| “ | Welcome. Welcome to my one-hundred-and-forty-third birthday party. | „ |
| ~ El Patron |
| “ | During Cinco de Mayo the ranchero had a celebration. I and my five siblings went to watch. Mama brought my little sisters. She carried one, and the other held on to her skirt and followed behind. The mayor of our village - dressed in a fine black and white suit - rode on a white horse and threw money to the crowd. How we scrambled for the coins. How we rolled in the dirt. But we needed the money. We were so poor; we didn't have two pesos to rub together. On this day, the ranchero gave a great feast. We could eat all we want, and it was a wonderful opportunity for people who had stomachs so small that chili beans had to wait in line. On year, during that feast, my little sisters caught typhoid. They were so small; they couldn't look over the windowsill - no, not even if they stood on tiptoe. During the following years, each of my three brothers died; one had a burst appendix, and we had no money for the doctor. The last two brothers were beaten to death by the police. There were eight of us. We should all have grown up, but I was the only survivor. DON'T YOU THINK I'M OWED THOSE LIVES? | „ |
| ~ El Patron talking about his siblings |
| “ | A more evil, vicious, self-serving man can hardly be imagined. | „ |
| ~ Esparanza Mendoza on El Patrón. |
Matteo Alacrán, mostly known as El Patrón, is the main antagonist in the 2002 dystopian novel The House of the Scorpion and the posthumous antagonist of the sequel The Lord of Opium. He is a drug lord and one of the richest people on the planet, being able to force the Mexican and American governments to let him create a country at their border. In order to live longer, he created clones, raised them until he needed them, and then killed them and harvested their organs when he needed them.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- It is briefly mentioned that he has overthrown multiple governments.
- He created his own country and stated that any person who crossed would be either killed or turned into an eejit.
- Anybody who lived in his country was basically his slave and was microchipped so that they had to do what he said.
- He turned thousands of illegal immigrants into mindless slaves called eejits to work themselves to death in his opium fields. This included children.
- The eejits were treated horribly and had very short lifespans.
- Although this is undone by Matt at the end of The Lord of Opium it was only after thousands of people had already worked themselves to death over one hundred years.
- The eejits were treated horribly and had very short lifespans.
- He sold opium all over the world, creating thousands of opium addicts at least.
- He regularly abused his family, thinking of them as possessions of his who weren't allowed to leave the country. He forced them into business marriage deals against their wills causing almost all of them to become either depressed or drug addicts.
- He created nine sentient clones and had them raised as normal children before painfully taking out their organs to replace his dying ones and prolong his life.
- He once shot down an airplane with two hundred and fifty innocent passengers just for crossing his borders.
- He threatened to cockroach people, which basically mean placing them in a coffin underground full of cockroaches.
- He had the wine at his funeral poisoned so that when he died his servants and family would continue to serve him in the afterlife.
- By doing this, he posthumously murdered the hundreds of people at his funeral.
- He then puts Opium on Lockdown in order to kill anyone who might have survived.
- By doing this, he posthumously murdered the hundreds of people at his funeral.
- Although he does have the Freudian excuse of watching all of his siblings die, the only reason he cares is because he felt that his was "owed their lives".
- It is possible that his traumatic childhood did shape him into being the man he is today, as Sor Artemesia did claim that he was a relatively normal child, they do not come close to redeeming him.
- Although it seems like he cared about Matt, it was only an extension of his narcissism, and he was still willing to harvest his organs.
Trivia[]
- It is possible but never shown that he cared about his son, as he did seem to miss him. However, whether he actually missed him or just missed owning him is unclear.
- El Patron is currently the only character from The House of the Scorpion or The Lord of Opium to be pure evil.
External Links[]
- El Patrón on the Villains Wiki
- El Patrón on the House of the Scorpion Wiki