IAHGames

Everyone loves a great swashbuckling adventure where an outlaw defeats all the baddies and rides off into the sunset with a lovely lady. It’s no wonder The Mask of Zorro (1998) swept movie-goers off their feet with the help of charming stars Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Now, seeing that this movie made it to this week’s edition of Larger Than Life, you must be thinking, “Could it be? Zorro was based on a real person?”

Hell yeah. Spot on this time. The character of Zorro was partly inspired by a real-life outlaw in the early 19th Century: Joaquin Murrieta…

Now, before we start proper, let me first clarify that the character named Joaquin Murrieta in the movie is not Zorro’s alter ego. Instead his brother, Alejandro Murrieta, becomes Zorro junior when Zorro senior (played by Anthony Hopkins) takes him on as an apprentice. As if having multiple versions of Zorro ain’t confusing enough, the scriptwriter decided to use actual people who were inspirations for the movie, and twisted their roles and relationships around.

Perhaps… Lady Gaga was singing about Zorro?
Source: Interscope records

Get a load of this: Joaquin’s namesake in the movie was murdered by a Texian Army Captain, Harrison Love. In actual documentation, former Texas Ranger, Captain Harry Love, led the California State Rangers to hunt Joaquin down and allegedly took his head and the reward money. One of the real Joaquin’s most notorious friends, Three-Fingered Jack, was also murdered. In the movie, the murder of Three-Fingered Jack also happens, but instead, he was Alejandro’s mentor.

Confused? You bet I am too. They probably wanted to pay homage to the inspiration behind the movie, but by not making him Zorro, it sure makes things a hell lot more complicated.

Now let’s just focus on the real Joaquin Murrieta and our fictional anti-hero, Zorro. According to legend, Joaquin (disputed if he was born in Mexico or Chile) and many other foreigners travelled to California to seek out opportunities in 1849 during the Gold Rush.

Like the Gold Farmers of the 21st Century
Source: Topless Robot

As the legend goes, while farming for gold (bet it sounds familiar to you MMORPG players) it seemed good fortune shunned Joaquin, resulting in his wife Rosa being raped and killed, his innocent brother hanged and himself wrongly accused for a crime and severely whipped. Thus began the whole “I HATE YOU ALL” phase of Joaquin’s life, where he turned to a life of crime, declaring revenge on all Americans. Ohhh, nasty.

Some proclaim him a Mexican patriot for fighting against the economic and cultural domination of the Anglo-Americans in California. In fact, he was also known as the Robin Hood of El Dorado and a symbol of resistance. Others just wanted him dead. Allegedly, his crimes included petty theft, horse and cattle theft, bank robbery, rape and even murder. It’s no wonder they offered up to a $5,000 reward for his capture, dead or alive.

Will the real Joaquin please stand up?
Source: Enquirer.Com

Granted, he was probably like many bandits of that time, and dissenters say there were many people called Joaquin then. So the legend of Joaquin Murrieta remains as it is – a legend. His severed head made the rounds after his death in 1853, after two years of him living the life of an outlaw in California. This head-preserved-in-alcohol was a travelling exhibition, and people paid a buck to see it. However, 25 years later, a woman who claimed to be his sister said it was not his head, while others say they spotted senior citizen Joaquin himself. Others also said he returned to Mexico and was still alive in the 1860s.

Everyone enjoys a good fight – here’s the most famous scene from the movie

Fact or fiction, the legend of Joaquin Murrieta gave life to the Legend of Zorro, a charismatic masked man often seen on horseback, etching his trademark “Z” onto wherever he has delivered justice. Some of us may be old enough to remember the Disney television series or even the 1965 movie. Check out this online essay here for more tidbits on the man.