The memory of Pablo Escobar
By James Mollison

My prior knowledge of Pablo Escobar was limited: that he wore a fantastic mustache, and put Columbia on the map as being the cocaine capital of the world I knew, but little else. So, when I was first handed The Memory of Pablo Escobar, a 350page, 3lb photo log of the coke smuggler’s life I thought, “Dang, this is heavy.”

The Memory of Pablo Escobar (Chris Boot Ltd.) sheds an entirely new light on the man villainized for his ruthless acts as leader of the Medellin Cartel that controlled 80% of the world’s cocaine supply in the ’80s, which as you can imagine was literally tons. In addition to the illuminating text, authors James Mollison and Rainbow Nelson took the unique approach of compiling photos from Escobar’s life according to seven individual collections, the photos accrued during their twenty-two month long period interviewing over 100 people (including Pablo’s now deceased mother, Doña Hermilda). Culled from are archival newspapers, friends or, on the opposite side of the spectrum, people who were devoted to the hunt for the well-known criminal.

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