Background of Study
In 1919, Johnston McCulley began to write a series of popular novels about a swashbuckling champion of justice. Dressed in black, disguised by a mask over his eyes, this adventurer was a master horseman and an expert swordsman, who moved silently and swiftly by night. He left a unique calling card, a “Z” slashed into the clothing or, sometimes, the flesh of his adversaries. The identity of this masked man remained a mystery to his enemies; he was known only as Zorro, Spanish for fox.
Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of California, was cousin to Salomón Pico
The popularity of McCulley’s works carried over into cinema, with Douglas Fairbanks playing Zorro in a successful silent film and Tyrone Power reprising the role in a later sound version. Zorro then made the move to television with a series produced by Walt Disney Studios.
McCulley was inspired by tales of the exploits of bandits in California in the 1850s, when political and economic power was moving from the Californios to the ever- growing number of Anglos, many of whom attracted by the lure of gold. The story of one man in particular fascinated McCulley, that of Salomon Pico.
Salomón María Simeon Pico was born near San Juan Bautista in 1821. His father was a career soldier who served in garrisons up and down Alta California including Santa Barbara. The family was one of the most distinguished in California; numbered among Salomon’s cousins were Pío Pico, the last Mexican governor of California.
Much of Pico’s life is enshrouded in myth. It is known he was the grantee of a rancho in today’s Tuolumme County in 1844. It has been speculated that loss of this property drove Pico to crime. In any case, by the late 1840s he was terrorizing Americans traveling on the roads of Southern California. One of his favorite bases of operation was the Drum Canyon area south of present Los Alamos. Here he would lie in wait, ambush, kill, and rob his victims, the bodies of whom were often never found. Perhaps the most famous story about Pico concerned his habit of cutting the ears off his victims and using them to make an especially grisly necklace.
In the mid-1850s, Pico became a semi-permanent resident of Baja California. Here he boasted to one Alfred Green that he had killed 39 Yankees during his Alta California days. Soon he was on the run from authorities in Baja as well. In 1856 he stabbed an Englishman to death in a La Paz restaurant in the mistaken notion that he was a Yankee. Pico’s life came to an end in May 1860, when he and several other suspected outlaws were executed by firing squad.
The story of Salomón Pico soon passed into folklore — a man taking vengeance on those who had wronged him, a guerrilla warrior fighting to save his homeland from an unscrupulous invader. It’s likely Pico was protected from capture to a certain extent due to the growing tensions between the Californios and American authorities. McCulley melded Pico’s story and additional outlaw tales to create the character of Zorro. In deference to his 20th-century American readers, he placed Zorro in Spanish California, battling corrupt Spanish authorities, rather than American. McCulley’s stories of a highly romanticized and pastoral Spanish California actually have their roots in a troubled transitional era of California history.
McCulley created the character of Zorro in The Curse of Capistrano. He studied the old Californian mission empire for years, and has written several stories dealing with mission times. Zorro was intended to reflect the spirit of the caballero of the times, and to everyone’s satisfaction he did. Douglas Fairbanks made his greatest screen success with Zorro.
One of the interesting things about Johnston McCulley is his source of plots. Most writers have a particular source for their plots, usually from association with the things about which they like best to write. But not so with McCulley. Everything and everywhere is his source. He looks for plots while fishing or motoring, or while digging in the garden. There is nothing prosaic or commonplace in all the world (few words illegible here). There’s a plot in the peculiar facial expression of the man he meets on the street, or (few words illegible here) song. Love, hate, greed, revenge, self-sacrifice have a million angles each. “Combine two or three, mix with a few characters, and you have a plot,” he says.
Literature Review
| The Curse of Capistrano” by Johnston McCulley |
This story originally appeared as a serialized novel in the pulp magazine All-Story Weekly in 1919. After the success of the film The Mark of Zorro the next year, the novel was rereleased by the publisher Grosset and Dunlap under the name The Mark of Zorro. McCulley had no idea how successful his creation would be, and he never expected at the time to be writing any more Zorro stories, so at the end of this story, Zorro’s identity is revealed to all.
Story Synopsis:
The novel begins in the tavern of the pueblo de Los Angeles with Sergeant Gonzales angered about the highwayman Zorro and bragging of how he will kill Zorro. Don Diego Vega enters the tavern to fetch a pot of honey. He and Sgt. Gonzales have a brief conversation during the short time Don Diego is in the tavern in which Don Diego begs to not hear talk about Zorro. Very shortly after Don Diego’s departure, Zorro enters the tavern. He and Sgt. Gonzales have a swordfight which is cut short by a knock on the door. After Zorro has exited, Sgt. Gonzales brags to men who weren’t present about how he easily bested Zorro. Don Diego enters the tavern again after he hears that Zorro has made an appearance and manages to taunt Gonzales on his failure to kill Zorro without actually appearing to do so.
The next day, Don Diego rides to the dilapidated Pulido hacienda. The Pulidos have lost most of their fortune because Don Carles has made some serious mistakes politically. Don Carlos is excited to see Don Diego, because he feels that being friendly with Don Diego cannot help but to improve Don Carlos’s standing with the governor. Don Diego announces that he has come to woo Señorita Lolita since his father wishes Don Diego to begin taking on the responsibilities of a man. Unfortunately, Don Diego believes that his money should be sufficient reason for a woman to marry him and that there is no reason for him to court Lolita, as to do so would be an exhausting waste of his time. Lolita is highly displeased, tells Diego exactly what she thinks of him, and flounces out of the room.
