Rafaela Tejada is a mentioned-only character in Fallout: New Vegas.
Background[]
Family tragedy[]
As one of the younger members of the Tejada family, Rafaela looked up to her older siblings, especially her brother Raul; they would often go together to see rodeo attractions where Rafaela especially loved to see the vaquero horse-riding shows.
When the bombs fell on October 23, 2077, the Tejadas were spared from the initial destruction due to the distance between outside Mexico City and their family home of Hidalgo Ranch. However, in the days following, the stream of refugees from more heavily affected areas proved difficult to deal with. The Tejada family was as accommodating as possible, but they soon began running out of food and lodgings and ultimately had to start turning people away. Many did not take kindly to this, forcing her brother and father to arm themselves and force the hostiles off the ranch.[1]
That same night, after the Tejadas had gone to sleep, around two dozen people arrived, barred the doors, and set the house ablaze. Raul and Rafaela were the only ones who managed to escape, climbing out a window while their parents, grandmother, two other brothers, and two other sisters could not escape. They had no time to mourn, however, as they were pursued by the group that attacked their home. Raul turned his guns on them, killing many but not all. The survivors he left behind, not wanting to risk Rafaela's safety over raw revenge.[2]
Mexico City[]
After the loss of their family, Raul knew that they could not stay at their ranch anymore, forced to flee by the refugees who wanted him dead for killing their family members; they even put a bounty on him. Despite Rafaela's fears, her brother convinced her to follow him to Mexico City by promising to take her to see the vaqueros again. Being so young and unaware of the world, neither knew anything about nuclear bombs, and especially not radiation. Though it wasn't hit as hard as other places in America, by the time the Tejada siblings reached Mexico City, according to an older Raul, it was little better than a "radioactive ruin." The survivors that made their way inside the city got by through looting, a foundation for the future tribes of raiders infesting the area. The Tejadas themselves were living like scavengers, constantly searching for both food and medicine for radiation burns Raul sustained in the process, what he believes marked the beginning of his ghoulification.[3]
One day, Raul found a novelty costume shop and searched for something to slice up and bandage his burns. Then he found an old vaquero outfit, still untouched on the rack. Remembering how his little sister loved to see the vaqueros riding in the rodeos, he took it to wear. When he returned to their camp, Rafaela immediately loved it; she was smiling and laughing for the first time since the bombs and the loss of their family. However, Raul was fully aware of how dangerous it was to be dressed in something so noticeable. Soon after, between wearing such a distinctive outfit and his stellar gunslinging skills, Raul gained equal fame and notoriety as the "Ghost of Mexico City," a reputation that often drove off trouble. Still, it also began attracting more problems in the form of would-be gunslingers hoping for glory by killing him. Despite the constant hassles of these challenges, Raul kept wearing the outfit due to the joy he saw it bring to his sister, so the Ghost's legend continued to grow. With a renewed optimism for their futures, Raul started to play with the thought of carving out a permanent niche in Mexico City. But that was not his fate to be.[4]
Eventually, the debilitating effects of Raul's radiation poisoning caught up with him, and Rafaela found her brother too ill to go out scavenging with her, so she opted to brave the ruins herself to gather supplies. One fateful day, after Raul realized his sister had failed to return from a market she was scavenging for food, he forced himself out of his sickbed and searched for her. To his horror, he found Rafaela had been brutally attacked and killed by a group of raiders that came through the area. They had left the corpse so badly mutilated that Raul could only identify his sister by a tiny childhood scar on her knee. Completely consumed by anger and thoughts of revenge, Raul tracked down the raiders responsible at the market and killed them to the last man. Afterward, he stopped wearing the vaquero outfit that had brought him the fame he felt contributed to his sister's death. However, he never brought himself to completely discard it, carrying it with him for years after purely out of sentiment.[5]
A cherished memory[]
During the subsequent decades, Raul always carried Rafaela's memory close to his heart. His travels eventually brought him to Two-Sun (formerly the city of Tuscon) in Arizona, where he remained for around 75 years in relative peace. One day, Raul saw from afar Claudia - a prostitute working in a local brothel who bore a striking resemblance to Rafaela. Spurred by this reminder of what he lost, he took the time to look out for her, though, for obvious reasons, he never visited her.[6]
