MEXICO CITY — He was a death row inmate who became a soap opera star. An illegal Mexican immigrant who came home to cheering crowds. A folk hero to millions of Mexicans who feel that they don't get a break in the United States.
Ricardo Aldape had lived a fairy tale in recent months, ever since his murder conviction was overturned after he had spent 14 years on Texas' death row. He played himself on Mexican television; he was deluged with book and movie deals.
But the fairy tale ended Thursday night, when the 35-year-old crashed his speeding Volkswagen into a tractor-trailer in northern Mexico. It was a tragic finish to a tragic life that had turned him into a symbol as potent as Rodney G. King, whose beating by Los Angeles police was captured on videotape.
"Aldape symbolizes the situation of Mexicans who go there [to the United States] thinking they're going to be equals in the system and become rich . . . but instead confront difficult conditions," said Julia Flores, a Mexico City sociologist. "He is seen as a small person who won a great victory against a powerful country."
Aldape had been this summer's biggest TV sensation here, starring in a hit series about migrants struggling with U.S. authorities. Buck-toothed and tattooed, Aldape was an unlikely leading man. He mumbled; he showed the emotional range of a toaster.
But Mexicans responded with fascination. Aldape's heavily promoted appearances on "Al Norte del Corazon" ("North of the Heart") sent ratings jumping.
Clad in jailhouse denim, the 35-year-old former inmate acted out his own story, from the edgy violence he encountered in U.S. prisons to his triumphant return to the northern city of Monterrey in April after his conviction was overturned.
"It was very clear that people were moved by the case," said co-producer Ruben Galindo, a UCLA film school alumnus, explaining why Aldape was offered a starring role. "They wanted to know more details."
For Aldape, the TV role marked a Cinderella-like transformation. For 14 years, his world had been a 6-by-9-foot cell on death row. Suddenly, he relaxed at the $200-a-night Hotel Royal. He kept company with models instead of murderers.
But he insisted that he wasn't doing the soap opera for the money. In a rare news conference a few months ago, Aldape explained that he wanted "to give a message to Mexican youth."
"They should see me as an example and think twice before going to the United States," he said. "There, they're only going to suffer."
