Miguel Alvarez
Encyclopedia
Miguel Alvarez is a fictional character
played by American actor
Kirk Acevedo
on the television
show Oz
. He is the main Latino inmate in the series. He is a gang member of El Norte and of Cuban
descent.
Alvarez's father and grandfather are both serving life sentences in Oz, and Alvarez has been incarcerated for assault
ing an old man who accidentally scratched his car. His girlfriend is convicted of the same crime and serving in the Parker Women's facility. Growing up in a hard and poor Latino neighborhood, Alvarez does whatever is necessary to survive. However, he is very much his own worst enemy, and he reacts before he thinks. He is often isolated and has had conflicts with several others, especially Carmen Guerra
and Warden Leo Glynn
. However, he still appears salvageable to both unit manager Tim McManus
and Father Ray Mukada
. He is one of only four regular Oz inmates to survive the entire run of the show (not including Augustus Hill who is killed at the end of season 5 but comes back as the narrator for season 6). The other three are Bob Rebadow
, Ryan O'Reily
and Tobias Beecher
.
Although Alvarez is often consumed by worst parts of his nature,he has shown many signs of a gentler personality. He was devastated about the loss of his only son and was grateful to Father Mukada for helping him through it, even though he later failed to protect Mukada during the riots. He also displayed genuine remorse after he blinded a guard and was so consumed by guilt that he attempted suicide. He appears to genuinely want to be a good person but often finds circumstances working against him.
or grandfather Ricardo
who both are serving life sentences in Oz. Eduardo cannot talk because he has no tongue since a Haitian inmate cut it out when he first arrived in Oz. Ricardo cut the Haitian's heart out and serves life in solitary confinement. At the urging of Father Mukada, the prison priest, Ricardo and Eduardo manage to convince Miguel to be there for his child's birth and it changes his perspective on life. The baby however has a bad liver since Maritza and Miguel both did several drugs during her pregnancy and it ends up dying. Distraught, Miguel becomes a key player amongst the Latino inmates and takes over the gang when their leader is paroled. Ricardo, in the meantime, is suffering from Alzheimer's and Miguel is not sure of what to do about it. During the prison riot, Alvarez is a major leader and takes control of the hostages who are all correctional officers on staff and is particularly brutal with more than one of them. When the S.O.R.T. team takes control, Carlos Rodrigo
's (Miguel's friend) head is blown off next to Alvarez. Unlike the other riot leaders, Alvarez ends up in the infirmary after being shot by one of the S.O.R.T. members' rifle.
, the son of slain Italian leader Nino Schibetta
offers Alvarez a deal in the drug trade to kill Simon Adebisi
. Adebisi does the same thing and Alvarez and the Latinos sit on the side to see what is going down. Later, Warden Glynn is upset about the rape of his daughter. Alvarez knows the men responsible and tortures Glynn with this knowledge since he feels Glynn was too brutal towards him. Meanwhile, Peter Schibetta
is raped by Simon Adebisi
and Alvarez wishes to work with the Homeboys but Adebisi says no since he failed to help him take down the Italians. The Latinos, especially Carmen Guerra
, are growing tired with Alvarez's passive leadership and are then brought higher up in standing when legendary thug Raoul "El Cid" Hernandez arrives. Hernandez dislikes Alvarez immediately and casts him out for being "too white." Alvarez is light in complexion, but what Hernandez really means is that Alvarez lacks the "cojones" ("balls") to be a member of El Norte. Alvarez tells Hernandez that he has no problem with him running the gang being who he is and tells him he will do whatever is necessary to get into the good graces of El Cid. El Cid orders him to blind a new CO, Latino officer Eugene Rivera
. Apparently Rivera is a former rival gang member of El Cid's and will make El Norte have an unpleasant time as long as he works in Oz. If Alvarez does not do this then he will be out of El Norte and killed. Alvarez does this and is thrown into solitary as a result.