Arizona was overrun with raiders and tribes between the Great War and the arrival of Caesar's Legion in the area. One day, Dirty Dave and his six brothers rolled into town looking for supplies of bullets. Raul offered to sell them ammunition in the hope they would take it and leave; instead, the raiders decided they wanted the brothel. Once inside the brothel, Dave and his brothers mercilessly killed four girls and took Claudia for their use before leaving. Raul chased them and caught up after three days. However, by the time he found Claudia, the raiders had cruelly executed her. Fueled by the same rage he felt when Rafaela was killed, Raul charged in and killed all of them. Youth, however, was not on his side anymore, and the raiders managed to inflict severe wounds on him in return before dying; he claims he only stayed alive purely to spite them.[7] Riddled with bullets, Raul was forced to recuperate at the camp until he got the strength to get up and walk back to Two-Sun, where he could fully recover.[8]
Leaving again to escape from more bad memories, Raul eventually came to the Mojave Wasteland, where he tried to resume a quiet living until later being captured by the nightkin Tabitha when he went to investigate the radio signals at Black Mountain before 2281.[9] For the duration of his captivity serving as the maddened super mutant's repairman, Raul held onto his sister's memory for comfort even as he questioned what use there was, if any, for an elderly ghoul slowed by age and arthritis, and whether he could still embody the late Rafaela's ideal of a vaquero hero of justice.[10]
Appearances[]
Rafaela Tejada is mentioned only in Fallout: New Vegas.
References[]
- ↑ Raul Tejada: "I grew up in a place called Hidalgo Ranch just outside Mexico City. It wasn't much, just a bit of farm with a house for three generations of Tejadas. I wasn't the best-behaved kid. I was quick with my hands, with a pistol or a wrench, and I wasn't afraid to get into fights over it. I never killed anybody, but I had my share of run-ins with the police. Mostly my family kept me in line. This was before the war. We were far enough away from Mexico City when the bombs fell that we missed the worst of it - but things got bad quick."
The Courier: "Go on."
Raul Tejada: "Just a few days after Mexico City was vaporized, refugees started pouring down the road to our ranch. We helped who we could, but there were so many. Eventually, my father started turning people away before we ran out of food. Things got violent. My father and I got our guns, and we drove them off."
(Raul Tejada's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "What happened then?"
Raul Tejada: "About two dozen men came back in the night, after we'd gone to sleep. They set fire to the ranch house and barred the doors from the outside. My whole family was trapped inside. I smelled the smoke and got myself and my little sister, Rafaela, out though a window, but everyone else.... My parents, my grandmother, my two brothers and two of my sisters all died."
The Courier: "What happened then?"
Raul Tejada: "Rafaela and I ran. We were pursued by some of the men who attacked our home, but I was always a good shot. The ones who came after us, I killed. The rest, I left be. I had to take care of Rafaela, not throw my life away on revenge."
(Raul Tejada's dialogue) - ↑ Raul Tejada: "After the fire, I knew my sister and I couldn't stay at Hidalgo Ranch anymore. The refugees still wanted me dead - they even put a bounty on me. I remember how scared Rafaela was. I told her if she came with me, we'd see the vaqueros - she used to love the rodeo, especially the trick riders. We figured maybe we could find help in Mexico City - we were young, we didn't know what had happened, really. We didn't understand about the bombs."
The Courier: "Wasn't Mexico City basically annihilated in the Great War?"
Raul Tejada: "I don't think it was as hard hit as DC or Bakersfield, but it was bad enough. By the time we got there, the city was a radioactive ruin. Still, the city was full of looters, already forming into the beginnings of raider tribes. Crime was bad before the War, but now it was a nightmare. We were living like scavengers, scraping by on what little food we could find, always looking for medicine for my burns. And then, of course, the radiation started to kick in, turning me into this handsome devil you see before you."
(Raul Tejada's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "Sounds pretty bad."
Raul Tejada: "You're a poet of understatement, boss. But there were moments it was almost worth it. I still remember finding that novelty costume shop. I was just looking for something I could slice up to wrap my burns when I saw the vaquero outfit hanging on the rack, like it hadn't been touched. I took it - not like anybody else needed it, you know? - and wore it back to our camp. Rafaela laughed for the first time since the bombs had fallen."
The Courier: "Wasn't it dangerous to be dressed so... noticably?"
