From Griselda to M.I.A., Alberto Guerra Keeps Redefining the Latino Antihero - INTERVIEW

Cuban actor Alberto Guerra has played cartel figures, wounded men, dangerous husbands, and magnetic survivors. But Elías Pérez, his character in Peacock's new Miami crime thriller M.I.A., still managed to surprise him.

"No, no, what this character does, especially at the beginning of the series, I don't think I had done with any other character," Guerra said in an interview with this reporter, describing Elías as the most brutal role of his career.

M.I.A., now streaming on Peacock, is a nine-episode crime drama set between Miami and the Florida Keys. The series follows Etta Tiger Jonze, played by Shannon Gisela, after her family's drug-running business collapses into violence and she is pulled into Miami's criminal underworld. The cast includes Cary Elwes, Danay Garcia, Alberto Guerra, Maurice Compte, Gerardo Celasco, and Marta Milans, with guest appearances by Edward James Olmos, Billy Burke, and Sônia Braga.

Guerra plays an enforcer who has spent years working for the Rojas family. He is a man dealing with grief while trying to make sure there are "no loose ends" after the murders of Etta's family.

But Guerra did not approach him as a simple killer. He built Elias from abandonment, loyalty and arrested emotional growth.

"Elías is a street kid, probably with a very hard life," Guerra said. "They rescue him, they give him a home, they give him a life, but they also give him a purpose. And it turns out that purpose is not exactly the best thing that could have happened to him."

The actor said he saw Elias as "a 40-year-old child" forced, after a major loss, to widen his view of the world and stop obeying blindly. "The only person who mattered to him in life dies," Guerra said, explaining the emotional engine behind the character's spiral.

That person is Isaac Rojas, played by Edward James Olmos, one of the most respected Latino actors in Hollywood. Guerra said working with Olmos felt like a gift.

"He is one of the men, one of the names, who opened the road," Guerra said. "Probably without him we wouldn't even be making series like this with such Latino casts." Guerra added that watching Olmos arrive on set with humility, gratitude, and freshness after decades of work became "a lesson."

A Cubanito at heart

For Guerra, 'M.I.A.' also offered something more personal: the chance to play Cuban. Born in Havana, Guerra has built much of his career in Mexico and across Latin American productions, often playing characters from other countries. His credits include 'Narcos: Mexico,' 'Crime Diaries: The Candidate,' 'Ingobernable,' 'Guerra de ídolos,' and 'El Señor de los Cielos,' among many others. In 'Griselda,' he played Darío Sepúlveda opposite Sofía Vergara.

"I had been wanting to play Cuban characters for a while," Guerra said. "I've had to play Mexicans, Colombians, Uruguayans. There is something about feeling at peace knowing the character is Cuban, even if it's not even the point. Elias' nationality could be Timbuktu, it wouldn't matter. But there is something you cannot hide that gives me a certain peace."

The Miami shoot also reconnected him to Cuban memory, even if his version of Miami was not the wild nightlife his castmates jokingly described. Guerra laughed off claims that he was the party organizer, saying he does not drink and spent his time riding a bike and going to the beach. The fun he did admit to was onset, where he said he and Gerardo Celasco helped keep the mood alive during a dark story.

That contrast, the actor's warmth against Elias' violence, runs through Guerra's career. At 43, he is having one of the most international stretches of his professional life. In January, Dolce & Gabbana Beauty launched a campaign for The One starring Madonna and Guerra, marking a striking fashion-world turn for the Cuban actor.

Married to fellow actress Zuria Vega and father of three, Guerra was also at the center of the recent collaboration of Latino designer Willy Chavarría and Zara.

"It still surprises me," Guerra said of that new fashion visibility. "My profession keeps poking me in the ribs, so I feel something new, so I do something new, so I get uncomfortable somehow. That is something I enjoy very much."

He is also part of Ha-chan, 'Shake Your Booty!,' the Sundance title directed by Josef Kubota Wladyka. The film won the Directing Award: U.S. Dramatic at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Guerra described his role as much more luminous than Elias: a dancer in "a beautiful story, sad but beautiful."

Still, Elias is the role currently pulling viewers into Guerra's darker register. When asked what song he would give the character, he did not hesitate for long.

"Sympathy for the Devil," he said.