Claudio Rissi has died: what Mario Borges was like, his character in “El marginal”.

The series The marginal It was a resounding success for five seasons. It started on public TV and ended up becoming a global phenomenon in Netflix. But if there is anyone who took charge of this fiction and brought it closer to the public, it was him Claudio Rissi.

The actor, who died on the morning of Friday 2 February, was performing Mario Borges, the leader of the mafia gang of prisoners who control the San Onofre prison. All this, always at the hands of his brother Diosito, played by Nicolás Furtado.

After more than 30 years of experience, in 2016 Rissi accepted the challenge of putting himself in the shoes of villain who managed to become one of the most loved by Argentines. Gradually, the series gained popularity, and the Borges brothers became a rage on social networks.

Thanks to the great chemistry that was created between the actors, Diosito and Marito became the key characters in this story. And their magic was that, being two opposite poles, they were so united that nothing could separate them.

Thanks to his great acting work, Claudio Rissi managed to ensure that Mario Borges generated something in the audience that is very difficult to achieve with characters of these characteristics: sympathy. He made the public see the more human side of a drug trafficker, thief, murderer and extortionist.

And Borges wasn’t just portrayed as a criminal. The fans of The marginal They saw a “Husband” who was so much more than that. He was a family man, a relaxed and fun guy. A person who, despite his cruelty in some situations, was able to win the affection of many.

The villain of the people

Husband Borges was harsh and ruthless, but he always had a hint of humor, and it was precisely this that brought him closer to people. In the midst of such a complex plot, the humorous license the actor took between scenes made it all more bearable.

“What is clear to me is that I would never, ever want to go to prison,” Rissi said in 2022, in an exclusive interview with Clarín. And unlike his character, who found a sort of second home behind bars, Rissi was a calm person who had nothing to do with the experience of prison until he arrived. The marginal.

Borges not only felt comfortable in the prison world, but he made it his own: he controlled what went in and out and even had the ability to do business, in and out of prison.

While the series ran, the actors were criticized by inmates, who felt that it involved a certain romanticization of what is actually experienced in a prison in Argentina.

Rissi, as the protagonist, was more than aware of the hell one experiences behind bars. Furthermore, he understood that, no matter how arduous the work, fiction could never faithfully reflect the cold and harsh reality currently experienced in the Argentine prison system.

“Reality is never as smooth as fiction, I imagine that in real prisons there must be worse things than what we show in fiction, but let’s go as deep as possible,” the actor said during an interview with this newspaper, in occasion of the launch of the second season.