Santiago Rivera

Santiago Rivera is a member of the ClueFinders and a main protagonist in the series. He has the title of Team Equipment and Inventions Officer.

Appearance
Santiago is of Latin-American descent. He has short black hair with bangs that hang over his forehead. He is normally depicted with black irises, although they appear brown in some promotional artwork. In most games, his skin tone is a pinkish-beige color, except for in 4th Grade Adventures, where it was depicted as closer to tan. He is twelve years old, in the seventh grade, and is the tallest of the ClueFinders. His signature outfit consists of a yellow sweat jacket with a greenish-black shirt underneath it, blue jeans, and tennis shoes which are brown and tan.

Outfit Variations
In The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures, Santiago wore a light blue T-shirt, blue jeans and dark blue shoes.

In The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures, Santiago wore scuba gear for the underwater portions, which consisted of a wetsuit that is black with blue accents, a blue scuba pack, black flippers, a weight belt, and a blue helmet.

In the original release of The ClueFinders Math Adventures, Santiago wore a dark yellow winter coat with brown around the top, a light yellow shirt underneath it, and the same jeans and shoes as his signature outfit. In the newer release of the same game, his outfit was nearly identical, except his shirt was grayish-blue.

In some promotional/case artwork, Santiago wears a green hoodie.

Personality
Santiago is a highly skilled mechanic who can supposedly repair anything. In The ClueFinders 6th Grade Adventures: The Empire of the Plant People, Joni states that he is "the best scientist" among them. Santiago is rather sensible and level-headed, which runs counter to Joni's rashness. He is usually hesitant about following Joni's more reckless exploits, preferring to think first before going into action. Despite this, Joni and Santiago seem to get along very well with each other. While not a coward, he prefers to avoid danger, and he sometimes displays nervousness at certain prospects.

According to his profile in Laptrap's "Cluefinders Club" file, Santiago also seems to like music, indicated by him taking saxophone lessons and wanting to learn bass guitar, as well as listening to vinyl records while working. His other hobbies include collecting stamps, rocks, baseball cards, and comic books. He is portrayed throughout the books and games as being exceptionally polite and helpful, and also possessing a mild fear of heights. In the ClueFinders book series, it is stated that his parents are Latin-American revolutionaries and that he lives with Joni's family while they are away.

The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures
Santiago and the other ClueFinders go to the Numerian rain forest to search for Joni's uncle Horace. Santiago goes with Joni to explore the rain forest and look for the two keys to the Lost City. After they find the keys,

The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures
Santiago and the other ClueFinders go to Egypt to help Professor Botch with the opening a newly discovered tomb. After Owen causes a bit of trouble, Santiago suggests they leave for the day, to which Professor Botch suggests they come back tomorrow. Later, Santiago, Leslie and Owen discover that Joni accidentally took a ring from the tomb site with her after it became latched onto her hand. When they return to the tomb site the next day, they discover that it has been cleared out and Professor Botch is gone. The only clue remaining is an ancient scroll with mysterious writing on it, which they take to Cairo to have translated. They learn that the person who kidnapped Professor Botch is also planning to unleash Seth, the embodiment of chaos. After translating the entire scroll, the ClueFinders take a boat to the Nile Kingdom, where they must retrieve gems to enter an obelisk. Once inside the obelisk, four ancient Egyptian deities show themselves to the ClueFinders, and give them special powers for thwarting Seth. Sobek grants Santiago superhuman strength. When the ClueFinders confront Seth, Santiago uses his gift of strength to push the pistons that were used to awaken Seth back into place, reversing the process and trapping Seth. The ClueFinders rescue the professor, after which they revert back to normal, and are last seen aboard a plane leaving Egypt.

The ClueFinders 5th Grade Adventures
At the beginning of the game, Santiago and Joni are seen in a submarine, inspecting a shipwreck, when they come across some mysterious stone tablets. They retrieve the tablets and return to Captain Clark's ship, where they show the tablets they found to him. As the ship begins approached an uncharted island, a tsunami suddenly threatens to capsize the ship. Santiago and Joni later wake up on the island's shore with LapTrap. As they try to comprehend what happened, a quake is sent through the island, and Santiago does a test with his video phone and discovers they are next to an active volcano. After finding out that Owen and Leslie are trapped in a chamber of unknown whereabouts and the rest of the crew is nowhere to be found, Santiago and Joni set out to explore the island and rescue all of the ship's passengers.

The ClueFinders 6th Grade Adventures
When Joni accidentally tosses a frisbee into the backyard of her neighbor Ms. Rose, Santiago goes with her to retrieve it. Just as they locate it, the ground collapses beneath them, and they are both trapped in an underground chamber. Owen and Leslie must go to rescue them. Throughout the game, Santiago and Joni can be contacted with the video phone. After Owen and Leslie locate the throne room and discover Ms. Rose is the leader of the plants, they bargain with her to let them try to stop the pollution harming her kingdom. Santiago goes above ground to report the water contamination to human scientists while the others stay behind.

The ClueFinders Math Adventures
Santiago and the other ClueFinders journey to a Himalayan village to solve the mystery of the village's treasures disappearing. He goes with Joni to explore the village and search for clues. In the original release of the game, Santiago mentions that he installed the Logic Cube onto LapTrap.

The ClueFinders Reading Adventures
Santiago and the other ClueFinders go to investigate a meteor crash site in the Seirras. Joni reaches out to touch the meteor, and Santiago warns her not to, too late. Joni's contact with the meteor transports them all to a far-off planet, Millennia. Santiago and Leslie are separated the others, and they find themselves imprisoned somewhere high up. Joni and Owen set out to rescue them. Throughout the game, Santiago and Leslie can be contacted with the video phone.

The ClueFinders Real World Adventure Kit
Santiago has worked to create a new and improved video phone for all of the ClueFinders to use, with features based on suggestions from all the other members. The feature that Santiago personally came up with is Santiago’s Encoder/Decoder, which is used to create secret messages.

The ClueFinders: The Incredible Toy Store Adventure!
Santiago and the other ClueFinders take a cable car to the newly opened toy store, Ultimate Toys. On the way there, Santiago mentions that he'd be interested to see if they'd buy some of his inventions. When Owen forgets his wallet on the cable car, he goes with Joni and LapTrap to get it, while Santiago, Leslie, and AliTrap continue to the store entrance. After Joni's group is mysteriously shrunk to only a few inches high and trapped on the sixth floor of the store, Santiago and Leslie must try to make their way to the sixth floor to rescue them, while looking for clues along the way.

The ClueFinders Mystery Mansion Arcade
The ClueFinders are tricked into entering a mansion where four villains from previous encounters are waiting to get their revenge. Pericles Lear has a challenge designed for Santiago that takes place in a giant pinball machine. During the challenge, Santiago can collect batteries. The batteries are used to charge a force ray, which can be used in Joni's Last-Chance Labyrinth when Santiago is the leader of the team. The force ray can stun enemies, break walls, and move blocks.