is sent to the hole. He boxes against gay inmate Jason Cramer
who beats him after Ryan O'Reily
spikes Alvarez's water. Losing to a gay inmate causes Miguel to be the subject of various ridicule and El Cid starts to question his worth once again. Later, Alvarez assists the Latinos in helping Simon Adebisi
take down the other Homeboys so that they can play a larger role in the drug trade. The drug leaders are now Hernandez, Pancamo, and Adebisi who are working as three-way partners. Being in Em City, Alvarez has agreed to interact with Eugene Rivera
over the blinding, and Rivera is anything but forgiving throughout it. Hernandez at the pecking of Guerra starts to question Miguel's commitment to El Norte. When the Latinos steal drugs from Ryan O'Reily
, O'Reily tips off the COs to bust El Norte, and Alvarez leaves the scene two seconds early and is not sent to solitary as a result. El Cid, angered by this thinks Alvarez snitched on them and orders Guerra and Ricardo to kill Alvarez. Alvarez instead kills Ricardo in self-defense and is thrown into solitary, but not before lying to Warden Glynn about the rape of his daughter.
, who is Ricardo's cousin. Alvarez now reveals that he knows it was Bevilaqua who raped Glynn's daughter. Hernandez and Guerra see to it that Bevilaqua gets a shank to kill Alvarez but instead, mentally unstable inmate William Giles
prevents Alvarez from dying and kills Bevilaqua. Alvarez is sent to the hospital and another unsuccessful attempt is made on him, this time by Carlos Martinez. In the hospital, Busmalis is digging a tunnel which Alvarez escapes through in the middle of the night. El Cid furiously demands that Alvarez be killed immediately by outside connections to El Norte. Alvarez is on the run for the remainder of the first half of this season (The reason why he went on the run was because Acevedo (who plays Alvarez) needed to take some time off from the show to film the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.) and in the meantime Enrique Morales
arrives in Oz. Morales is offered Hernandez's third of the drug money if he gets El Cid murdered. Morales considers El Cid to be too "loco" and "Old School" to be qualified to run El Norte and gets him murdered at the hands of Bob Rebadow
.
During the second half of the season Alvarez is captured near the Mexican border and when he is brought back to Oz, he is sent into solitary. Alvarez agrees with Warden Glynn to be a snitch in Em City if let back there and tries to get back into El Norte. Morales does not dislike Alvarez but Guerra still wants him dead. Guerra enlists Jorge Vasquez to murder Alvarez but instead he ends up dead. Because of this beef, Morales cannot let Alvarez back into El Norte and Alvarez is sent to solitary for the remainder of the season. (The reason why Alvarez is placed in solitary is because Acevedo had to film a two-episode arc on the NBC series Third Watch
.) While in solitary, Alvarez smears his own feces
around his cell.
is impressed with Alvarez taking the stabbing like a man unafraid and tells Alvarez that he wants to work as his lieutenant. Alvarez attempts to use this as an opportunity to kill Guerra, but Guerra kills Velez instead.
Looking for salvation in his guilt over Velez's death, he signs up for a guide dog program being offered to the inmates. The woman running the program Alicia Hinden, is wary over Alvarez's history of violence but she allows him to participate when he tells her he wishes to do this to help Eugene Rivera
, the CO he blinded. Miguel does a great job with the dog and wants Rivera to have it, but Eugene and his wife Tina are extremely hesitant in getting the dog. Rivera accepts though — he wants his wife to be free from taking care of him all the time. Alvarez gives him a special surprise. Under the impression that the Riveras spoke Spanish at home, Alvarez trains the dog in both English and Spanish commands. The dog went to Rivera after it was called in Spanish and for once, Alvarez felt he did something extraordinarily miraculous. McManus and Alicia Hinden were extremely impressed and both wrote letters of recommendation supporting Alvarez's parole.
Warden Glynn does not believe Alvarez should leave Oz and influences the parole board to sway against Alvarez however. McManus warns Miguel about this, but he ends up holding his head high throughout going to the hearing. The parole board is particularly accusatory and belligerent with Alvarez and continuously questions him in a negative sense. One parole member in particular, Luis Ruiz, the only Latino member on the board is very hostile and asks Alvarez "What the fuck makes you think we should set you free, you little prick?". This causes Alvarez to assault Ruiz, and he is sent to solitary as a result.
