"El Jardinero"
Name: Rafael Serdán-Reyes
Monikers: “El Jardinero” or “The Gardener”
Age: 35
Ethnicity: Latino
Sexuality: Nice dance moves and curves
Affiliation: El Río Clan
Languages: Spanish, English
Skills: Boxing, wrestling, marksmanship, manipulation
Hobbies: Gardening and landscaping, dancing, singing, watching telenovelas
Personality:
Perhaps it's for this reason he is so sparingly but effectively cruel. There is almost nothing weak about Rafael Serdán-Reyes, from his physicality, to his iron will. By nature he is a violent man, though nowadays a threat is generally enough to make one fall in line as his past credentials prove he is not to be trifled with. One would also be mistaken, as many have been, to think of him as just a dumb, violent thug, as he has gone from the man tending his boss’s garden to the very top of El Río’s food chain.
He is a great campaigner, using his charm and charisma to win people over, and his humble background to make him seem more relatable to the everyday man. He's good at making people feel at ease in his presence, attentively listening, and casually conversing about normal topics like sports, family, and hobbies.
While he can be fairly flashy in his attire and extravagant in lifestyle, he is also known for his generosity, giving back to the community in various forms of philanthropy and charity. These personable qualities give him an air of legitimacy that many of his predecessors lacked and have garnered him a Robin Hood like image in South Larkan.
Yet for all his confidence and machismo, there is one thing that haunts Rafael and that is the fear of his own failure. To be discovered as the fraud that he believes at some level he is. The thought of achieving mere mediocrity and leaving no legacy behind motivates him not just to be the best crime boss in South Larkan, but the whole city, and be the first of El Río Clan to hold the title of Grand Shadow.
History:
Struggling to make ends meet in the city and earn enough money to send back home to his native Mexico, he agreed to give it a try. Yet what was meant to be only a temporary means of survival turned to a lifetime of crime. Fencing was easy, provided fast cash, and he soon found himself seeking more work from Mr. Velazco.
After fencing he went onto do other jobs for El Río from distribution to cooking, and then onto managing entire operations and trade routes as he quickly climbed the ranks. He earned the trust of Mr. Velazco, who was said to have considered him “like a son” alongside side his two real sons.
10 years later, Rafael was earning more money than he knew what to do with, living a life he couldn't have conjured up in his wildest dreams. If Esteban was the Drug Kingpin, he was its prince. He was Estaban’s right hand man, and essentially managed El Río’s Larkan operations as the Kingpin grew older and greyer and decided to spend more time in Argentina.
When Esteban finally announced his official retirement from the life and permanent move back to Argentina, Rafael expected that he would be promoted to El Río’s crime boss. Instead, he was passed up for one of Esteban's real sons on the basis he was not Argentinian himself. This didn't sit well with Rafael, who had put in the work to help streamline their operations, clean up the gang's public image, and increase profits since becoming underboss.
It wasn't a hard sell to get most members on his side for a coup. Rafael was already a trusted leader and Velazco's son Esteban Jr. was considered a village idiot, promoted solely on the basis of kinship and nationality. Rafael swiftly overthrew the family before Esteban Jr. could take over. Murdering Esteban and both his sons as well as any of their loyalists of which there were few.
Rumor has it that he disposed of the Velazco family as he did many of Esteban's own enemies, by throwing them into a compost pile and using them as fertilizer for gardening.