The book is rich in the historical details without it ever really taking away from Diego’s story. I knew little about the history and politics of late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth century California and Spain, especially how the California was a Spanish territory and what happened to the Native American who lived there. It spans from 1790-1815 and takes place in both California and Barcelona. I really enjoyed the historical setting of this book. In the original stories, Zorro was already a hero for the downtrodden, so this book is more about the boy who would become Zorro. My knowledge of the character Zorro solely comes from the films starring Antonio Banderas, especially The Mask of Zorro (1998) so this was a nice insight into the potential origin story of the masked vigilante. And so, a hero – skilled in swordplay and acrobatics and with a persona formed from the Old World and the New – the legend known as Zorro is born. A child of two worlds – the son of an aristocratic Spanish gentleman and a Shoshone warrior woman – young Diego de la Vega cannot bear to see the brutal injustices the helpless face in late-eighteenth-century California.
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