Part of Netflix’s sweeping $1 billion pledge to produce Mexican content over the next four years, “Las Muertas” is a newly released six-episode series that spotlights one of Mexico’s most notorious crime rings: the González Valenzuela sisters, known as “Las Poquianchis.”
Directed by Mexican filmmaker Luis Estrada and based on Jorge Ibargüengoitia’s famous 1977 true crime novel — also titled “Las Muertas” (“The Dead Girls”) — the show unpacks a brutal legacy that haunted the country from 1945 to 1964.
It was filmed and produced in Mexico, with shooting locations that included San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Veracruz and Mexico City’s Churubusco Studios.
At the heart of the saga are four siblings — Delfina, María del Carmen, María and María de Jesús — who ran a chain of brothels in Guanajuato and Jalisco.
Their victims, often girls as young as 14, were lured from poor towns with false promises of work, then subjected to violence, sexual abuse and relentless control. “They kept them under strict control through violence, kidnapping and, in many cases, murder,” according to news accounts.
Victims experienced horrific conditions such as starvation and beatings. Many who became ill or “too old” were killed; babies born from encounters between victims and clients were also murdered.
Investigations uncovered dozens of bodies, including those of young women and children, buried at the sisters’ properties.
Their rise was fueled by bribes and protection from corrupt officials, allowing operations to flourish unchecked for decades. Mexico had formally abolished slavery in 1829, yet in the 1960s, human trafficking and exploitation persisted, often without legal recourse.
Authorities finally intervened after an escapee reported her ordeal, leading to the sisters’ arrest in 1964.
“Delfina and María de Jesús received 40-year prison sentences. Luisa was sentenced to 27 years,” noted trial reports.
Their downfall revealed systemic failures and inspired films, books and, now, this Netflix drama, one of 10 new Mexico-centric projects announced last year. One of the most anticipated is “México 86,” the strange story of how Mexico came to host the 1986 World Cup, starring Diego Luna.
Each “Las Muertas” episode is just over an hour long and has English subtitles. All six episodes of the series, produced by Mezcala Films, dropped on Sept. 10. A preview can be seen here.
Estrada is known for his 2010 dark comedy “El Infierno” (“Hell”), a satirical critique of Mexico’s drug war and corruption, and “La Ley de Herodes” (“Herod’s Law”), a 1999 satire about political corruption in Mexico. Both are on Netflix.
The author of “Las Muertas” the novel, Ibargüengoitia, was one of Mexico’s most influential novelists, and still one of its most celebrated, renowned for his sharp social satire, literary dexterity and ability to blend in humor.
Born in 1928 in Guanajuato and raised mostly in Mexico City, he started as a playwright and journalist, but it was his nonfiction, especially his account of the infamous Poquianchis case, that cemented his legacy. He died in a plane crash near Madrid in 1983.