. McManus warns Guerra not to do anything towards Alvarez since he believes that everything bad Alvarez has done in Emerald City is somehow tied to Guerra. To both Alvarez and McManus' surprise, Guerra wants to be friends with Miguel. Morales offers Alvarez a chance back into El Norte if he does some spying on the Homeboys. Alvarez is trying to remain sane and clean so that he can possibly be paroled. Morales is later killed in the hospital after he is injured by CO Dave Brass and Guerra asks him to lead El Norte. Alvarez declines as he still wants to be paroled.
Alvarez receives word from his best friend that Maritza is cheating on him. Oddly enough, it's Miguel's compadre who she is sleeping with. Alvarez also receives word that he is the sole beneficiary of Aryan inmate Wolfgang Cutler
. Vernon Schillinger
demands that Alvarez give all the inheritance to Cutler's wife and he agrees to but both he and Cathy Jo Cutler, Wolfgang's widow, develop some feelings for each other during the document signing. Schillinger is angered by this as it goes against his beliefs. He has the Aryans attack Alvarez and gets Cathy Jo gone for good.
In the meantime, a gay
nightclub owner named Alonzo Torquemada is sent to Oz and is selling designer drugs called D-Tabs and wants Alvarez to be his partner in it. Torquemada is sexually obsessed with Alvarez who initially wants nothing to do with this drug business. Meanwhile, it is rumored that Ruiz will be the new head of the parole board, and McManus urges him to meet with Alvarez so that he can talk it over how the prisoner can be paroled. Ruiz agrees to meet with Alvarez one on one to everyone's surprise.
In the meeting, Ruiz tells Alvarez that he was purposefully hostile at the last hearing because he wanted to see how well Alvarez handled himself in the meeting. He also tells Alvarez that he grew up in Alvarez's same neighborhood and he is tired of seeing Latinos like Alvarez give the rest of them a bad name. He says that Alvarez will never leave Oz as long as he is the head of the board but they will go through the same procedure each year to mentally breakdown Alvarez. Frustrated, he gives in to Torquemada's drugs and sexual advances. When Chris Keller committs suicide, but makes it look like Beecher had done it, Ryan O'Reily, Poet, and Alvarez are seen examaining his body.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
played by American actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
Kirk Acevedo
Kirk Acevedo
Kirk Acevedo is an American actor. He is primarily known for his portrayals of Miguel Alvarez in the HBO series Oz, Joe Toye in Band of Brothers and FBI Agent Charlie Francis in the science-fiction series Fringe....
on the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
show Oz
Oz (TV series)
Oz is an American television drama series created by Tom Fontana, who also wrote or co-wrote all of the series' 56 episodes . It was the first one-hour dramatic television series to be produced by premium cable network HBO. Oz premiered on July 12, 1997 and ran for six seasons...
. He is the main Latino inmate in the series. He is a gang member of El Norte and of Cuban
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
descent.
Character overview
Prisoner #97A413. Convicted February 3, 1997 - Assault with a deadly weapon, criminal mischief in the second degree. Sentence: 15 years, up for parole in two.Alvarez's father and grandfather are both serving life sentences in Oz, and Alvarez has been incarcerated for assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
ing an old man who accidentally scratched his car. His girlfriend is convicted of the same crime and serving in the Parker Women's facility. Growing up in a hard and poor Latino neighborhood, Alvarez does whatever is necessary to survive. However, he is very much his own worst enemy, and he reacts before he thinks. He is often isolated and has had conflicts with several others, especially Carmen Guerra
Carmen Guerra
Carmen "Chico" Guerra is a fictional character on the HBO series Oz, played by Otto Sanchez.-Character overview:Prisoner #96G522. Convicted June 4, 1996 - Murder in the first degree...
and Warden Leo Glynn
Warden Leo Glynn
Leo Glynn is a fictional character on the HBO drama Oz. He is the warden of the Oswald state correctional facility-Character overview:...
