— BASICS
Name: Felix José Ruiz Secada Age / D.O.B.: 43 / April 7th, 1980 Gender, Pronouns & Sexuality: Cis man, He/Him, & Demisexual Hometown: Staten Island, NY Affiliation: Cortázar Cartel Job position: Boss / Leader of the Cartel Education: GED Relationship status: Single Children: None Positive traits: adaptable, protective, persistent, cautious, patient Negative traits: withdrawn, suspicious, hostile, confrontational, resentful
— BIOGRAPHY
1980; Everything starts with a birth. Felix came into this world through a home birth, his parents too poor and too afraid to go to the hospital. Yoselin and Pablo raised him in Port Richmond, Staten Island hoping that New York would give Felix the chance they never had.
1985; (5 years old) His mother’s death is where it started, not that Felix knows it. Whatever his uncle’s involvement in gang life was, he doesn’t know anymore. Both his uncle and his mother die in the drive-by shooting. The funeral brings in people from all walks of life. She was well-loved, a prominent member of the community. Felix just remembers asking for more tamales after mass, hungry and not understanding that he’d never see her again.
1990; (10 years old) His father couldn’t stand Port Richmond and the community without his mother around anymore. They started a new life in Manhattan - Spanish Harlem was their new home. It was loud, it was brash, it was beautiful. Felix loved it. His younger sister thrived, while Felix began to lash out. He hated all the women his father dated. He did everything he could to chase them away, make them realize that they didn’t need another mother. Despite his best efforts, his father remarried. He had another child, a younger brother that he never wanted.
Over the years, he started to see the weak man that he really has always been. He was too quiet, too much of a pushover, never wanted to love the community they lived in. Felix started to resent him, his step-mother, and his half-brother. They were better off without the changes Pablo was bringing to the family. Their culture, so rich and beautiful, started to fade away with the step-mother taking over the household while his father sat on his ass with a beer. Meals went from pozole and chilaquiles to sloppy joes and tuna casserole. He started to mesh more with the people outside of his home so as to not truly lose himself.
1998; (18 years old) Despite it already looking to be heading that way well before the age of eighteen, this is the year he was officially brought into The Brotherhood. He needed extra cash to stash away, knowing that his piece of shit father wouldn’t do anything to take care of him and his siblings when he was gone. Though his resentment against his half-brother remained strong, he wanted to make sure that he was taken care of, too.
He worked as a drug mule, smuggling and carrying merchandise over state lines. It was risky, but he was good at what he did. He didn’t manage any of the dealing himself, until much later once he was able to prove himself as a trustworthy asset. He learned the tricks of the trade through his cousin, the son of his uncle that caused his mother’s death. The name he was making within The Brotherhood was going to skyrocket him to infamy - he was going to make sure of that. Felix Secada would be someone one day, no matter what it took.
2005; (25 years old) The beginning of a new life, and the start of his rise to infamy. All hell breaks loose. His cousin orders the death of another Brotherhood memebr and is subsequently exiled. He creates The Cortázar Cartel, showing a willingness to be true to their roots and their community - to provide a safe space for the latin people who fell into The Brotherhood. Felix follows his cousin, loyal to him and no one else. His cousin had taken him under his wing, and carefully crafted him into the ruthless, slick, and calculating man he grew to be.
The Cartel is his family. The Cartel is means more to him than his own blood. They’ve killed together, they’ve died together, and they’ve protected the values of Harlem together. Everything they’ve worked for underneath the Brotherhood doesn’t go to waste with rise of The Azars. Felix knows that this is only the start of greatness.
2010; (30 years old) His ambitions start to fully show here, at the ripe age of thirty. Though he’s always dreamed of having his name known - no matter how - it’s here that he realizes what he needs to do and how to get it done. His promotion from drug dealer to a region manager is only the beginning, he realizes. He can go all the way to the top. He can work with his cousin, be up at the top right there with him with just a little work. The groundwork he’s put in as a mule and dealer with the Cortázars allows him to know the streets, the ins and outs of what needs to be done.
He starts the work before he’s even granted the title, often surpassing the previous region managers, and going straight to the captains to give them updates on goings on. He knows what the Cartel could be, with the right push, the right nudge. They can be at the top, they can eradicate The Brotherhood’s hold altogether, if they just worked a little harder, if they worked together. He keeps his wishes for the gang close to his chest, but the seed of desire burrows deeper and blossoms.
2019; (39 years old) Diego Ortiz tries his own takeover of the cartel, and Felix gains his own promotion in the aftermath. From region manager to captain, he now has much more power than ever before. He has the power to make decisions, to oversee everything on every bit of turf they own. He sees the pieces fall onto their chess board of New York, and starts planning on where to move them. Their massive warehouse loss the year before had left them scrambling to make ends meet again.
It’s Felix that starts to make moves to figure out where to gain power - with the help of the other underbosses and captains. The other gangs are stronger with The Azars’ loss, but Felix watches and waits as they start to make moves once more. It’s The Brotherhood that’s the priority, and The Syndicate can be useful. Felix holds his cards close to his chest. He brings in more members, as befitting his job as captain, but unlike some before him - he keeps a hands-on approach with them. He makes the transition easier, teaches them the things he had to learn on his own. Drugs and death and violence are his world now, and he will make it theirs, too. Protection of the family in exchange for a little danger, he spins his stories well.
He bides his time. He waits, loyalty written in his veins.
2022; (42 years old) His cousin’s death strikes him hard. He’s angry. He's done. He needs to make it right. They’ll pay, if it’s the last thing he does. Andrea Galán takes the role of boss, and he’s content with it. He makes no move to rise above his spot as captain, he’s too volatile to do much other than seethe. He doesn’t blame her, but he does plan to take it from her. After all, it should be his, shouldn’t it? Cartel is his blood.
2023; (43 years old) Andrea dies. He doesn’t expect it. That night is filled with fury once more. It wasn’t time for him to rise up yet. It was meant to be later, with her finding her step, with her taking the Cartel further. His promotion from captain to underboss is out of necessity. He works behind the scenes until he’s ready to make his move.
JAN 2024; Felix becomes boss of the Cartel.
— WANTED CONNECTIONS / PLOTS
ANY CARTEL; Any members of the cartel could slot here. They could be people who are loyal to him, people who hate him being the boss, people who want him dead, and literally anything in between. He is not a good man, but he tries to do right by his people, so there's room for any sort of plot here whether that's friendly or antagonistic.
PRINCESS ( 0/1 ); Felix doesn't have many relationships. He can count on one hand the times he's been intimate with someone and it's never been a priority. One of those times resulted in a daughter he has no idea about and was too young to be informed of. When he finds out, he would want to treat her well and have some sort of familial relationship with her, whether or not she's open to this is up to you. This character would have to be at least half-Mexican.
INFORMANT ( 0/2 ); These are people not within the Cartel that Felix uses for information, whether they know it or not. It could be a situation where they're in another gang and Felix has them watched or it could be that Felix pretends to be close friends with them to get information that way. Also open to suggestions for fun stuff to do here.
