Juan Pablo Escobar, now known as Sebastián Marroquín, is the son of the notorious politician, criminal and cartel leader of the same name. Come November 9, he will be speaking at the first-ever Tatler Gen.T Summit in Hong Kong
Very few people have left a legacy as colourful as Pablo Escobar. Escobar’s only son, named Juan Pablo Escobar Henao after his father, now goes by Sebastián Marroquín. Marroquín has a family and a successful career, yet the burden of his father’s dangerous legacy continues to follow him.
For years, he chose to maintain a low profile as a private citizen and lived in anonymity. He lives in Buenos Aires and works as an architect and writer. In 2014, after having come to terms with his past, Marroquín came forward and published a book entitled Pablo Escobar: My Father.
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The book was received with much curiosity and became an international bestseller. In it, Marroquín relives his childhood and reveals an unabridged version of his father, battling with the dissonance of knowing who his father was and who he could be.
Marroquín will be speaking at the Tatler Gen.T Summit, our upcoming ideas and innovation festival taking place at the M+ museum in Hong Kong. Here are three things we’ve learned about Marroquín and the life he chose.
A complicated childhood
With a father who had once been listed as one of the wealthiest men in the world—with a reported net worth of USD25 billion—Marroquín led an extravagant childhood. These included private jets and his father’s infamous private zoo. As a child, Marroquín lived on thousands of hectares of land that housed some 200 animals such as elephants, ostriches, zebras, camels and giraffes all in his backyard.
This excess was of no use when the family was on the run. After Escobar ordered the assassination of the Colombian Minister of Justice, Rodrigo Lara, the family went on the run. According to interviews given by Marroquín, the family lived in small, dingy houses. Thanks to their last name, they had also been denied entry or asylum by countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom. They were eventually granted entry into Argentina.
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