A short while later, Lolita is on the patio when Zorro comes to pay her a visit. Zorro takes great liberties with her; he kisses her hand and makes romantic sallies. Even though Lolita protests at his impudence, she blushes and is quite clearly attracted to him.
Later that day Captain Ramón meets Lolita for the first time and asks to pay his attentions to her. Lolita doesn’t like him any better than she likes Don Diego. Lolita lays in bed that night dreaming of Zorro, wishing that he weren’t a bandit wanted by the law.
She was fighting a mental battle, was Señorita Lolita. On the one side was wealth and position, and the safety and good fortune of her parents – and a lifeless man for husband; and on the other side was the romance and ideal love she craved. Until the last hope was gone she could not give the latter up.
Don Diego invites the Pulidos to stay in his house in the pueblo while he is away on business for a few days. Don Carlos is happy to accept so the family travels to the pueblo. Lolita’s parents accept an invitation that night to visit the hacienda of one of the other caballeros, leaving Lolita alone in Don Diego’s house. Captain Ramón arrives to pay his attentions to her and will not leave when she makes it clear that his presence is unwanted. He tries to force her to kiss him when Zorro appears to defend her. Zorro forces Ramón to apologize and throws him out. Lolita then offers Zorro a kiss, which he accepts.
Captain Ramón vows revenge upon Lolita and so sends a letter to the governor claiming that the Pulidos have been rude to him and are helping the outlaw Zorro. Zorro hears him scheming and enters Ramón’s office to confront him. The soldiers return before Zorro is quite finished in Ramon’s office and so Zorro must retreat hastily. The soldiers pursue Zorro for miles until they reach Fray Felipe’s mission. Gonzales feels it quite likely that Zorro is being helped by Fray Felipe, so the soldiers investigate. Instead, the soldiers discover Don Diego with Fray Felipe.
Don Diego returns to the pueblo the next day only to find out that Ramón insulted Lolita with his unwanted advances. Don Diego states that he “will see the fellow and rebuke him.” Don Diego speaks to Ramón and decides to forgive him because surely Ramon was drunk or in a fever at the time.
Fray Felipe is arrested and brought to the pueblo to stand trial for cheating a dealer in hides. The Fray is sentenced to a lashing, much to Don Diego’s horror. Don Diego tries to intervene for his friend, but is warned that it would not be wise. Later, Zorro accosts the dealer in hides and his assistant and lashes both of them as punishment for their testimony against Fray Felipe. Afterwards, Zorro returns to the pueblo and whips the magistrado who had ordered the lashing.
Don Diego travels with his deaf-and-dumb servant Bernardo to his father Don Alejandro’s hacienda. Don Diego tells his father of his lack of success with Lolita. His father is quite disappointed and informs Don Diego that he will leave his vast estate to the Franciscans unless Don Diego is married within the quarter-year.
“Get life into you! I would you had half the courage and spirit this Señor Zorro, this highwayman, has! He has principles and he fights for them. He aids the helpless and avenges the oppressed. I salute him! I would rather have you, my son, in his place, running the risk of death or imprisonment, than to have you a lifeless dreamer of dreams that amount to nought!”
Later that night, a group of caballeros arrives at Don Alejandro’s hacienda after failing to capture Zorro. Don Alejandro serves them wine and so they have a raucous party. Zorro arrives and makes them understand that they would put their skills to better use if they help Zorro fight injustice. The caballeros enter into a pact with Zorro and go back to Los Angeles to await his further instructions.
The governor receives Captain Ramón’s letter about the Pulidos change in loyalty and thereby travels to Los Angeles to deal with the situation. After speaking with Ramón, the governor decides to arrest all three Pulidos and have them thrown in jail with the common criminals.
The band of young caballeros with whom Zorro had made his pact receive notice that they are to meet Zorro at a certain location. Zorro outlines his plan for rescuing the Pulidos. Zorro’s league of allies arrive at the jail and rescue the Pulidos; Zorro takes charge of Lolita. The caballeros find themselves pursued by the soldiers. Zorro drops Lolita off at Fray Felipe’s mission and rides off, still pursued by the soldiers. Sgt. Gonzales goes inside the mission with several soldiers and attempts to arrest Lolita. She threatens to kill herself with a knife unless the soldiers allow her to leave. She does leave and gallops off on the Sergeant’s horse.
Zorro has one more bit of business to complete. He goes to the presidio and forces Captain Ramón to go with him to see the governor. In the governor’s presence, Ramón is forced to admit that the stories he told of the Pulido family’s treachery were all falsehoods. Zorro forces Ramon to fight him and then kills Ramón.
Zorro leaves and finds himself pursued by the soldiers once again. He meets up with Lolita who is also being pursued by soldiers. Since Lolita’s horse is exhausted and cannot run much longer, Zorro and Lolita take refuge in the tavern. The tavern is surrounded by the soldiers who then attempt to break down the door. Zorro’s league of caballeros arrives and the men get the governor to see that they are all from prominent families and that the governor must go along with their demands. As Don Alejandro supports them, the governor has no choice but to declare Zorro a free man. Zorro comes out of the tavern with Lolita and removes his mask. Much to everyone’s surprise, Zorro is Don Diego Vega. In closing, Don Diego explains to everyone how he was able to deceive them, and Lolita promises to marry him.
https://www.zorrolegend.com/origin/curse.html