. However, he still appears salvageable to both unit manager Tim McManus
Tim McManus
Tim McManus is a fictional character on HBO's prison drama Oz, played by Terry Kinney.-Character overview:McManus, the idealistic manager of Emerald City, is unlike the rest of the staff members at Oz as he has never been a CO, has a college education, and generally believes in the inmates as...
and Father Ray Mukada
Father Ray Mukada
Father Ray Mukada is a character on the HBO television series Oz, played by B. D. Wong.right|thumb|B.D. Wong as Father Ray Mukada.-Character history:...
. He is one of only four regular Oz inmates to survive the entire run of the show (not including Augustus Hill who is killed at the end of season 5 but comes back as the narrator for season 6). The other three are Bob Rebadow
Bob Rebadow
Robert 'Bob' Rebadow is a fictional character from the television series Oz, a drama series on HBO that portrays a maximum security prison and follows the lives of the inmates in the prison. He is portrayed by George Morfogen.-Character overview:...
, Ryan O'Reily
Ryan O'Reily
Ryan O'Reily is a main character in the television series Oz. He was portrayed by Dean Winters from 1997 to 2003.-Character overview:Prisoner #97P904. Convicted July 12, 1997 - Two counts of vehicular manslaughter, five counts of reckless endangerment, possession of a controlled substance,...
and Tobias Beecher
Tobias Beecher
Tobias Beecher is a main character on the television show Oz, played by Lee Tergesen. He is one of only eight regular characters to survive the entire run of the show...
.
Although Alvarez is often consumed by worst parts of his nature,he has shown many signs of a gentler personality. He was devastated about the loss of his only son and was grateful to Father Mukada for helping him through it, even though he later failed to protect Mukada during the riots. He also displayed genuine remorse after he blinded a guard and was so consumed by guilt that he attempted suicide. He appears to genuinely want to be a good person but often finds circumstances working against him.
Season 1
Alvarez arrives and is stabbed in the receiving and discharge area. He is serving 15 years and is up for parole in 2 for aggravated assault. His girlfriend Maritza is pregnant with their child and is serving in a Woman's facility in the state. He has no intention of being there for the birth of his child since he has never met his father EduardoEduardo Alvarez (Oz)
Eduardo Alvarez, played by Jose R. Rosario, is a Latino inmate on the HBO drama Oz.-Character overview:He is a background inmate who works as a hospital orderly and is the son of fellow inmate Ricardo Alvarez and the father of fellow inmate Miguel Alvarez. When he first arrived in Oz, he had his...
or grandfather Ricardo
Ricardo Alvarez
Ricardo Alvarez is a Latino inmate on the HBO drama Oz, played by Tomas Milian.-Character overview:Prisoner 43A515. Convicted March 3, 1943 - Armed robbery. Sentence: 20 years. Convicted again June 6, 1961 - Murder in the first degree...
who both are serving life sentences in Oz. Eduardo cannot talk because he has no tongue since a Haitian inmate cut it out when he first arrived in Oz. Ricardo cut the Haitian's heart out and serves life in solitary confinement. At the urging of Father Mukada, the prison priest, Ricardo and Eduardo manage to convince Miguel to be there for his child's birth and it changes his perspective on life. The baby however has a bad liver since Maritza and Miguel both did several drugs during her pregnancy and it ends up dying. Distraught, Miguel becomes a key player amongst the Latino inmates and takes over the gang when their leader is paroled. Ricardo, in the meantime, is suffering from Alzheimer's and Miguel is not sure of what to do about it. During the prison riot, Alvarez is a major leader and takes control of the hostages who are all correctional officers on staff and is particularly brutal with more than one of them. When the S.O.R.T. team takes control, Carlos Rodrigo
Carlos Rodrigo
Carlos Rodrigo is a fictional character in the television series Oz, played by Benny Nieves.-Character overview:Rodrigo is a Latino inmate on the HBO drama Oz. He is a soldier in El Norte in Season 1 and dies during the riot of Em City.-Season 1:...
