What is Zorro?
'''Zorro''', [[Spanish language|Spanish]] for [[fox]], is the name used by a fictional [[Mexico|Mexican]]-era [[California]] masked [[hero]] and master swordsman of the Old West. <ref name=SB>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.com/2015/08/18/did-zorro-once-live-santa-barbara/|accessdate=June 1, 2021|title=Did Zorro Once Live in Santa Barbara? Popular Character of '20s Partly Based on Salomon Pico |author=Michael Redmon|newspaper=Santa Barbara Independent|date=August 18, 2015}}</ref> In the stories, his real name is Don Diego De La Vega who fights for the people against the corrupt tyranny of Govenor Montero where he proves to be much too foxlike and cunning for the bumbling authorities to catch. ==History== The first Zorro story was a 1919 novel, ''The Curse of Capistrano'', by Johnston McCulley. He soon becomes a regular character in [[pulp fiction]] magazines. McCulley was inspired by the story of the real bandit [[Salomon Pico]] and other real Mexican bandits who robbed Americans after the [[Mexican-American War]]. However, because his readers were Americans, McCulley had his Zorro fighting Spanish people instead of Americans.<ref name=SB /> ==In other works== The character has been also adapted for numerous [[movies]], the most famous of which include: *''The Mark of Zorro'' (1920), starring [[Douglas Fairbanks]] *''The Mark of Zorro'' (1940), starring [[Tyrone Power]] *''The Mask of Zorro'' (1998), starring [[Anthony Hopkins]] as Don Diego De La Vega and [[Antonio Banderas]] as Alejandro Murrieta, a misfit outlaw who is groomed to become the next Zorro. There was one [[parody]] movie in 1981, ''[[Zorro: The Gay Blade]]'', which starred [[George Hamilton]]. There were also numerous [[television show]]s with the best known one being one shown in the [[1950s]] staring [[Guy Williams]]. ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:Movie characters]] [[Category:Characters in written fiction]] [[Category:Fictional characters introduced in the 1910s]]