Aldecaldos

The Aldecaldo family was the first true nomad family to form during the 1990s as Los Angeles turned into a warzone. Juan Aldecaldo started out in the defense industry, and much of the extended Aldecaldo family depended on Juan for various needs. Juan led a family migration from the US to Mexico City, and as time went on his leadership became stronger. The Aldecaldos returned to the US with an increased number of nomads.
In 2077, the Aldecaldos are one of the two nomad groups inhabiting the Badlands. They have a long history of frequent conflict with the Raffen Shiv group who call themselves the Wraiths.

Assets

In addition to scavenging and hiring themselves out as manual farm laborers, Aldecaldos also engage in bootlegging and transporting stolen goods. Some clans and families focus solely on smuggling and delivering their "packages" all along the Nomad Trail all the way to the twin Crime Cities, which are Chicago and Phoenix.

History

Their origins trace back to the chaotic urban battlegrounds of Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s. What was once a glamorous metropolis became a fractured war zone, plagued by drugs, violence, and poverty. Amid this decline was Juan Aldecaldo, a man whose story the world never told on film, though it was as impactful as any Hollywood epic. A migrant by birth, Juan built a quiet, stable life, excelling in the California school system and earning an engineering degree—becoming the first in his family to go to college. He entered the defense industry, striving to support his family as the economy began to falter.
But by the 1990s, the industry was hemorrhaging jobs. Juan was laid off, and in a bid to care for his extended family, he worked humble jobs and sold his home, only to watch his family slide into the dangerous slums of LA. His daughter, Maria, was killed in a car accident just before her seventeenth birthday. His son, Ramon, deeply shaken by the tragedy, dropped out of school and fell into gang life, eventually joining the Red Dogs. He died violently on his nineteenth birthday, killed in what was framed as a robbery. Juan, just blocks away, arrived too late—and his grief-stricken outburst to the media, denouncing both the police and press as vultures feeding on the pain of the poor, became a moment broadcast across the country. It was a public indictment of a broken system from a man who had lost everything.
After this, Juan transformed his grief into something enduring. He formed a family not bound by blood but by shared suffering and solidarity—the Aldecaldos, a nomad clan made of the city’s forgotten. As the world crept toward the Collapse, the Aldecaldo clan stood together, providing for one another and building a new way of life. When the Padre, one of the early guiding figures, died in 2002, Juan carried the full burden of leadership. Though his health began to decline, he rejected internal politics and competition, believing that family should never be divided by ambition.
In the early 2000s, the Aldecaldos found opportunity and breathing room in Mexico City. The redevelopment project there brought resources and relative peace. The Clan grew and re-armed. They even helped migrants during the mass displacements of the Long Walk, guiding them to other nomad clans. The government didn’t like the Aldecaldos’ actions—too many border crossers, too few border guards—but the clan endured.
In 2015, the clan returned to the United States with new faces, new allies, and one final burden: Juan Aldecaldo’s body. He had passed away, and his final wish was to be buried in LA, alongside his wife and children. At Juan’s deathbed, he named Santiago, a hardened but charismatic figure raised in the clan, as his successor. Santiago would eventually take the Aldecaldo name as a symbol of his commitment to the family legacy.
Decades later, by 2077, the Aldecaldos were still deeply involved in the shifting sands of American life—especially in the Badlands around Night City. Under the leadership of Saul Bright, an Aldecaldo pack ventured there to build a new life beyond the old smuggling routes. Saul sought a deal with Biotechnica, hoping to trade the clan’s labor for high-tech agricultural tools that would allow them to become self-sufficient. This move, however, was controversial. Some Aldecaldos feared corporate entanglement more than starvation, seeing it as the death of their independence.
One of the most vocal dissenters was Panam Palmer, a fiercely loyal and resourceful nomad. She disagreed with Saul’s vision, believing that reliance on Biotechnica would turn the clan into corporate slaves. The conflict grew heated—Panam even left the clan for a time—but she never stopped working to protect it. Her actions, including acquiring a Basilisk tank to defend the family, eventually earned Saul’s respect.
In a profound gesture of trust and renewal, Saul made Panam co-leader of the Aldecaldo clan. With her influence, the family turned away from dependence on corporations and instead forged a path rooted in self-reliance, solidarity, and the legacy of Juan Aldecaldo’s dream.
Throughout their history, the Aldecaldos have never stopped evolving—but they have never forgotten where they came from: the ashes of a city, the wounds of loss, and the vision of a man who believed family could be something more than blood.

Type

Political, Family