's (Miguel's friend) head is blown off next to Alvarez. Unlike the other riot leaders, Alvarez ends up in the infirmary after being shot by one of the S.O.R.T. members' rifle.
Season 2
Alvarez is one of the inmates let back into the newly built Em City. In this season, the Latinos are looking to move up in rank and are not sure whether or not to work with or against the Italian or Homeboy gangs in the drug trade. Schillinger, desperate to kill Beecher, tells Miguel about how he will push things through the mail room for payment but when Alvarez gets demanding, Schillinger dismisses him with an ethnic slur. Peter SchibettaPeter Schibetta
Peter Schibetta is a fictional character on the HBO series Oz, portrayed by Eddie Malavarca.-Character overview:Prisoner #98S112. Convicted May 19, 1998 - Five counts of extortion: money laundering. Sentence: 35 years, eligible for parole in 20....
, the son of slain Italian leader Nino Schibetta
Nino Schibetta
Antonino "Nino" Schibetta, played by Tony Musante, is a fictional character in the HBO series Oz.-Character overview:Prisoner #95S604. Convicted December 12, 1995 - Two counts of conspiracy to commit murder...
offers Alvarez a deal in the drug trade to kill Simon Adebisi
Simon Adebisi
Simon Adebisi is a fictional character played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on the HBO dramatic series Oz, set in an experimental prison unit.-Character overview:Prisoner #93A234. Convicted May 2, 1993 - Murder in the first degree...
. Adebisi does the same thing and Alvarez and the Latinos sit on the side to see what is going down. Later, Warden Glynn is upset about the rape of his daughter. Alvarez knows the men responsible and tortures Glynn with this knowledge since he feels Glynn was too brutal towards him. Meanwhile, Peter Schibetta
Peter Schibetta
Peter Schibetta is a fictional character on the HBO series Oz, portrayed by Eddie Malavarca.-Character overview:Prisoner #98S112. Convicted May 19, 1998 - Five counts of extortion: money laundering. Sentence: 35 years, eligible for parole in 20....
is raped by Simon Adebisi
Simon Adebisi
Simon Adebisi is a fictional character played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on the HBO dramatic series Oz, set in an experimental prison unit.-Character overview:Prisoner #93A234. Convicted May 2, 1993 - Murder in the first degree...
and Alvarez wishes to work with the Homeboys but Adebisi says no since he failed to help him take down the Italians. The Latinos, especially Carmen Guerra
Carmen Guerra
Carmen "Chico" Guerra is a fictional character on the HBO series Oz, played by Otto Sanchez.-Character overview:Prisoner #96G522. Convicted June 4, 1996 - Murder in the first degree...
, are growing tired with Alvarez's passive leadership and are then brought higher up in standing when legendary thug Raoul "El Cid" Hernandez arrives. Hernandez dislikes Alvarez immediately and casts him out for being "too white." Alvarez is light in complexion, but what Hernandez really means is that Alvarez lacks the "cojones" ("balls") to be a member of El Norte. Alvarez tells Hernandez that he has no problem with him running the gang being who he is and tells him he will do whatever is necessary to get into the good graces of El Cid. El Cid orders him to blind a new CO, Latino officer Eugene Rivera
Eugene Rivera
Eugene Rivera is a fictional character played by Nelson Vasquez in the HBO drama Oz.-Character overview:A Latino Correctional Officer and a former member of the Los Diablos gang, he is an enemy of Latino inmate Raoul "El Cid" Hernandez. After seeing Rivera at work, Hernandez tells disgraced Latino...
. Apparently Rivera is a former rival gang member of El Cid's and will make El Norte have an unpleasant time as long as he works in Oz. If Alvarez does not do this then he will be out of El Norte and killed. Alvarez does this and is thrown into solitary as a result.
