Jorge Alvarez

### Aliases

"Headmaster of the West Caribbea Trading Company, "El Hombre Piña," "Conquerer of Dawn"

### Occupation

Fruits Merchant (previously), Corporate Hegemon (present)

## Appearances

### Debut

"Meridian"

*"I kinda feel like sometimes that all of these old elites don't really do anything...They are just kind of there, breathing air, wasting space. If I had the amount of wealth they did, I would do all sorts of things, like not sit around all day reading newspapers and gossiping about adult women..."*

*"There is no man greater in the world than the farmer that sows grain in the fields so that we may be nourished, the lumberjack who harvests wood so that we may keep warm in the harshest winter, and the cobbler who weaves shoes so that we may walk upon this world unimpeded..."*

*"No I don't like this hundred year old vintage whatever wine stuff. Can I get the kids apple juice instead? While you're at it, can you run a report of the collectivized assets of the South Panamico region, filtered through by income disparity and concentration of wealth alongside percentage of land and property owned? Thanks."*

## Overview

Jorge Alvarez is regarded as one of the most powerful people in the entire world, due to his ownership of the West Caribbea Trading Company, which at one point was just Jorge's Fruits Company, a small stand in the middle of Havano. He not only possesses ownership of the Company, as since the Company absorbed the actual governmental workings of the Old Elite in Caribbea, the Company is essentially the same as a Nation State, and Jorge acts as "El Presidente" of said state. Currently, only Panamico remains as the only independent state run by Old Elite from the rest of the West Caribbea Trading Company. Contrary to popular belief, although Jorge has ownership of immense property and assets, Jorge does not much income himself, as almost every single Peso of income is reinvested, hence the companies massive growth the past decade. Jorge typically dons a casual dress shirt with an assortment of colorful flowers on it, accompanied with a typical Company trench coat, sea blue in color. He has curly brown hair, a somewhat stocky build, and wears a pair of glasses. He claims to always carry Kombucha on his person, however most observers note that this is half true, and when he does, it is usually hidden in his coat somewhere. Jorge is warm, easygoing, generally very likable, however his eventful past is not something to discredit, as he has seen his own fair share of violence and misery during not only his famous "El Viaje Del Hombre Piña," but also the Caribbea Civil War. He is calculating when he needs to be, and although it is not outwardly shown, he is still burdened by the many difficult sacrifices and choices he has had to make over the course of his life.

## Early Life and Beginnings

Jorge Alvarez was born to a poor farming family in the outskirts of Havano, who made a living harvesting fruits and sugar cane. Jorge had one sibling, named Santiago Alvarez, who were close with one another and would frequently dream of living in the center of Havano one day, where all the elites resided. To meet this goal, Jorge voraciously read many books and was self educated, intending to pursue higher education to achieve some form of government and corporate office with the elites. However as Jorge witnessed the widespread poverty and hardships of Cubano outside of Havano, especially of the exploitation that landowners inflicted upon fruit farmers, he began to question his initial ambitions. One day, when he was just eighteen, Jorge decided to abandon his plans of an elite education and instead create his own company, selling fresh fruits at cheap prices, in response to government price gouging which deprived common people of essential nutrients (accompanied by the fact that fruit quotas were raised so steeply most families could not afford to keep any of the harvests for themselves). Growing immensely popular with the people of Cubano for his cheap prices and ability to resist government intervention, what was once a small fruit stand became eventually a fairly large shop in the Market District of Havano, which not only sold fresh fruits but became a hub for weary travelers from all over Caribbea and Cubano. Eventually anti-elite ideas began to flourish in Jorge's fruit shop, and in early 492 AC the government stepped in directly, closing down his shop and evicting Jorge from the mainland, banishing him to Caribbea. However this sparked outrage amongst the farmer population, and resentment built against the Old Elite.

## El Viaje del Hombre Piña and the Havano Trial

At this point, Jorge decided to take what was left of his wealth and travel across Caribbea, setting up humanitarian shelters and providing aid to the poverty stricken people of the mainland. He established shelters that gave out free medicine, healthcare and food supplies, He became known as the mythical "El Hombre Piña," and his journey across the land became known as "El Viaje del Hombre Piña." Jorge became an urban legend to the people of Caribbea, and the Elite of Cubano, seeing his popularity grow and feeling threatened, decided to arrest Jorge and execute him for treason in late 492 AC. Resentment against the elite, which was already prominent upon Jorge's eviction, exploded upon hearing news of this execution, and it seemed like a full scale peasant rebellion was imminent, the last one being well over a hundred years ago. Soon, government forces of Havano and Caribbea moved into the countryside burning villages and causing violence in order to find Jorge, and Jorge, horrified by the sights he witnessed, quickly gave himself up, much to most people's dismay. However, during his trial in Havano, Jorge pleaded both the Elite and people of Caribbea and Havano to not escalate the situation into full scale warfare, stating the sanctity of all human lives, and urged his own execution if it meant bringing peace to Caribbea. He then gave an impassioned speech, urging the people of the world to trust in each other and hold onto hope, promising that all things will work out for the better. He encouraged human empathy, kindness, and dignity, and stated that the plagues of the world will one day give way to peace. This speech, the most important in all of Caribbea history, became known as "El Sol que Nunca se Pone, (The Sun that Never Sets)," and moved all the people of Havano at the time.

