Santiago Aldecaldo

Santiago Aldecaldo, commonly known as Nomad Santiago, was a leader of the Aldecaldos nomad clan. He was a mostly reserved and quiet man who also often came across as a slightly crude nomad stereotype. To some degree, Santiago cultivated this image, in part to fool the statics and in part because it gave him an excuse to pursue fast women (and even faster bikes), but he was nevertheless a hard worker and a skilled negotiator.

Early life
Santiago was born in an army hospital near Berlin, Germany. His family traveled often during his life, and the young kid was always on the move. Culturally, Santiago's mother was a woman of mixed Native American and Hispanic descent, while his father was a second-generation Filipino-American. His first family was large and diverse, with many cousins and other relatives.

Santiago's father briefly served overseas performing consul work for the U.S. Department of State Department (during which Santiago was born), but a career in consul work in those days was unsafe. Santiago's family thus returned to the States. To their great misfortune, their return home coincided with the Lawyers Purge of 1996, an event that forced them underground and ultimately into an early nomad community.

Santiago had his share of troubles growing up. By the time he was sixteen, his family had changed so much as to be unrecognizable. However, having been raised in a constant state of flux, Santiago was not fazed by these changes.

Santiago was small for his age through much of his childhood up until he was almost eighteen years old. This caused him much hardship and rejection. Just before his nineteenth birthday, he decided to leave his half-formed clan and to work jobs that were less respected in nomad culture, ending up as a hired soldier, a bodyguard, and even a roadie for several different employers.

2010s
While living life on the road, Santiago met a solo named Rogue Amendiares. The two quickly became business partners, doing gigs together around the area of Night City. Whatever Rogue's motivations for working with the man, Santiago himself chose to team up with Rogue often largely because she was the one woman he had yet to score with.

Santiago was a simple man: he liked girls, guns, and fast cyberbikes. He usually hung out in Night City, seeking out gigs as a hired gun, but soon realized that life in the city as a young merc was chaotic. Edgerunner life could quickly descend from super slick and glamorous all the way down to miserable and downright homicidal before once again bouncing back up.

Santiago's true test as a man came in 2013 during a fateful business meeting with Rogue at the Atlantis Club. As the mercs discussed biz, they were interrupted by Rogue's former flame and infamous rockerboy, Johnny Silverhand, who explained that he needed them for an important job. Although Rogue was hesitant to take a job from her ex-lover, Santiago wasn't, reminding her as he had before that business always comes first.

The job was to rescue Johnny's on-again, off-again girlfriend, Alt Cunningham, from the Arasaka Corporation. After hearing that Arasaka was to be the target, Santiago became even more interested. Rogue did not like the sound of the job, but Santiago shook hands with Silverhand after negotiating Rogue's and his payment.

Both mercs, the rockerboy, and a media named Lyle Thompson successfully assaulted Arasaka Tower. In the end, however, they were unable to save Alt's life, a possible consequence of Johnny's rash decision-making. After this, they all went underground with the nomads to escape Arasaka.

During the next two years, Santiago and Silverhand stayed with the Aldecaldos clan, who at the time were situated in the neighboring Mexico. While working with the Aldecaldos, Santiago began to earn a solid and widespread reputation within the clan. His fellow nomads could see what he sought and envisioned, and through his words and actions, he was able to show them what they should truly be fighting for.

Admiring what they saw in Santiago, the Aldecaldos began to change and model themselves after his actions and ideas. It was at this time Santiago finally met their leader, Juan Aldecaldo—shortly before the old man's death. The young nomad was given a mission: help the Aldecaldos so that they could help others.

Soon thereafter, Santiago was elevated as the clan's new leader. It was not a responsibility he took lightly or even easily, but he did take it. Shortly afterward, Santiago led the Aldecaldos back to the US.

During this time, Santiago decided to assume the surnname Aldecaldo out of respect for the clan's former leader. For many years he had been just Santiago, but finally finding himself among people he could truly call family, he had in fact become a fully-fledged Aldecaldo.

At the great nomad meeting in Omaha in 2017, the diverse nomad clans created what came to be known as the Seven Nations. There at the meeting, Santiago called for others to join him and his clan. Nomads answered the call in vast numbers, thus forming the Aldecaldos into one of the most numerous and powerful nomad nations.

2020s - 2040s
When the Aldecaldos returned to the US, Santiago saw a great deal of conflict. As leader of the clan, he considered it his personal duty to ensure his nation become as immune to the effects of these conflicts as possible. In pursuit of an end to both the Fourth Corporate War and Arasaka's grip on Night City, the nomad leader sent the Aldecaldo Lobos to aid Johnny Silverhand, Rogue, and the rest of their strike team in their 2023 assault on the Arasaka Towers, which resulted in the AHQ Disaster.

At some point, Santiago fathered a son, Trace, who would become a well-known media in Night City. As he raised Trace, Santiago would tell the boy stories about the old days. This earned him the nickname "Old Man."

By 2045, Santiago was still the leader of the Aldecaldos.

2077
As of 2077, Santiago's legacy remains strong within the hearts of the Aldecaldos. Many of Aldecaldos venerate their former leader and view him with great importance. Despite this, if Saul Bright is asked about Santiago after relocating to the clan to a new camp, Saul will claim that splitting his life between Night City and his family made Santiago less of a nomad.

During Never Fade Away, V witnesses a flashback in which Johnny interrupts a meeting between Santiago and Rogue to enlist their aid in freeing Alt from Arasaka. In the flashback, Santiago and Rogue join Johnny as he battles through Arasaka Tower. Alongside Thompson, the two are present for Toshiro Harada's murder and Alt's death.

Trivia

 * Mike Pondsmith has stated said that Santiago was always meant to look like Danny Trejo.