Queen of the South Shows Teresa Mendoza Is the Strongest Character
The damsel in distress archetype is defined (loosely) as a beautiful woman who has lost her way or been captured and is now in need of saving. Teresa Mendoza (acted magnetically by Alice Braga) in Queen of the South is anything but a damsel in distress. Although she begins meekly as a money changer in Mexico, she defies all odds to survive the cartel and its many enemies. The pilot clearly shows that she is a resourceful, determined, and assertive woman. In a genre led nearly exclusively by men, Teresa Mendoza is a pivotal character that exudes strength. Although her character is often described as "naive," there are multiple moments throughout the show when she is the strongest of the characters on the show.
Teresa began as a money changer in Sinaloa, Mexico. There, she meets drug dealer Güero (Jon-Michael Ecker), who works for his godfather, Epifanio Vargas (Joaquim de Almeida), a powerful narcotraficante, and falls in love with him. As Güero moves up in the ranks, he recognizes that his life may be in jeopardy and Teresa's life by association. He sets her up with a gun, money, a passport, a burner phone, and a mysterious notebook that she could "trade for her life" with Epifanio. Teresa, who likes the intrigue, appears unafraid and asks Güero to teach her how to use the gun.
Teresa's Strength Comes from Within
When Güero disappears, Teresa falls into the custody of Camila Vargas (Verónica Falcón), Epifanio's estranged and powerful wife. Within days, Teresa goes from being hunted to being trusted. She proves her character and value by using her intuition and knowledge acquired as a money changer. Many skills that make Teresa successful are with her before the show's start. She was raised poor and lost her family when the cartels murdered them. What is unsaid (but also does not need to be said), is that she is a survivor from the start. When the first season's events fully unfold, she relies mostly on her intelligence. What's more impressive is that she can apply what she learns from others to her own success.
What was interesting about Güero is that he greatly underestimated Teresa from the beginning. Güero was not as strong nor as clever as Teresa. Her only weakness throughout the run of the show, in fact, was her love for him. Although he desired to be a successful don, he lacked emotional control. By contrast, Teresa is very calculated, often keeping her head in high-stress situations. Ultimately, the notebook Güero gave her, despite originally being intended as an object she could exchange for her life, becomes the key to her survival and early success. The irony, of course, is that Güero wrote the notebook, meaning that he could have used it at any time to do the same if he only had the brains or the foresight.
Teresa Builds a Foundation of Success
What's absolutely beautiful about Teresa is that she doesn't initially see her strength or value. She credits her intuition to lessons from Güero, but by the end, it is clear that she is fully crediting herself. It makes her character human and believable. The foundation of her success and survival is really a result of three attributes: her self-certainty, an unwavering ability to learn from her mistakes and others' mistakes, and most importantly, she never says what she knows, but she knows what she says.
There is an inherent value in never fully laying down your cards or making your hand obvious. It will consistently leave you underestimated by those around you despite constantly proving yourself otherwise. Overall, those that eventually become Teresa's enemies do not fully recognize her strength, although they carry healthy respect (or fear) for her. When she earns the loyalty of others, it is because they recognize her strength first. Queen of the South makes this clear by allowing those most loyal to her to survive while the others die.
The greatest testament to this strength is her ability also to remain pure of heart. Interestingly, purity becomes the first step in the creation of her empire when she is able to convince the cult-like cartel boss El Santo (played by one of the kings of the genre himself, Steven Bauer) of her sincerity, thereby securing a cocaine partnership. Epifanio greatly feared El Santo because of his perceived madness, yet Teresa was able to gain his trust. In this instance, she proves herself as more powerful than Epifanio and with the ability to gain stronger connections than Camila as well.
What Motivates Teresa Are Her Needs
Teresa grew up in an environment where she could only rely on herself. From an extremely young age, she was beaten into making the right decisions and learned a painful lesson: that one must be precise, and if they are going to speak up against something, they need to be correct about their convictions. This quality set her apart from others around her. While they learned this lesson as adults, when it may have been too late, she, unfortunately, learned it while still a child. Queen of the South illustrates this beautifully by showing how each lesson Teresa builds upon itself and becomes evident by her success.
Teresa's lasting goal, however, was never to be powerful. It was to be happy and secure, something she got for a moment with Güero but at no other point in her life. She remarks to him early on in the show that her prior relationships never lasted more than a year and were often abusive. Since she was money changing in the streets from a young age, Teresa's needs may have been a bit more basic than those around her. She did not have a need for power, but just for the love of family, even if she had to create it herself, which is genuinely her perception of happiness. This desire only for love is her true saving grace and the message of Queen of the South, that in the end, as long as you stay pure of heart, are loyal to others (and yourself), and are kind to those around you maybe you will survive in impossible circumstances.
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