Zorro

Zorro (Spanish: [ˈsoro] or [ˈθoro], Spanish for "fox") is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California. Zorro is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante who defends the commoners and Indigenous peoples of California against corrupt, tyrannical officials and other villains. His signature all-black hero's attire includes Spanish noblemen clothes, a flowing cape, a wide-brimmed Cordovan hat (sombrero cordobés), fencing gloves, equestrian boots, and a domino mask. It is completed with a rapier sword and often features a "Z" emblem on the belt or hat. In the stories, Zorro has a high bounty on his head, but he is too skilled and cunning for the bumbling authorities to catch; Zorro also delights in publicly humiliating them. The townspeople thus started calling him "El Zorro", because of his fox-like cunning and charm. Zorro is an acrobat and an expert in various weapons. Still, the one he employs most frequently is his rapier, which he often uses to carve the initial "Z" on his defeated foes and other objects to "sign his work". He is also an accomplished rider, his trusty steed being a black horse named Tornado. Zorro is the secret identity of Don Diego de la Vega (originally Don Diego Vega), a young Californio man who is the only son of Don Alejandro de la Vega, the wealthiest landowner in California. Diego's mother is dead. In most versions, Diego learned his swordsmanship while at university in Spain and created his masked alter-ego after he was unexpectedly summoned home by his father because California had fallen into the hands of an oppressive dictator. Diego is usually shown living with his father in a vast hacienda, which contains many secret passages and tunnels leading...