Season 3
In solitary, Alvarez is being reduced to drinking his own urine to survive. This is because the COs "forget" to feed him regularly since he blinded Eugene Rivera. Father Mukada, Sister Pete, and Dr. Nathan think it is for the better to get Alvarez out of solitary since he has been cutting and trying to hang himself inside. Glynn reluctantly agrees to let him out. In Em City for the time being he is allowed into El Norte. In the boxing ring, he agrees to represent the Latinos when inmate Carlo RicardoCarlo Ricardo
Carlo Ricardo is an inmate in HBO's prison drama Oz played by Juan Carlos Hernandez.-Character overview:Ricardo becomes mentally unstable while in Oz as his family stops visiting him over a period of time...
is sent to the hole. He boxes against gay inmate Jason Cramer
Jason Cramer
Jason Cramer is a fictional character on the HBO drama Oz played by Robert Bogue.-Character overview:Prisoner #98C931. Convicted September 6, 1998 - Murder in the first degree, Kidnapping, Assault with a dangerous instrument. Sentence: Life imprisonment without parole...
who beats him after Ryan O'Reily
Ryan O'Reily
Ryan O'Reily is a main character in the television series Oz. He was portrayed by Dean Winters from 1997 to 2003.-Character overview:Prisoner #97P904. Convicted July 12, 1997 - Two counts of vehicular manslaughter, five counts of reckless endangerment, possession of a controlled substance,...
spikes Alvarez's water. Losing to a gay inmate causes Miguel to be the subject of various ridicule and El Cid starts to question his worth once again. Later, Alvarez assists the Latinos in helping Simon Adebisi
Simon Adebisi
Simon Adebisi is a fictional character played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on the HBO dramatic series Oz, set in an experimental prison unit.-Character overview:Prisoner #93A234. Convicted May 2, 1993 - Murder in the first degree...
take down the other Homeboys so that they can play a larger role in the drug trade. The drug leaders are now Hernandez, Pancamo, and Adebisi who are working as three-way partners. Being in Em City, Alvarez has agreed to interact with Eugene Rivera
Eugene Rivera
Eugene Rivera is a fictional character played by Nelson Vasquez in the HBO drama Oz.-Character overview:A Latino Correctional Officer and a former member of the Los Diablos gang, he is an enemy of Latino inmate Raoul "El Cid" Hernandez. After seeing Rivera at work, Hernandez tells disgraced Latino...
over the blinding, and Rivera is anything but forgiving throughout it. Hernandez at the pecking of Guerra starts to question Miguel's commitment to El Norte. When the Latinos steal drugs from Ryan O'Reily
Ryan O'Reily
Ryan O'Reily is a main character in the television series Oz. He was portrayed by Dean Winters from 1997 to 2003.-Character overview:Prisoner #97P904. Convicted July 12, 1997 - Two counts of vehicular manslaughter, five counts of reckless endangerment, possession of a controlled substance,...
, O'Reily tips off the COs to bust El Norte, and Alvarez leaves the scene two seconds early and is not sent to solitary as a result. El Cid, angered by this thinks Alvarez snitched on them and orders Guerra and Ricardo to kill Alvarez. Alvarez instead kills Ricardo in self-defense and is thrown into solitary, but not before lying to Warden Glynn about the rape of his daughter.
Season 4
Inside of solitary, Alvarez is harassed by inmate Louis Bevilaqua over the death of Carlo RicardoCarlo Ricardo
Carlo Ricardo is an inmate in HBO's prison drama Oz played by Juan Carlos Hernandez.-Character overview:Ricardo becomes mentally unstable while in Oz as his family stops visiting him over a period of time...
