Emmy nominee Sofia Vergara’s painful connection to drug lord ‘Griselda’ role…

Vergara’s brother Rafael was murdered by a cartel during an attempted kidnapping in 1996

Emmy nominee Sofia Vergara has a painful connection to her role of real-life Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco. The 52-year-old actress, who earned a nomination in the lead actress in a limited series category for her performance in “Griselda,” will compete against fellow nominees Jodie Foster, Naomi Watts, Brie Larson and Juno Temple at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night.

Ahead of the ceremony, Vergara sat down for an interview with Variety in which she opened up about how her older brother, Rafael, had been killed in 1996 by a Colombian cartel during an attempted kidnapping.

“It destroyed my family,” Vergara said.

It destroyed my mom,” she continued. “It changed our lives completely. We didn’t know what was happening, why he had been killed.”

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Vergara has previously spoken out about her brother’s untimely death, which remains unsolved, and took place in her hometown of Barraquilla, Colombia.

Vergara has previously spoken out about her brother’s untimely death, which remains unsolved, and took place in her hometown of Barraquilla, Colombia.

We come from a successful family, and he knew he was a target for kidnapping,” Vergara once said in an interview. “He always had bodyguards. Then one day he went out alone and was shot dead. I was devastated.”

While speaking with Variety, Vergara recalled that she was living in the U.S. when the tragedy occurred. A year earlier, the “America’s Got Talent” judge had relocated from Colombia to Miami where she was raising her son, Manolo, now 32, and working as a host for Univision.

After Rafael’s murder, Vergara convinced her mother, sister and her younger brother Julio to move to Miami and live with her.

Mother was like a zombie,” she told Parade in 2011. “I wanted to be with them. So I got a big house and we all lived together. I am so grateful to be in this country.”

“It changed our lives completely. We didn’t know what was happening, why he had been killed.”

— Sofia Vergara
During her interview with Variety, Vergara admitted that it was a “hard” time for her since she “had to take responsibility for my whole family.”

However, the actress explained that her tragic link to the world of cartel violence later motivated her to portray Blanco. In 2006, Vergara watched “Cocaine Cowboys: The Kings of Miami,” a docuseries about Miami drug kingpins Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta, and was fascinated by Blanco.

Vergara told Variety that she found it difficult to conceive of “this Colombian woman with four kids being one of the most ruthless narco traffic people in history.” She felt drawn to play Blanco, but telling the “Cocaine Godmother’s” story was too dangerous while the drug lord was still alive.

Blanco was killed at the age of 69 in 2012 after she was shot while walking out of a butcher store in Medellin.