The House of the Scorpion Characters

League of Super FriendsBy the end of the book, Matt is the ruler of his very own country (we bet Max from Where the Wild Things Are would be pretty jealous). So we think that Matt needs to assemble...

El Patrón gets compared to a vampire multiple times throughout the novel, and it's never a compliment (we'll put it this way: he ain't no Edward Cullen). If you think about it, comparing him to a...

We'd just like to go on record saying that Celia is amazing She's Matt's mother in all the ways that count. Plus, she's Matt best ally and protector during his years of growing up at the Alacrán e...

Tam Lin, Matt's mentor and guardian, is not someone you want as an enemy. He's huge and menacing and smart in an "I can think of all sorts of creative ways to make you disappear, permanently" sort...

As Matt's love interest, María could have just as easily been a dolt – nothing but eye candy for Matt to swoon over. Luckily, Farmer gives us a fully-drawn character with a complicated family li...

Tom isn't the ultimate villain of the story. That honor goes to El Patrón. But Tom is Bully Number One. In fact, he has a ton in common with another first-class bully, Draco Malfoy. Like Draco, To...

Mr. Alacrán is El Patrón's great-grandson and the heir to Opium. This might seem like a sweet gig, but you wouldn't guess it from Mr. Alacrán's attitude. The guy is perpetually in a grouchy mood...

Felicia is Mr. Alacrán's wife and she, more than anyone else, reveals what a horrible effect El Patrón can have on those around him. In fact, at times it seems like the only reason she even exist...

Steven is a lot like his mother and father in terms of his ability to surprise us. When we first meet Steven, he's a child. He discovers Matt in Celia's little house. He takes charge and helps Matt...

Chacho is a Lost Boy who becomes one of Matt's best friends. In fact, you might say he's Matt's first real friend. Matt wasn't exactly Mr. Popular in Opium.When we first meet Chacho, he seems reall...

Fidelito is only eight years old, and he has a spectacularly bad time in the custody of the Keepers. We mean it: this kid can't win. He wets the bed, he doesn't get enough food because he doesn't w...

Ton-Ton is a Lost Boy at the Plankton Factory with a bad case of acne, a speech impediment, and a serious knack for driving a shrimp harvester. You'd be forgiven if at first you thought Ton-Ton is...

The name "Lost Boys" is a shout-out to a Shmoop-personal favorite: Peter Pan. Peter Pan was the leader of his own rag-tag band of Lost Boys, who all live in Neverland, where they will never grow up...

JorgeJorge is – let's face it – a sociopath. The guy is nuts. A Keeper to the extreme, he's got a massive ego and likes control. We already know from our experience with El Patrón that this ca...

Though he's El Patrón's grandson, El Viejo actually appears to be a lot older than El Patrón. That's because El Viejo opted to age naturally, which is seen by his grandfather as beyond foolish. E...

Senator Mendoza is a United States Senator and a somewhat associate and ally of El Patrón's. He seems like a halfway decent father to María and Emilia, but he's gotten in too deep with the AlacrÃ...

It's rather fitting that Emilia marries Steven; they have a ton in common. Both start out the novel with a fairly neutral attitude towards Matt, but once they find out he's a clone, they go with th...

Esperanza Mendoza is Senator Mendoza's ex-wife and the mother of Emilia and María. She abandons her family, and for two years, María is led to believe that her mother is dead. Of course she isn't...

Mr. MacGregor might be even creepier than El Patrón, which is really saying something. This guy is a fellow drug-lord who runs an area near San Diego. Like El Patrón, he's a fan of using clones t...

Daft Donald is a mute bodyguard who works for El Patrón. He's also a good friend to Tam Lin. Like Tam Lin, Daft Donald is a former criminal from the United Kingdom. Because he's mute, people tend...

Rosa seems to be in the running for the ultimate villain at the beginning of the book. When we first meet her, she's a housekeeper at the Alacrán estate, and she shows sympathy to a young, injured...

Though he's a fairly competent doctor, Willum is a pretty awful person. He really has it in for Matt-the-clone, so he does the absolute bare minimum to keep Matt alive and functioning. Willum is ve...

Mr. Ortega, Matt's music teacher, is one of the few nice adults in our young hero's life. Mr. Ortega is deaf and therefore desperate for a job, which is why he agrees to teach Matt, even though Mat...

Matt's first teacher is an eejit woman who only knows how to do a few simple things, like count. At first Matt just writes her off as frustratingly dumb. But after he learns that she's an eejit, he...

These guys are all members of the dangerous Farm Patrol. They are all criminals from the United Kingdom, like Tam Lin and Daft Donald, and they are all fearful of El Patrón. They arrive in the sto...

Have a looksee at this scene between Matt his and clone-daddy, El Patrón:"Is that the place behind the hole in the rock?" Matt asked, to be sure he was correct."Of course, Felipe!" El Patrón snap...

Benito AlacránBenito is Steven's brother and the eldest son of Felicia and Mr. Alacrán. He never really appears in the story, but we do hear about him from time to time, and we definitely don't l...