## The Caribbea Civil War

However, just as the execution was about to commence a large explosion in the square went off and disrupted the process, which incapacitated Jorge and caused a mass chaos. A group of individuals abducted Jorge, taking him away to the mainland, and for forty days Jorge was in a coma. Upon waking up, Jorge learned that a group of revolutionaries from Havano, known as the Black Rose, were responsible for the explosion, and his abduction. The leader of the movement was a university student named Cruz Flores, who empathized with Jorge's intentions but did not agree with method. Soon Jorge came to the realization that The Black Rose had been conducting military action against the governments of Caribbea and Cubano, alongside the newly formed "United Front" which consisted of most of the common people of both regions. In addition, the contents of his speech in Havano had been misconstrued and was framed to be a "Call to Action" as opposed to a call for peace by government propaganda. It was apparent that a civil war had broken out, to Jorge's horror, and he fell into a state of deep despair upon hearing of the thousands dead already. Immediately he fled the war camp, deep into the jungles of Caribbea and went missing for some time. After spending five days in the jungle, afflicted with exposure and sickness, he came across a lone wooden shack in the jungle, where he met a man named Rivera Diaz who was a single father raising his daughter, Mia. Jorge learned that many years ago Rivera had lost his wife to a sickness where he was unable to afford medicine, and had recently moved into this shack because of the destruction of his village due to the war. Jorge befriended Rivera who would eventually became a life long friend, and he made a stalwart determination to end the war he had caused, initiating a massive peaceful protest campaign, marching across Caribbea providing aid to all of the victims of the war, similar to as he had done in his original travels. He met another university student from Havano, named Anne Stone, who was part of another group known as the Anarquistas, who notably did not agree with violence as a means to an end and had already performed similar actions of humanitarian aid in the war. With the help of Anne and Rivera, and through a year of continued struggles, where more than once his protest group was massacred by gunfire, Jorge was eventually able to negotiate a treaty with both sides of the war in late 494 AC, which saw not only an end to the conflict but also greater rights and guarantees granted by the Old Elite to the people of both Caribbea and Cubano, along with a cessation of the entire city of Havano to "the people."

## The West Caribbea Trading Company

With the cessation of the city of Havano to "the collective people," it was almost a given that management of the city would immediately fall to Jorge. Jorge seized all former assets and immediately began a process of re-investment, quickly building the city into a grand port, remodeling the slums and destroyed buildings of the war and creating new infrastructure and amenities. Jorge encouraged food exports and new manufacturing, and quickly a ring of twelve sub companies arose underneath Jorge which facilitated the reconstruction and growth of Havano. Another key part of Jorge's development plan was the complete reinvestment of any profits, keeping very little wealth for himself or other business leaders. in 496 AC, after immense progress, Jorge decided to consolidate all of these companies into one company, and in 497 AC The West Caribbea Trading Company was formed, a homage to the still poverty stricken populations of West Caribbea, despite the fact the company was located in Cubano. At this point the port town of Havano became the first "Treasure Port," an immensely wealthy area that attracted investment and even tourism from the disgruntled Old Elite, who admitted the superiority in quality of life. However, Jorge, wanting to keep his promise to lift the people of the world out of poverty, immediately began to take over shares and property of East Caribbea and the Caribbea Sea, where most of the Old Elite had relocated. Reconstruction was slower there, and there was much opportunity for Jorge to seize property and land for himself. Slowly, Jorge began to consolidate ports and more land in the East, and by 502 AC the Treasure Ports of Santa Anna, La Dominga, Los Pablos, La Maria, El Sol del Mar, and Los Cruces became as famous and wealthy as Havano itself. The people of Caribbea had already preferred Jorge's management over the Old Elite, but the growing quality of life in Caribbea reinforced this sentiment. Eventually late in 502 AC the people began to demand that the Old Elite step down from their government offices, and due to their lack of influence alongside immense pressure, in 503 AC the Treaty of Puerta Nueva was signed, ceding all of East Caribbea to Jorge. The elites moved west into West Caribbea, where they established smaller centers of power and now only had access to farmland as opposed to port cities. by 510 AC, two dozen more treasure ports were added, and the port cities of East Caribbea became renowned for not only an extremely high quality of life, but also the opportunities they posed to all people of all walks of life. Tourism continues to flourish, industry only continues to grow, and the once poverty stricken poor now enjoy a new way of life where they can pursue freedom as they want it. However, things are not as perfect as would seem in the Treasure ports, as militias and rebel groups of loyalists to the Old Elite still perform sabotage missions and conduct sporadic guerilla warfare, alongside the growing threat of the Sea Peoples, of which began to appear recently and raze coastal villages to the west. Jorge, pursuing his dream, still looks to secure all of Caribbea, and eventually move into Colombo, where a completely new horizon of people even more stricken than the people of Caribbea would have to be considered.

## Trivia

* Jorge is based off of Howard's real life friend, Jorge Alvarez, who goes to the University of California, San Diego and used to grow pineapples, similar as in "To Eventide."
* Jorge Alvarez is one of the few character based off a real life person besides Anne Stone and Santiago Alvarez in "To Eventide," where originally they were in "2052" as roughly the same character in the same story.
* The Caribbea Civil War is extremely loosely inspired by the Spanish Learner's novel, "Robo en la Noche," despite the fact "Robo en la Noche" has nothing to do with a civil war. and really the only inspiration is that they both take place in Latin America.
* The West Caribbea Trading Company was inspired by Howard's AP Euro teacher in high school, Mr. Benham, when he described the East India Company to be like "Walmart with an Army." Originally, the West Caribbea Trading Company in 2052 was essentially a union of Jorge's own company in Brazil and Walmart in the year 2028.