Benjamín Blanco

— Benjamín Blanco, in "The New Order"

**Benjamín Blanco** was a main character through Seasons 4-6 of the Netflix series *Elite*, serving as one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Ari) of its second overall story arc. He is the new director at Las Encinas and one of the most powerful businessmen in Europe. He arrives to pick up the baton from Azucena with a quite different philosophy of leadership and teaching.

He is portrayed by Diego Martín.

## Biography

### Background

At some point, Benjamín grew in a poor background without even meeting his own father while also attending Las Encinas on a scholarship, becoming friends and then business partner of Armando. His wife died in a car accident as a result of his daughter Mencía running away from home, which caused him to have a strained relationship with her. Benjamín used to be a CEO in London before moving to Spain with his children.

## Throughout the Series

### Season 4

Benjamín is a protective single father to his three children, Ari, Patrick, and Mencía. He is very strict and has a closer relationship with Ari than the other two, who seem to dislike him. He is very wealthy and gives his children everything they want except for Mencía, who he cuts off financially after being harshly rejected for a dinner invitation. However, after being advised by Guzmán, Benjamín starts giving free rein to her, thus starting to gradually mend their broken relationship.

### Elite Short Stories: Samuel Omar

Benjamín does not appear physically in the short story but can be heard through a phone call he has with Samuel, letting him know that he saw his nude pictures and expels him as a result of disrespecting the school's uniform, even though he was only doing this to earn the rent money and prevent himself and Omar from being evicted. However, the goal is achieved with help from Rebeka and Cayetana as other students start taking nude pictures of themselves as well, knowing it would be completely illogical to expel all of the students who followed suit. Later on, an excited Rebeka tells Samuel about some news Benjamín wants to discuss with him, probably implying that he is allowed to return.

### Elite Short Stories: Patrick

Benjamín finds a nude Patrick passed out on the couch and calls him out for ruining his own life and not prioritizing the wellbeing of Ari and Mencía who are still recovering from Armando's attack. Patrick decides to take a trip to a cabin at the woods to get away from everything, although it proves to be far from peaceful as his cabin is invaded by some men partying in the neighborhood cabin. He has a vision of the future in which a funeral is held for Mencía after noticing himself, Benjamín and Ari wearing black. Returning home, they knock on Mencía's bedroom when she has locked herself, although she turns out to be safe and sound. A heart-to-heart conversation eventually brings the family together when Benjamín states that no one is to blame for the death of their mother as it was just an accident and they start decorating the house.

## Physical Appearance

Benjamín is a middle-aged, incredibly handsome man. Despite being a father of teenagers, he looks rather young. He wears transparent plastic glasses and has short, brown hair and a beard. He dresses smart, but in a fashionable and casual way, often wearing light colours and sneakers.

## Personality

Benjamín is shown to have a cold, strict demeanor throughout the show, with the exception of those he considers close to him. He seems to have a particular soft spot for his daughter, Ari. Benjamín has the tendency to judge someone's character based on who their parents are, even if he doesn't know them at all. This is shown when he strongly disapproved of Mencía's relationship with Rebeka, whose mother is an infamous drug dealer, and whom he developed a hatred for. This then caused Rebeka to despise him, even to the point of accusing the latter of giving money to Mencía, which, unknown to Benjamín, was actually given to by Armando when she started sleeping with him. Benjamín's true intentions and inner thoughts are hard to deduct from the cold character, but his true dark side is revealed in the finale of Season 5 with the murder of Samuel.

## Relationships

### Samuel

Benjamin started off roughly with Samuel. Upon his arrival, Benjamín decided to see if Samuel and Omar were deserving of the scholarships they hold by giving them an exam. After Samuel tried to convince Benjamin to not make Omar take the exam, Benjamín suggested to Samuel to join the debate team because he believed Samuel had a way with words. He seemed to take on the role of being a mentor to Samuel because he saw a lot of his younger self in him. While Benjamín was shown to have a pure and sympathetic relationship with Samuel, the investigation with Armando drastically changed this perception. It is during the investigation that it is revealed that Benjamín had no intention to bail out Samuel, thus implying that he was okay with Samuel's downfall, as long as he was in a secure position. This delving into the darker side of Benjamín reaches its climax when it is revealed that Samuel was murdered by Benjamín.

### Rebeka

Benjamín was shown to have a deep hatred for Rebeka since he often belittled and judged her only because of the fact that she is the daughter of Sandra who is a drug dealer, despite Rebeka not wanting to be like her, and strongly disapproved of her closeness to his rebellious daughter Mencía.

### Ari

Benjamín is very close to his daughter Ari. Being someone who excels at everything, he often favors her over his two other children Patrick and Mencía. Unlike her siblings, Benjamín always listens to and respects her.

### Mencía

Benjamín and Mencía were shown to often hate each other, mainly because of Mencía's rebellious nature that always got her in trouble with her family. Having lost his patience with Mencía, he cut her off from the family wealth after being verbally rejected for a dinner invitation. When Mencía started earning money out of prostitution, Benjamín confiscated it from her unless she revealed who gave it to her, mostly suspecting Rebeka due to her mother being a drug dealer. However, encouraged by Guzmán having previously lost his sister Marina whom Mencía reminds him of, the two slowly started to rebuild their relationship from scratch, with Benjamín telling Mencía that she could count on him if she needed help, although she politely refused to reveal what she was up to. Later on, she tearfully revealed to Benjamín the fact about Armando, with Ari by her side.

### Armando

Benjamín's relationship with Armando was both personal and professional since the two attended Las Encinas together and became business partners. Benjamín invited him over for lunch to discuss details regarding an annual monetary contribution he was going to make to said institute. However, this came to an end when Mencía revealed to Benjamín that Armando sexually abused her and tried to kill Ari, causing him to explode into a rage in betrayal.

## Trivia

* All his kids have different sexualities, Ari is straight, Mencía is pansexual and Patrick is gay.
* He can speak French relatively well.
* He is the second principal, after Azucena, to have children of his own who are students themselves at Las Encinas. The only difference is that Azucena only has a son (Ander) and Benjamín has three children (Ari, Patrick and Mencía).
	+ He is also the second principal to have a gay son.
* He is the third male main character to commit murder (after Polo in Season 1 and Guzmán in Season 4).
	+ He is also the first adult main character to commit murder (followed by Carmen in Season 7).

## Appearances

* "Five Seconds"
* "When Lies Dance with Temptation"
* "I'm a..."
* "Reintegration"
* "I Love You All Wrong"
* "Before I Go (Part I)"
* "Before I Go (Part II)"
* "Anything Goes"
* "Tie Me Up"
* "The Body"
* "Please, Tell the Truth"
* "Can't Buy My Love"
* "Toxic"
* "Your Side of the World and Mine"

* "Tina"
* "Separation"

### **Elite Short Stories: Patrick**

* "Patrick: Part 1"
* "Patrick: Part 2"
* "Patrick: Part 3"

## Gallery

* Season 4
* Season 5