★Javier Escuella

Javier Escuella

26 years old

In 1899, Javier is a slim-built man, with black hair and a dark complexion, notably having a mustache that is shaved in the middle, with a prominent scar on his eyebrow, often hidden by his hair. Javier also has a scar along the front of his neck, though he never reveals how he got it. According to John, Javier is approximately 5'8. He generally wears a white shirt with a red tie, a silver waistcoat, a blue jacket and a bowler hat complete with black trousers and boots, which is modified by a poncho and gloves when in the cold.

A revolutionary, Escuella was a firm idealist who held loyalty above any other virtue and could passionately devote his life to a cause. This allowed him to connect with Dutch, who Javier remained unwaveringly loyal to throughout the time they knew each other. As of 1899, Javier is seen to be friendly with most gang members and possesses a strong sense of camaraderie. He seems to be good friends with John Marston, gladly volunteering to search for him when he goes missing during a snowstorm, stating that if the situations were reversed, John would do the same. The two drift apart later on when John begins to lose faith in Dutch, whom Javier stays loyal to, despite his declining sanity.

Javier Escuella was born in a small village in Nuevo Paraíso, Mexico. Javier's father was a drunkard who worked as a laborer on land owned by Agustin Allende's uncle, and his mother was a strict Catholic who would try her best to keep her son in line. When he was a boy, Escuella witnessed his uncle and four other men castrated and fed to pigs, because they suggested the villagers demand a fair wage from the local landowner. This event strained Javier's relationship with his mother, who continued to accept peasant life as it was even after her brother was killed. Eventually, Javier became a notorious bounty hunter and revolutionary, fighting against what he saw as a corrupt system. Around the summer of 1894, he killed a powerful, high ranking former army officer in Punta Orgullo over a woman he was in love with. Fearing that his loved ones would suffer if he remained in Mexico, Javier fled to America. However, he could not speak any English and ultimately became feeble and starved.

In 1895, while attempting to steal some chickens, Javier came across Dutch van der Linde doing the same. They both laughed, and Dutch fed and clothed Javier, offering him a spot in the Van der Linde gang. Escuella felt an immediate affinity with the gang and its ideals; he came to see the gang as his family and his true home, while especially idolising Dutch as a revolutionary paragon and becoming fiercely loyal to him. Javier functioned as a gunman for the gang, and was involved in a number of robberies and various other crimes across the frontier. At some point, Escuella heard that his mother had died and that his sister had married. Despite deeply missing them both, he couldn't go back to Mexico because he would most likely be killed if discovered. By 1899, the gang had fled east and ended up in the state of West Elizabeth. They had been camping outside of the town of Blackwater when Dutch caught wind of a boat carrying an immense amount of money. The gang attempted to rob the boat, but the heist went wrong when Pinkerton agents showed up. Javier, along with John Marston, witnessed Dutch murder a young mother named Heidi McCourt, and participated in the huge gunfight that ensued. The gang subsequently made a desperate escape to the north, ending up in the snowy mountains of Ambarino. After staying in the mountains for some time, the Van der Linde gang goes south, where the state of New Hanover lies. They take shelter at a plateau named Horseshoe Overlook, which becomes their new camp and is located bear the town of Valentine.