The new Spanish drama series on Disney+, See You in Another Life, or Nos vemos en otra vida, takes a look back at the horrific Madrid train bombings from 2004, which still remain one of the most devastating terrorist attacks in Europe. But the show’s perspective is slightly different, for it is centered around the life of Gabriel Montoya Vidal’s ‘Baby,’ who was the only minor participant found guilty in the terrorist plot. The work is an adaptation of a book by journalist Manuel Jabois, in which he interviewed Baby in 2014, which is perhaps one of the most detailed accounts of the attacks from an insider’s perspective. While See You in Another Life is mostly an entertaining watch, backed by a good performance from Roberto Gutierrez, it also does not necessarily provide any new information about the 11M bombings.
Spoiler Alert
Why did Baby get into a life of crime?
Gabriel Montoya Vidal ‘Baby’ was among the main perpetrators found guilty in the 11M bombings by the Spanish court, and See You in Another Life is basically his life’s story. Over six episodes, the series presents dramatized recreations of Baby’s interview, his account of the unfolding of the bombing plot, and the legal court proceedings that followed. While the traumatic terrorist attack is kept in the background and obviously plays a very important role in the narrative, the series also tries to tackle the question of why a young boy, also of minor age, participated in the whole affair. Thus, the beginning of the life of Baby becomes integral, and this is where his tendency towards a criminal life can be traced.
Gabriel Montoya’s life started off in extreme poverty and neglect, as he was born and raised in one of the slums in Asturias, in northwest Spain. His father was a drug addict who would constantly get involved in petty crimes, while his mother, Pili, struggled to raise her two daughters and one son all by herself. In fact, the earliest memory that Baby speaks of is when he kept sitting still inside his father’s car while the man robbed a small pharmacy. In fact, such experiences were pretty common for Baby, as he was often taken by his father to witness his unlawful acts. The father was completely corrupted by his drug addiction, and he could not distinguish between right and wrong by the time Baby was a boy of four or five. Moreover, he also knew that his son would most probably grow up to be a criminal as well, because of the unhealthy environment he was living in, and so the man cared even less.
Back in the household, Baby did not really receive any severe teachings from his mother either, as Pili was too busy trying to manage their lives and run the household, which always suffered from shortages. With her husband being a criminal and drug addict, she did not have much choice either, and whenever it was convenient, Pili always turned a blind eye to the illegal acts that brought money to the household. When entering adolescence, Baby no longer wanted to visit his father along with the rest of the family, as the man was then imprisoned on a lengthy sentence. By this time, the boy had understood that his father really did not have the best intentions for his family in mind, and he was also disturbed by the way he would treat Pili. What angered Baby even more was that Pili would still visit the prison for conjugal visits, letting her abusive husband come close to her, while there was actually a different secret purpose to it. During the conjugal visits, Pili would sneak in weed for her husband to sell inside the prison, and the money would be used to run the family back at home.
Eventually, Baby’s disdain for his father perhaps softened when he himself got involved in a similar life at the age of about fifteen. This is when he made acquaintance with a man named Emilio Trashorras, and this meeting literally changed his life. Very soon, Baby became a drug peddler, selling hash on the streets and making money for himself. He would always leave a portion of his earnings as a contribution to the family, and like always, Pili never questioned the source of this money. Thus, Baby realized quite early in life, around the age of fifteen or sixteen, that he was indeed following in his father’s footsteps and agreed to the situation solely because he was earning money. Pili made attempts to make Baby earn a living through legal means, but the boy was never interested in hard work. Even at the construction job that Pili arranged for him through a local acquaintance, he borrowed money from the owner and immediately quit the job after only a couple of days. Baby had grown accustomed to earning money through unlawful means after having seen his father, and he wanted to pursue a similar life.
Who is Emilio Trashorras?
The emergence of Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras was the turning point in Baby’s life, as he was instantly amazed by the older man’s life of thrill and fortune. Already at the time, Emilio had everything that Baby could dream of—fast cars, a rich lifestyle, and all of it through a supposed drug ring. Along with these material possessions, Emilio was brash, impulsive, and extremely violent, all of which impressed the teenager’s impressionable mind, and Baby clearly wanted to be like the man. It was Emilio who gave Baby his first batch of hash to sell on the streets, following which he made the protagonist one of his peddlers. But it was also seemingly Emilio’s character to never tell the whole truth and hide some important details about the jobs he was taking on. For example, at this stage, he did not tell Baby that the hash he was selling actually belonged to Arab immigrants who did not want their drugs to be sold by someone else. Baby was even beaten up by goons on the street because of this. But the injuries did not deter the boy from this life, and instead, his reaction was to take a gun from Emilio to always carry on him.
Much of Emilio’s unpredictable and brash personality was due to the fact that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, which he kept secret from his acquaintances as well. In his professional days, Emilio used to work at the Conchita mine in the mountains in Asturias province, because of which he was called by his nickname, the Miner, in his neighborhood. Although he was given an early retirement after getting diagnosed with schizophrenia, Emilio still had access to dynamites used in the mines, as he had seemingly removed them from his company and then hidden them in some caves. Emilio always wanted to strike some big deal with any interested party, as he knew that, in some instances, dynamites would obviously be much more valuable than drugs.
How did Emilio meet the Moroccans?
