Mika Camarena Biography

After completing her studies, Mika Camarena began working as a medical insurance clerk for a doctor in Calexico. She later became a clerk in the Calexico Municipal Court, but eventually took the job of a skin-care consultant, which she continued till retiring. Since her husband's death, she has become an activist and advocates drug awareness among the youth. However, she recently received unprecedented media attention after Netflix produced the crime-drama series 'Narcos: Mexico' in 2018, which depicted the tragic story of her husband.

Geneva 'Mika' Camarena was born in 1948 near Fresno, California, and was raised in Calexico, a city in Imperial County, California. She was educated at Calexico High School and later attended Imperial Valley College.

Mika Camarena and her future husband, Kiki Camarena, both grew up in the city of Calexico, California. They were high school sweethearts and continued their relationship after he began working as a firefighter and then joined the police in Calexico. He next served two years in the Marines, following which he became a special agent for the DEA. He worked in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he and Mika lived with their three sons Enrique, Daniel, and Erik. While he shared very little details with her to keep her from worrying, she was well-aware of the dangers of his job.

After about a decade, on February 7th, 1985, Kiki, who was working as an undercover agent for the DEA, infiltrating drug trafficking gangs, was kidnapped and later brutally murdered by Mexican drug traffickers. Their three children were only aged 11, 6 and 4 at the time. After his death, she focused on raising her three kids and worked hard as a skin-care consultant. However, she feels that changes in the DEA did help in a significant way after her husband's death, as her children's education was paid for by the amount raised for survivors' benefit. The DEA also kept her informed about the developments regarding punishing the people responsible for Kiki's death. However, she gradually distanced herself from the details about the case in order to focus more on what used to drive him during his lifetime: to not let the drug cartels win.

During an interview in 2010, 25 years after his death, she was asked about which day she observes as the death anniversary of her husband, considering that he went missing on February 7th and his body was recovered on March 5th, she mentioned that while she remembers him each and every day, February 7th, 1985 was the last day she saw her. Her eldest son Enrique became a deputy district attorney in 2014, working in the South Bay.

After the death of Kiki Camarena, his wife Mika Camarena became involved in a number of social and charitable initiatives in order to preserve and promote the sacrifices made by him. In 2004, she established the Enrique S. Camarena Educational Foundation with the help of several retired DEA agents, as well as her son Enrique. The organization offers life-size bronze busts of Kiki to be unveiled at schools and libraries in San Diego and across the country. The proceeds from the sales are used to sponsor six scholarships to high school students throughout the nation each year. Mika, who serves as the president of the organization, often took part in talks about drug awareness in schools and communities nationwide despite her longtime job as a skin-care consultant.

After retiring, she now dedicates all her time to the organization and works together with schools and the law enforcement department to raise awareness about drugs among youths and their parents. Many people in Calexico had began wearing red ribbons after Kiki was murdered, a gesture that later turned into the Red Ribbon campaign and is now celebrated for a week during October 23-31 each year. During her talks, she often mentions that Red Ribbon Week should be celebrated all year round to increase awareness about drugs.