, who is Ricardo's cousin. Alvarez now reveals that he knows it was Bevilaqua who raped Glynn's daughter. Hernandez and Guerra see to it that Bevilaqua gets a shank to kill Alvarez but instead, mentally unstable inmate William Giles
William Giles (Oz)
William Giles is a fictional character on HBO's prison drama Oz played by Austin Pendleton. Other than his erratic speech patterns, he also delivered the quote: "I kill, but never lie!"-Character overview:...
prevents Alvarez from dying and kills Bevilaqua. Alvarez is sent to the hospital and another unsuccessful attempt is made on him, this time by Carlos Martinez. In the hospital, Busmalis is digging a tunnel which Alvarez escapes through in the middle of the night. El Cid furiously demands that Alvarez be killed immediately by outside connections to El Norte. Alvarez is on the run for the remainder of the first half of this season (The reason why he went on the run was because Acevedo (who plays Alvarez) needed to take some time off from the show to film the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.) and in the meantime Enrique Morales
Enrique Morales
Enrique Morales is a fictional character played by NYPD officer turned actor David Zayas on the HBO drama Oz.-Character overview:Prisoner #00M871. Convicted April 6, 2000 - Murder in the second degree. Sentence: 25 years, up for parole in 15....
arrives in Oz. Morales is offered Hernandez's third of the drug money if he gets El Cid murdered. Morales considers El Cid to be too "loco" and "Old School" to be qualified to run El Norte and gets him murdered at the hands of Bob Rebadow
Bob Rebadow
Robert 'Bob' Rebadow is a fictional character from the television series Oz, a drama series on HBO that portrays a maximum security prison and follows the lives of the inmates in the prison. He is portrayed by George Morfogen.-Character overview:...
.
During the second half of the season Alvarez is captured near the Mexican border and when he is brought back to Oz, he is sent into solitary. Alvarez agrees with Warden Glynn to be a snitch in Em City if let back there and tries to get back into El Norte. Morales does not dislike Alvarez but Guerra still wants him dead. Guerra enlists Jorge Vasquez to murder Alvarez but instead he ends up dead. Because of this beef, Morales cannot let Alvarez back into El Norte and Alvarez is sent to solitary for the remainder of the season. (The reason why Alvarez is placed in solitary is because Acevedo had to film a two-episode arc on the NBC series Third Watch
Third Watch
Third Watch is an American television drama series which first aired on NBC from 1999 to 2005 for a total of 132 episodes, broadcast in 6 seasons of 22 episodes each....
.) While in solitary, Alvarez smears his own feces
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
around his cell.
Season 5
The prisoners in isolation are let into Em City during a renovation and are told by Warden Glynn that if they behave, they don't have to go back. Alvarez thinks Glynn will have him sent back regardless so he is not in a mood to be well behaved. He offers a truce with Guerra offering him the opportunity to stab him without retaliation in the shoulder. Guerra stabs him near the heart instead but Alvarez lives. Morales tells him that he cannot get back into El Norte, but a truce and no violence pact will be enforced. A young Latino inmate, Jaime VelezJaime Velez
Jaime Velez, played by Christopher Rivera, is a Latino inmate on the HBO drama Oz.-Character overview:He wants to follow Miguel Alvarez and tries to kill Carmen Guerra to get in his good graces. The attempt backfires however as Guerra kills Jaime....
is impressed with Alvarez taking the stabbing like a man unafraid and tells Alvarez that he wants to work as his lieutenant. Alvarez attempts to use this as an opportunity to kill Guerra, but Guerra kills Velez instead.
Looking for salvation in his guilt over Velez's death, he signs up for a guide dog program being offered to the inmates. The woman running the program Alicia Hinden, is wary over Alvarez's history of violence but she allows him to participate when he tells her he wishes to do this to help Eugene Rivera
Eugene Rivera
Eugene Rivera is a fictional character played by Nelson Vasquez in the HBO drama Oz.-Character overview:A Latino Correctional Officer and a former member of the Los Diablos gang, he is an enemy of Latino inmate Raoul "El Cid" Hernandez. After seeing Rivera at work, Hernandez tells disgraced Latino...
