and that he didn’t care about the life of any politician and he was again, fighting a war against a whole government and he’s a big collector of enemies.”
“I am just tired of running away from the crimes that I never committed.”
“I had several opportunities to be like Pablo Escobar 2.0 and I never took it because I truly believe that there’s no future in those careers. I see only jail or the cemeteries.”
“Forgiveness is not about forgetting things, it’s about healing. It’s about moving forward. It’s about having memories of what happened in those times, but being aware of the consequences of repeating those stories.”
“I think we all need to forgive.”
“It’s very important for our own health, it is a way to let go the pain because the pain will stay there inside of you and will make you feel sick and will truly make you feel sick. So this is a way of healing for us, for every family to learn from the past and to move forward from that past and to turn the page and look from a different perspective.”
“They are portraying him like a success case, that’s the problem, and my father, at least from my perspective, couldn’t be considered as such a success case. Why is that? Because he died and he was 44 years old and he missed all of the most important moments in his family. He never enjoyed his fortune at all. So how could you consider Pablo Escobar as a success case.”
“As a son, I was totally loyal to him and I’m paying the price for that.”
“I feel love for him and I respect him because he gave me the life that I have and he gave me the tools and the strengths and the possibility to reinvent myself and to be someone else far away from his shadow.”
Links
Sebastián’s documentary: Sins of My Father
Sebastián’s website: https://juanpabloescobar.com/
Sebastián’s book: Pablo Escobar: My Father
Sebastián’s Facebook: @JuanPabloEscobarHenao
Sebastián’s Instagram: @juanpabloescobarhenao
Sebastián’s Twitter: @sebasmarro