While Emilio Suarez was already a criminal, he still belonged to the lower rungs of the crime network, and so he had to make acquaintances with a wider reach at first. This contact came in the form of Antonio Toro, a man who ran a successful drug racket, and some acquaintances in the region’s police department as well. Emilio even got romantically involved with Toro’s sister, and the man eventually kept him as a henchman in his gang. A time came when Antonio Toro was arrested, and he firmly believed that his brother-in-law had some hand in this incident. Either way, Toro became friends with a Moroccan man named Rafa Zouhier while in prison, and this is when Emilio’s fortune turned.
Rafa had a contact who was in the search for dynamites, and he asked Toro where he might get any of it. Toro naturally led the Moroccan to his brother-in-law, Emilio Suarez, and the latter was soon called to a meeting with the entire group. This was how Emilio first got in touch with the Moroccans and started working directly with the leader of the terrorist operation, Jamal Zougam. Eventually, Emilio agreed to sell Zougam the entire amount of dynamites they were looking for without ever asking what it was for. Although Emilio kept claiming throughout the investigation and court proceedings that he believed that the Moroccans only wanted to rob some jewelry stores with the dynamites, it seems absurd that he actually did not suspect any terrorist activity in the works.
How did Baby get involved with the bombings?
During the initial phase of his business dealings with Zougam, Emilio had to send over some amounts of his dynamite in order to prove their effectiveness. Emilio was shrewd enough to convince two youngsters in the neighborhood to deliver the goods to Madrid on two separate occasions. He did not obviously tell them what the packages contained in order to avoid suspicion, and the plan ultimately worked. When the Moroccans wanted the entire stack of dynamite, Emilio took them to the location in the mines, this time accompanied by Baby.
Unlike the others, who either showed suspicion at Emilio’s plan or outright denied carrying bombs for him, Baby did not ask any questions. He was determined to support and help Emilio no matter what, and even when a friend told him that the man was actually selling bombs to a terrorist group, the protagonist did not change his mind. Baby saw this as an opportunity to make it big in life with the help of Emilio, and he was self-admittedly not even thinking about what he was getting involved in. When the Moroccans returned to take the rest of the dynamites, Emilio did not want to make the long journey any more, and it was Baby who took them to the mines. This was when Baby got involved in the bombings beyond any reasonable point and was ultimately arrested by the police some six months after the terrorist attack on March 11, 2004.
Why did Baby provide evidence to incriminate Emilio?
After the terrorist attack was carried out and a police investigation began, both Emilio and Zougam thought that they could misguide the authorities and make themselves safe if they themselves agreed to provide intelligence. However, this acted completely against their favor, as they put all the blame on each other in the process, and both men were arrested. During this time, Baby was absolutely gripped by fear of the law coming for him, too, and he was also frustrated at all his close friends abandoning him. Baby had wanted to be popular and considered a hero among his friends and in his neighborhood, but his public association with people who were arrested on charges of terrorism did not help. This one misstep made him realize that, as a professional criminal, his life would always be lonely since everyone ultimately feared for their own safety.
At the time, Baby still had hope and belief in the one true friendship he had made, according to him, and so he wrote a long letter to his best friend, mentor, and guide—Emilio. Baby had genuinely hoped that the man would write back from prison, but no such reply ever came. Instead, Emilio tried to make use of this letter to prove that he did not know about the terrorist attack and was only acting on the orders of Baby. Throughout the investigation and court trial, Emilio actually made a lot of statements, which sometimes contradicted each other, too, but the final nail in his coffin was struck by his young associate.
Eventually, when all the other suspects, including Baby, were arrested by the police, they were all interrogated separately to find the real truth. During this time, Baby is seen telling the court about a certain statement that Emilio made when he and Baby had taken the Moroccans to the mines. He states that Emilio had mentioned some screws and tops, along with the dynamites, which was new information to the authorities. Naturally, this proved that Emilio always knew about the terrorist motives of his associates and yet did nothing to stop them. While it is possible that Baby revealed this information without knowing the brevity of it, he might have also intentionally done it.
Baby sought a friend and guide in Emilio, and the latter had absolutely betrayed his trust, hurting his feelings in the process. It is to be remembered that Baby was still a youngster, at the mere age of nineteen, which made him vulnerable to a certain innocence that would not fit in the world of crime and terrorism. The boy felt let down by Emilio when he did not write back to him from prison, and this was possibly why he decided to incriminate him.
What happened to Baby and the other suspects?
In See You in Another Life‘s ending, the court finally announced its verdict after three long years, in 2007, and the main perpetrators, according to the authorities, were given their punishment. Jamal Zougam and Emilio Suarez were given the longest sentences in prison of multiple lifetimes, while the two youngsters sent by Emilio to deliver the dynamite were given three years’ prison time each. While Antonio Toro was initially acquitted of the charges, he was given a sentence of four years later. Some of the members of the terrorist group, including their leader, had killed themselves in an act of suicide bombing, meaning that all perpetrators could not be punished.
Gabriel Montoya Vidal ‘Baby’ was given a sentence of six years in prison, before which he was kept in juvenile custody since he was still a minor at the time. Baby was released from jail in 2014, following which journalist Manuel Jabois wanted to interview him about his past. Although the man, then twenty-six, did not initially agree to talk, he did eventually realize that telling the world his story would not hurt much. Throughout the interview, he stated that he had no guilt for what he had done, saying that in that circumstance in life, and from his twisted, unhealthy perspective, he had done the right thing. Baby did express grief for the lives lost in the attack, though, and he currently lives with his own family, having seemingly dropped the nickname “Baby” that is associated with his past. Zougam and Emilio are still in prison, serving their sentences for having killed 192 innocent victims.
