June Hawkins True Story Explained - Everything Griselda Leaves Out About the Miami Detective (and Where She Is Now)

GriseldaThe 2024 miniseries based on the life of the infamous Colombian drug lord, features June Hawkins (Juliana Aidén Martinez) in a critical role, a person from real-life history. Griselda is a Netflix crime show in the same vein as Narcos and Queen of the Southand, like those series, it takes an intimate look at a notorious figure in the history of drug trafficking. Sofía Vergara stars as the titular Griselda Blanco, a Colombian drug dealer who began operating in Miami, Florida in the 1980s, becoming known as the “Godmother of Cocaine.”

The show follows Blanco's rise through the drug trafficking hierarchy and his conflict with the cartels who are anxious about his seizure of power. Griselda It's at times shockingly violent and deeply real about the consequences of a life in the cocaine business, and it never shies away from revealing the depths to which Blanco sank. The fact that the story is rooted in history makes it even more intriguing, with characters like June Hawkins being taken straight from the newspapers. Hawkins is a key part of Griselda Blanco's story and the series keeps the character close to reality.

Juliana Aidén Martinez plays June Hawkins in Griselda

Blanco and Hawkins share some similarities

Juliana Aidén Martinez appears in Griselda as Miami police sergeant June Hawkins in every episode of the show. She is one of the investigators tasked with taking Blanco down and Martinez plays all the cop roles on paper. Martinez is a detective in the office, uncovering clues and trying to figure out how to arrest Blanco. In court, she is composed and calm, a useful source of information for the audience to get their bearings around the case. In the streets, she is a capable and courageous officer, willing to put her life on the line to stop Blanco.

Hawkins is also a single mother, like Blanco, and both women work in traditionally male-dominated “workplaces.” Despite being on opposite sides of the law, the women have a shared experience, which makes their conflict a little deeper than just "cops and robbers". Blanco and Hawkins moved to Miami in search of better opportunities for their children. The opportunities they decided to pursue when they arrived were what eventually defined them and decided the fate of their children.

June Hawkins was a real-life Miami police sergeant

Hawkins joined the Force in 1975

June Hawkins was actually a real-life police sergeant in the Miami police department. Hawkins started as an intelligence analyst at the Miami-Dade Police Departmentthat there were very few women in the force at the time (via Vanity Fair). According to the show's co-creator Doug Miro, Hawkins wasn't even supposed to be on the show in the beginning. It was only when he started doing more research that he discovered how important she was to the investigation,

"[Hawkins] It wasn’t part of the story. I was reading everything there was to read, researching everything online, talking to the DEA agents I knew. It was a bit fragmented, but I pieced together June's involvement."

It's a symptom of the sexism Hawkins faced in the workplace that her name is buried in the real story of Griselda Blanco. Fortunately, Martinez and Miro were able to place her in the story, where she belongs, on screen.

Everything Griselda Gets Right About June Hawkins

Hawkins was discriminated against while working at the Miami Police Department

Griselda gets a lot right about June Hawkins. Hawkins is multilingual, fluent in Spanish and English, while most of his colleagues at the time were not. His ability to talk to Cuban and Latino suspects and witnesses when his white male colleagues were unable to do so was crucial in uncovering Blanco's involvement in drug trafficking. The lack of respect shown to Hawkins on the show was also a sad reality from his time on the Miami police force.

Hawkins described instances of colleagues disregarding her reports of criminals, even throwing them to the ground, and some of the sexual harassment she experienced. A scene in Griselda shows Hawkins having a panic attack in the back of a police car, which supposedly actually happened (via Collider). Griselda also depicts some other scenes that actually happened, including an interaction with a pregnant witness, Hawkins' trip to Washington D.C. to testify, and the recovery of Amilcar's (José Zúñiga) fingerprints from a car (via Business Insider).

Everything Griselda Goes Wrong About June Hawkins

Hawkins wasn't as involved in the case as shown on the show

Griselda It doesn't get everything right, however, and there's a lot in the show that's overdoneor it's simply made up, about June Hawkins for dramatic effect. Although Hawkins was a key figure in Blanco's capture, his involvement in the case and Blanco's arrest are exaggerated (via HarpersBazaar). DEA agents Robert Palumbo and Al Singleton (Carter MacIntyre) were the two people most actively involved in the caseand who were the most critical in Blanco's arrest (via Netflix).

It was Palumbo, who does not appear Griseldawho ended up arresting Blanco, not Hawkins. The personal ties between Blanco and Hawkins have been dramatically exaggerated and a critical scene between the two women meeting is completely fictional. One of GriseldaThe film's producers, Eric Newman, said the scene of the women discussing their deceased children was fabricated to draw more parallels between them (via RadioTimes).

While this scene may not have been real, it still helps portray the differences between the two sides of the law in America. Here, these two women are having surprisingly similar life experiences and yet find themselves in opposition. Griselda explores how similar people can be drawn down completely different paths and what external and internal forces are at play that drive the lives of criminals and those who persecute them.

Where is June Hawkins now?

Hawkins is married to Al Singleton and retired

June Hawkins served on the Miami police force for 30 yearsretiring in 2004 (via RadioTimes). Hawkins married Al Singleton, her partner on the show, and the couple now live together in Tennessee. Singleton and Hawkins were extremely helpful consultants in Griseldagiving producers and actors insight into the events of that period and the mentality of the characters. It's been years since June Hawkins negotiated with Blanco, and Griselda gave her a chance to reveal how much she did for the investigation.