Raul Tejada: "It was. I started to build up a legend. Sometimes it headed off trouble, but most of the time it just started more. Young punks looking to prove themselves would come looking for me, but my eyes were sharp and my guns were quick. For a while it seemed like we might even survive there, until... until Rafaela."
(Raul Tejada's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "Go on. What happened to Rafaela?"
Raul Tejada: "She went out to find some food one day. I was sick, so I stayed at our camp. I guess it must have been the beginnings of radiation poisoning. Anyway, it was supposed to be safe, but some raiders happened to pass through where she was scavenging. I won't speak of what they did to her. When I found her body, the only way to recognize her was this funny little scar on her knee from when she was a little girl."
The Courier: "That's terrible, Raul."
Raul Tejada: "Terrible doesn't begin to cover it, boss. I'd let my whole family down - first the ranch, now Rafaela. I was the last Tejada. I guess maybe I went a little crazy then. I took my guns, and I went back to that market. I didn't have many bullets, but I had enough. After the raiders were dead, I salvaged what I could from the store. I was tired... I just wanted to be alone forever."
(Raul Tejada's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "So what did you do?"
Raul Tejada: "I left Mexico City behind. I made my way out to the Gulf Coast, eventually I found an old Petro-Chico refinery nobody had claimed. I stayed there for a little while, and I thought a lot about my life. I thought about the guns I'd lived by and what they'd gotten me. I decided my guns hadn't gotten me anything, and it was time to give it up. I took off that old vaquero outfit, and put on a Petro-Chico jumpsuit. The name tag said 'Miguel,' so I started using the name myself. Eventually I made it to Arizona... but that's another story, boss."
The Courier: "Why aren't you still there, then?"
Raul Tejada: "Getting there, boss. I'd been in Tuscon - the locals can call it Two-Sun all they want, but it's Tuscon, dammit - about 75 years when she showed up. Prettiest thing you ever saw, boss. Maybe it was just a trick of my senile brain, but I swear she looked just like my Rafaela. Her name was Claudia. She ended up taking work at one of the brothels in town. I never went to her, of course - how could I? But I looked after her in my own way."
(Raul Tejada's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "What happened with her?"
Raul Tejada: "This was a long time ago. Before Caesar's Legion pacified Arizona and brought the raider tribes to heel. A tribe came into Tuscon one day - more a gang, really. Dirty Dave and his six brothers. They were looking for bullets, and I sold some to them. I figured if I did that, they'd leave town before they tore it up too much."
The Courier: "But they didn't, did they?"
Raul Tejada: "No, boss. No they didn't. As I was saying, I hoped they'd leave the town in peace. Instead, they decided to stop at Claudia's brothel to take the edge off. I don't know which one of them got rowdy first, but by the time I heard the screams and got my guns, it was too late. They'd shot up the brothel, killed four girls, and taken Claudia for their sport."
The Courier: "Did you rescue her?"
Raul Tejada: "I went after Dave and his brothers. They had a head start, but they slept nights. I didn't. Took me three days to catch up to them. Claudia was dead when I got there. They'd put a bullet in each of her eyes. I couldn't do anything except avenge her, just like Rafaela. I charged into the middle of their camp and started firing - two of them were dead before they knew I was there. The other five, though.... They shot the shit out of me. I would have died, I think, if I wasn't so full of rage."
(Raul Tejada's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "How did you survive?"
Raul Tejada: "By being a meaner old cuss than the rest of them, boss. I wanted to keep living until they weren't, so I just kept shooting until they were all dead. I was in pretty bad shape in the end, though. I don't know how long I laid there with the sun baking me and the buzzards chomping at me. Eventually I got the strength to start moving. Some long time after that, I managed to drag my carcass back to town."
(Raul Tejada's dialogue) - ↑ The Courier: "What happened then?"
Raul Tejada: "When I recovered - more or less, anyways - I left Tuscon and headed west. I ran into Tabitha at Black Mountain and, well, the rest you know. I swore I was done with the gunslinging life - I was too old, too slow, and too beat up to protect anyone anymore. I thought I was done forever... but after traveling with you, I realize I've always had my doubts."
(Raul Tejada's dialogue) - ↑ A possible Fallout: New Vegas ending: "Invigorated by his travels with the Courier, Raul once more took up his guns in memory of his lost Rafaela. Soon after, the Mojave was filled with tales of the ghost-vaquero who hunts down those who prey on the weak."