, the CO he blinded. Miguel does a great job with the dog and wants Rivera to have it, but Eugene and his wife Tina are extremely hesitant in getting the dog. Rivera accepts though — he wants his wife to be free from taking care of him all the time. Alvarez gives him a special surprise. Under the impression that the Riveras spoke Spanish at home, Alvarez trains the dog in both English and Spanish commands. The dog went to Rivera after it was called in Spanish and for once, Alvarez felt he did something extraordinarily miraculous. McManus and Alicia Hinden were extremely impressed and both wrote letters of recommendation supporting Alvarez's parole.
Warden Glynn does not believe Alvarez should leave Oz and influences the parole board to sway against Alvarez however. McManus warns Miguel about this, but he ends up holding his head high throughout going to the hearing. The parole board is particularly accusatory and belligerent with Alvarez and continuously questions him in a negative sense. One parole member in particular, Luis Ruiz, the only Latino member on the board is very hostile and asks Alvarez "What the fuck makes you think we should set you free, you little prick?". This causes Alvarez to assault Ruiz, and he is sent to solitary as a result.
Season 6
At the solitary review, Alvarez is released against Warden Glynn's objections particularly at the hands of Tim McManusTim McManus
Tim McManus is a fictional character on HBO's prison drama Oz, played by Terry Kinney.-Character overview:McManus, the idealistic manager of Emerald City, is unlike the rest of the staff members at Oz as he has never been a CO, has a college education, and generally believes in the inmates as...
. McManus warns Guerra not to do anything towards Alvarez since he believes that everything bad Alvarez has done in Emerald City is somehow tied to Guerra. To both Alvarez and McManus' surprise, Guerra wants to be friends with Miguel. Morales offers Alvarez a chance back into El Norte if he does some spying on the Homeboys. Alvarez is trying to remain sane and clean so that he can possibly be paroled. Morales is later killed in the hospital after he is injured by CO Dave Brass and Guerra asks him to lead El Norte. Alvarez declines as he still wants to be paroled.
Alvarez receives word from his best friend that Maritza is cheating on him. Oddly enough, it's Miguel's compadre who she is sleeping with. Alvarez also receives word that he is the sole beneficiary of Aryan inmate Wolfgang Cutler
Wolfgang Cutler
Wolfgang Cutler is a fictional character on the television show Oz, played by Brendan Kelly.-Character overview:Prisoner #02C773. Convicted February 20, 2003 - Murder in the first degree. Sentence: Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole....
. Vernon Schillinger
Vernon Schillinger
Vernon Schillinger is a fictional character, played by American actor J. K. Simmons, on the HBO series Oz.-Character overview:Prisoner #92S110. Convicted October 21, 1992 – Aggravated assault in the first degree. Sentence: Eight years, eligible for parole in five...
demands that Alvarez give all the inheritance to Cutler's wife and he agrees to but both he and Cathy Jo Cutler, Wolfgang's widow, develop some feelings for each other during the document signing. Schillinger is angered by this as it goes against his beliefs. He has the Aryans attack Alvarez and gets Cathy Jo gone for good.
In the meantime, a gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
nightclub owner named Alonzo Torquemada is sent to Oz and is selling designer drugs called D-Tabs and wants Alvarez to be his partner in it. Torquemada is sexually obsessed with Alvarez who initially wants nothing to do with this drug business. Meanwhile, it is rumored that Ruiz will be the new head of the parole board, and McManus urges him to meet with Alvarez so that he can talk it over how the prisoner can be paroled. Ruiz agrees to meet with Alvarez one on one to everyone's surprise.
In the meeting, Ruiz tells Alvarez that he was purposefully hostile at the last hearing because he wanted to see how well Alvarez handled himself in the meeting. He also tells Alvarez that he grew up in Alvarez's same neighborhood and he is tired of seeing Latinos like Alvarez give the rest of them a bad name. He says that Alvarez will never leave Oz as long as he is the head of the board but they will go through the same procedure each year to mentally breakdown Alvarez. Frustrated, he gives in to Torquemada's drugs and sexual advances. When Chris Keller committs suicide, but makes it look like Beecher had done it, Ryan O'Reily, Poet, and Alvarez are seen examaining his body.