Hector Salamanca

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Hate Sink

Post-Stroke
Pre-Stroke

Full Name

Hector Salamanca

Alias

Tio (by Tuco and Lalo)

Don Hector

Origin

Breaking Bad

Allies

Nacho Varga

Don Eladio
Juan Bolsa (all formerly)
Tuco Salamanca
Lalo Salamanca
Marco and Leonel Salamanca
Joaquin Salamanca
The Cartel
Walter White (temporarily)

Powers/Skills

Leadership

Gun proficiency
Marksmanship
Intimidation
Strong willpower
Criminal knowledge

Goals

Convince Don Eladio of Gus' involvement in Lalo's assassination attempt and death.

Make more money than Gus Fring (both failed).
Kill Gus Fring (succeeded, at the cost of his life).
Kill Walter White (abandoned).

What Makes Them Despicable

Abusing his nephews during their childhoods, causing them to become violent killers.

Sadistically murdering Max in front of Gus.
Torturing a man to death alongside Lalo for disrespecting him while the man's wife was listening.
Acting childish when things do not go his way.
His irrational racism against South Americans, even though he is a Latino himself, thus not different from them.

"Love to hate" factors

He genuinely cares about his family.

He is slightly honorable, since he was adamant to never make deals with cops and decided not to expose Walt and Jesse to them.
He came to respect Mike's guts.
Mark Margolis' intimidating performance.
His death scene is amazing, as it took out the seemingly unstoppable Gus Fring.

Type of Hate Sink

Vengeful Crime Lord

“	Look at him. You did this to him. Now look at him.	„
	~ Hector taunting Gus over his murder of Max

“	Oh, you think you can negotiate with me? I say the word, my nephews go to a certain motel, pay a visit to your daughter-in-law and your little granddaughter. What do you think happens then?	„
	~ Hector casually threatening to murder Mike's daughter in-law and granddaughter

“	Bolsa: You have to work together, it's what the boss wants. Hector: The boss can SUCK ME! Bolsa: I'd watch what I say if I were you. Hector: Who you think you are?! You should be kissing my ASS right now! Me and my family, we built this whole business! Bolsa: We all did, together. Hector: NO, NO! Salamanca did! Salamanca MONEY! Salamanca BLOOD! Bolsa: You have to calm down. Hector: That hacienda, I PAY FOR IT! and you treat us like DOGS! Bolsa: Hector, this isn't personal! Hector: IT IS! IT IS PERSONAL-	„
	~ Hector's last words before his brutal (albeit completely deserved) stroke.

Don Hector "Tio" Salamanca is a major antagonist of Breaking Bad and one of the two secondary antagonists of the prequel series Better Call Saul.

In Breaking Bad, he serves as an overarching antagonist of Season 1, a supporting antagonist of Seasons 2 and 3, a major character in Season 4 and a posthumous antagonist in Season 5. In Better Call Saul, he serves as one of the two main antagonists of Seasons 2 and 3, a supporting antagonist in Seasons 4 and 6, and a minor antagonist in Season 5.

He is a high-ranking member of the Juarez Cartel, the archenemy of Gustavo Fring, the grandfather of Joaquin Salamanca and the uncle of Tuco, Lalo, Marco and Leonel Salamanca.

He was portrayed by the late Mark Margolis who also portrayed Alberto “The Shadow” in Scarface.

What Makes Him a Hate Sink?[]

In General[]

He is a politically incorrect villain:
- He is racist against South Americans, referring to them as "dirty people", and advising against doing business with Gus solely on the basis of him being South American. What's worse is that he's Mexican, and many South Americans has similar descent with Mexicans, let alone the fact both are Latin Americans as well.
  - He also called Gus (who is Chilean) "Sudaca", which is a racist slur used to offend South American people.
- He is also homophobic, making several cruel jokes about the relationship between Gus and his boyfriend and partner Max (especially after he murdered Max right in front of him).
- He is also shown to be quite perverted. This is best evidenced when he deliberately drops a glass of water so he can stare at the butt of the nurse cleaning it up.
Even people not familiar with him seem to give off a visible feeling of discomfort, suggesting he makes a generally unappealing impression as he also intentionally enrages the DEA and even makes his nurse spell out his profane and hostile responses.
Frequently throws childish tantrums when things don't go his way.
He adores crossing the Moral Event Horizon, and did so numerous times even before his stroke.
Not only does he not show any remorse for his crimes, but he actually seems to revel in them.
While Gus has understandable and even sympathetic (if selfish) reasons for their feud, Hector's initial motivation for hating Gus are shown to be a mixture of homophobia, racism and jealousy.
While his fate of being trapped in a wheelchair only being able to communicate with a bell could be considered somewhat cruel, it isn't played for sympathy and he was already a cruel person even before getting paralyzed.

Backstory[]

While he genuinely cares about his family, he still showed no remorse for cruelly abusing his nephews in a twisted attempt to educate them, as seen when he almost drowned Marco when he was a child just to teach Leonel a lesson.
- He is implied to have treated all his nephews this way, directly contributing to all of them becoming remorseless murderers who only care about their family.
When meeting Gus and his boyfriend Max Aciniega, he relieves himself into Don Eladio's pool in front of them and quips they were liking what they were seeing.
He sadistically murdered Max in front of Gus under Don Eladio's orders before forcing Gus to look at his corpse.
- This event, shown in Better Call Saul, haunted Gus for the rest of his life and prevented him from ever moving on from Max.
He and Lalo brutally tortured a hotel propietor while his wife listened in from the phone and then burned down the hotel out of petty spite for not being shown enough respect.
He is heavily implied to have forced a driver of an ice cream shop he bought to transport his drugs.

Better Call Saul[]

Despite initially presenting himself as affable and reasonable, he orders the cousins to threaten Mike's granddaughter when he doesn't meet his demands.
When Mike tries to negotiate a payment for lying about Tuco's gun, Hector casually tells Mike that he will have his entire remaining family killed to intimidate him.
When a Good Samaritan picks up the driver of one of his drug shipments that had been robbed by Mike (preventing the police from getting a lead on Hector), he murders the Samaritan in cold blood and has his body buried in the desert.
He has the Salamanca Twins torture and execute his driver just for being robbed.
When he wants to discuss business with Gus, he barges into the nearest Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant with several cartel goons and starts pettily harassing the staff and customers while taking them hostage. He also takes a fountain drink without paying for it and smokes inside the restaurant.
While demanding of Gus to transport his drugs for him, he disrespectfully uses Gus' pen to scratch the dirt from his shoes, while also putting his shoes on top of a rest table.
When Nacho lets his friend Krazy-8 off with a warning for not having enough money, Hector forces him to beat him up while he calmly drinks his tea.
He tries to use the car repairs shop of Nacho's innocent father as a front for his drug business (thus forcing him into a life of crime).
- He continues to do so even after he is explicitly forbidden this by Eladio.
He visibly relishes in Lalo reminding him of their shared destruction of the hotel and torture of the owner.
After Nacho kills himself, he unloads a gun on his corpse out of petty spite.

Breaking Bad[]

When Hank interrogates him as a witness for the Heisenberg case, he defecates on the floor in the interrogation room.
He sends the Cousins after Walter in retaliation for Tuco's death, which results the Cousins killing multiple unlucky innocent people.
He mocks the police even when he comes willingly to "report Gus" and actually gives no information.
While he ends up killing Gus and himself thanks to Walter's bomb, his motivations were not for seeking redemption for his crimes, but as vengeance for the deaths of his family and to die in a blaze of glory.