Miguel Serrano Vázquez

Miguel Serrano Vázquez, also commonly referred to as the Apostle, el tigre solitario (The Lone Tiger), or his codename "Horatio", is a Dominion of the Black Hand.

Early Years
Miguel was born in Málaga, Spain in 1913, the eldest of three sons. He did his best to help his family survive in the difficult period of time during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera.

He was barely 18 when the Second Spanish Republic formed and the socialist and and liberal republicans won almost all the provincial capital elections. Things finally seemed to be progressing, even the King had fled the country. Miguel was also a member of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, a confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labour unions that while at first supported the Second Spanish Republic, came to view it as just as oppressive as the last regime. The CNT called for Revolution.

Miguel joined the Iron Column at the start of the Spanish Revolution in 1936 and fought on the Teruel front. He was among the militia that freed the convicts of the San Miguel de los Reyes prison and the burned the judicial archives. Miguel's younger brother Pascal was among those freed and joined up with the Iron Column as well.

After the Battle of Málaga and the Francoist takeover in February 1937, Miguel barely managed to escape the city with his life, while his father was slain along with over seven thousand others who fled along the road to Almería and an estimated total of 17,000 people summarily executed in the city proper.

The Iron Column became the 83rd Mixed Brigade (with many members who had previously been delegates becoming officers) in March 1937.

The last hope for the Republican army was the Siege of Teruel in December of 1937. He was a part of the division that took position on La Muela and encircled the city. By Christmas day the city had fallen and only a few desperate holdouts fought on.

On December 29, Nationalist relief forces arrived and engaged the Republicans. By New Years Day, the Nationalists were in La Muela and pressing into the city. Fighting became bogged down as both fronts refused to give ground.

Rey d'Harcourt, commander of the Teruel garrison, surrendered to the Republicans on January 8th, and Miguel was one of the guards selected to transport the prisoner to Valencia and then in Barcelona.

On February 7, 1939 Miguel participated in the slaughter of Rey d'Harcourt and forty-two other prisoners as they attempted to transport them to the French boarder. With the Nationalists on the verge of victory, Miguel crossed the boarder into France and fled Europe on the first ship bound for the Americas.

Life in Exile
Miguel arrived in Argentina in the spring of 1939, having stowed away aboard a shipment of raw cork. Miguel intended to work on a farm that belonged to a friend of his family's that had left Spain just before the Civil War had begun, however while in Buenos Aires, Miguel got into a barroom brawl with a man that accused him of being a coward for fleeing Spain. Miguel didn't kill the man but he came close enough that he ended up in an Argentinean jail for a number of months.

Miguel's life spiraled out of control, he was haunted by the faces of his family and comrades that had fallen during the war. He drank, got into arguments, and fought most nights. He was destined to burn out, a forgotten man of wasted potential...

Until he was approached by a German woman who had also left Europe to avoid war, Silvina Frers. For weeks Silvina had watched him and saw in him a kindred spirit, slowly she began to engage Miguel in conversation. Even in exile he had a revolutionist mindset and advocated for drastic reforms. Silvina admired his passion and decided he was meant for something more than just drinking his way into oblivion.