What I am reading now

So, I picked this book up at my local Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't heard of this book before but I saw it there and took a chance on it and I am so glad I did, it has been a great book so far. I am only about 60 pages into it (the book has a total of 459 pages) but it has been incredibly interesting.

I had heard of Joaquin Murrieta before, and I knew he was the inspiration for the character of Zorro, and I knew he was kind of a bandit, but other than that I knew nothing. Looks like I am in for an education though because there is much more to the story, and it has been a great read so far.

Violent too, I had no idea of the violence that was in the gold camps in California around the gold rush of 1849. That is where the story begins with Joaquin and his family coming up from Mexico once they heard of gold being found in California, as did thousands of other Mexicans, as well as Chileans and Peruvians as well.

Mix in a bunch of Anglos, and convicts from Australia, and basically no law and you have a recipe for violence.

Anyway, can't wait to read more, I just have to find a few minutes here and there in my daily schedule.

Oh, and the book has already mentioned bullfighting once. I guess in the heavily Mexican camps they would hold bullfights along with other fiestas and drinking and gambling. Sounds like a wild time. 

Stay tuned for more.

The Mark of Zorro

I finished up reading the original story of Zorro a couple of weeks ago.

First written in 1919 as a series of short stories for a pulp fiction magazine, the stories were compiled and released in book form as The Mark of Zorro. (It was originally known as The Curse of Capistrano.)

I enjoyed reading it, "by the Saints!"

It was a lot of fun to read something that was written a hundred years ago, although the ending of the story was rather a let down. I think if it was a more modern story the ending would have been much different, but se la vie.

Bulls were only mentioned one time, and it was not in a bullfight sense. But there was a lot of talk of haciendas and rancheros, things of that nature.

All in all it was fun to read.

Zorro

I am adding this article to the blog since this year marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the fictional character  "Zorro". (Although based on a real person, Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo, 1829 - July 25, 1853)

The stories of Zorro typically take place during the Spanish Colonial period of California (1769–1821) in and around the Pueblo of Los Angeles. This is the time period when bullfights were held regularly in Los Angeles. Hence my interest.

I have always been familiar with Zorro, but I have never read any of the books. That will change this coming year however as I plan on reading the original Zorro tale, "Curse of Capistrano" as well as the newer and very well reviewed book "Zorro" by Isabel Allende. I am interested to see if bulls or bullfights are mentioned anywhere in those books.

Long live the Fox! and long live the bullfight!

I will give updates as I read those books next year.

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(by Peter Sanderson britannica.com)

Zorro, fictional character created in 1919 by writer Johnston McCulley. The masked, sword-wielding vigilante defends the poor and victimized against the forces of injustice, and his feats have been featured in virtually every form of media.

Zorro, whose name in Spanish means “fox,” was likely based on Mexican folktales of a noble bandit who fought on behalf of the peasantry and indigenous peoples. The character first appeared in McCulley’s serialized five-part story “The Curse of Capistrano,” which was published in the pulp magazine All-Story Weekly beginning in August 1919. Zorro’s true identity is Don Diego Vega (later changed to Don Diego de la Vega), a young nobleman who lived in Los Angeles, California, during the early 19th century when the area was still under Spanish rule. Don Diego became the swordsman Zorro in order to defend the people of Los Angeles from political oppression. Zorro famously uses the letter Z as his “mark,” using his sword to carve it into the clothes—or sometimes the bodies—of his adversaries in three swift strokes. Zorro is not only a master swordsman but a skilled marksman and horseman.

In 1920 Douglas Fairbanks starred in a film adaptation of McCulley’s story, titled The Mark of Zorro, which became a commercial hit and an enduring classic. It was this film that established Zorro’s iconic black costume, which featured a cape, a gaucho hat, and a mask that concealed the top half of his face. As a result of the film’s success, McCulley wrote more than 60 more Zorro stories, starting in 1922; the last was published in 1959, a year after McCulley’s death.

In addition to his success on the printed page, Zorro remained a popular draw at the box office, and Fairbanks returned to the role in a movie sequel, Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925). The 1940 remake of The Mark of Zorro starred Tyrone Power in the title role. In The Mask of Zorro (1998), Anthony Hopkins played an aging Don Diego, who emerges from retirement to train Antonio Banderas’s character to be his successor as Zorro. Banderas reprised that role in The Legend of Zorro in 2005. Zorro’s television appearances included Walt Disney’s Zorro series (1957–59), starring Guy Williams as the masked hero, as well as a syndicated live-action show (1990–93) and numerous animated series.