Zorro's times: Carlos III, the "Enlightened Despot"

Carlos III of Spain

Carlos III (1716-1788), reigned as the Bourbon King of Spain 1759-1788. He practiced what was known as Enlightenment Despotism (Despotismo Ilustrado), and brought administrative reforms such as restructuring the colonial administration in the Nuevo Mundo (New World) along French lines, which meant more direct Spanish administration of what had previously been more loosely governed colonies. He set up twelve "intendancies" to exercise power in the colonies. T. R. Fehrenbach explains:

The intendants, who under Carlos III were career soldier-statesmen, were directly responsible and responsive to the viceregal chair. They assumed almost all of the civil and financial administration. Again, because of social pressure and the office mania of the [colonial] society, few of the older posts were abolished; they remained as useless ceremonial offices. Power, however, flowed around them. In one thing there was no change: the intendants were always peninsulares [Spaniards]. This further angered the criollos [Spaniards born in the colonies who were limpiado, or racially "pure"] who had been allowed to buy offices as alcaldes and corregidores, for the titles they came to hold were meaningless in terms of power.

But, as with England's North American colonies, the increased taxes that came with this new arrangement were annoying. To most everybody, according to Fehrenbach, with specific reference to Mexico (Nueva España/New Spain):

By European standards of the time, this taxation was not devastating - but all of it was money that left New Spain; it was a drain. The Bourbons [including Carlos III] spent much on local defense, but the vast majority of the monies they extracted went to support Spaniards and Spanish administration. Nothing was used for capital investment in Mexico. Therefore, increased revenues hurt rather than helped the economy and the poorer classes, while the criollo establishment, accustomed to a century of successful tax avoidance, was outraged.

One of the key issues for the liberals was limiting the power of the Church, which included not only considerable political influence but large landholdings and the personal wealth they generated. This was an interest that Carlos III's government embraced, moving in various ways to limit the power of the Church. This situation was significantly different that those pertaining in the North American British colonies and even in England itself. As Fehrenbach remarks, "societies which have not experienced clericalism cannot easily understand anticlericalism."

But not all restrictions of Church power were liberal or enlightened in their actual effect. For instance, the powerful Jesuit order, which had been the clerical shock troops of the Papacy in the Counter-Reformation, was expelled from Mexico in 1767 under Carlos III.

But in Mexico, the Jesuits not only had the best schools in Nueva España. Their relationship was different in Spain than it was in the New World toward one of the core Enlightenment projects, the promotion of scientific thought and education. Allied with the most conservative feudalists in Spain, the Jesuit order was undoubtedly a competing political and social force to the Enlightenment reformers there, including the King. Carlos III banned them by order to the Spanish Inquisition, an office that still existed at the time:

Prohibido expresamente que nadie pueda escribir, declarar o conmover, con pretexto de estas providencias en pro ni en contra de ellas, antes impongo silencio en esta materia a todos mis vallos y mando que a los contraventores se les castigue como a reos de Lesa Majestad.

[I expressly forbid anyone from writing, speaking or acting with the pretext of these rulings either in favor or against them, before I have effectively established the ban of this material on all my subject and I mandate that violations of this order be punished as if they had were acts of lèse majesté {violation of the sovereignty of the throne, something like treason under absolutist monarchies}.]

(I wanted to quote the language to give a sense of how despotic even an "enlightened" despot could sound. If anyone has suggestions for improving the translation, though, please let me know. Royal decrees of two centuries ago in bureacratic legalese can be tricky to translate into modern terms. The real point, though, is that he imposed a really sweeping and drastic sanction by means of the Inquisition against the Jesuits and anyone who might be inclined to defend them.)

The virrey (viceroy) of Mexico expelled the Jesuits and publicly complied with the royal position against them. Privately, however, he wrote of the expelled order, "Eran dueños absolutes de los corazones y las conciencias de todos los habitantes de este vasto imperio". (They possessed all our hearts and the consciences of all the inhabitants of this vast empire.)

As Fehrenbach writes:

The expulsion of the Jesuits from Mexico in 1767 destroyed the only element in the Mexican Church that was free of medievalism. The Bourbon officials meant to erase a competing institution, but the true effect was the destruction of all educational standards in New Spain.

This role of the Jesuits as bearers of modern ideas and men of the Church beloved by the people does provide some actual historical background for the role played by Padre Tomás and the nuns in the Zorro telenovela.

Padre Tomás (Jorge Cao) from the telenovela Zorro: la espada y la rosa (2007)

Carlos III seemed to have been a genuine visionary in some ways. He supported the development of an agricultural law based on the principles of Jovellanos, the leading Enlightenment intellectual in Spain, though the law was not enacted until 1894. Jovellanos best-known book was Informe en el expediente de la Ley Agraria (1795), explaining the law.

The changes Carlos III instituted in the colonies laid the basis for a more concrete notion of nationalism and national independence in the colonies. As Fehrenbach explains:

In the same way, the new laws that made indios [Indians] citizens and opened the ports of Spanish America to the world at last opened immense opportunities. The commerce of New Spain quadrupled in a few years, though citizenship of indios meant less since the debt peonage laws were retained. The reforms were unsettling for two reasons. They raised expectations, as reforms always do, and they also reminded the criollos and mestizos of the inequities that remained. And, enacted arbitrarily and in an authoritarian manner, they made the colonials acutely aware of the fact of Spanish tyranny over their lives.

Carlos III certainly intended to go farther. Before his death he approved a grand design for an Hispanic Commonwealth, in which the viceroyalties would be ruled as virtually independent countries. This could only have been implemented over violent protests by various interests in Spain, and the idea died with the ablest of the Bourbons.

Here we see the contradictory effects that can emerge from historical developments, sometimes only dimly perceived by the immediate participants. The reforms of Carlos III especially opened up new opportunities for business in the Nuevo Mundo and empowered the criollo and mestizo capitalists and their supporters by providing them new wealth, prominence, prestige and opportunity. But the imposition of such reforms by absolutist-monarchist methods also engendered resentment, including among those in the colonies who most directly benefited from the reforms so imposed.

Statue of Carlos III (Photo: Luis García/Wiki Commons)

Liberal though the regime of Carlos III may have been, it did not look favorably on the Túpac Amaru rebellion of 1780-1781 in Alto Perú and part of Bajo Perú, named for the indigenous leader of the rebellion, who had taken on the name of the last Inca Emperor, decapitated by the Spanish in 1572. The new Túpac Amaru's real name was José Gabriel Condorcanqui (1738-1781); he was a local Indian cacique (local warlord, in today's terms).

Carlos Fuentes writes, "Fue un rebelion inmersa en la violencia y en el simbolismo." (It was a rebellion immersed in violence and in symbolism.) The rebellion was triggered in response to the reforms of Carlos III, such as the administrative separation of Alto Perú and Bajo Perú which disrupted traditional relationships in that region and the intensification of the system of impressed labor that the Spanish maintained there.

Many blacks and mulatos joined in the revolt, and the rebels proclaimed emancipation for slaves. To a signficant extent, the Túpac Amaru rebellión represented a revolt of the lower classes. Their famous slogan was, "Viva el rey y muera el mal gobierno!" (Long live the King and death to the bad government!") His Enlightened Majesty was not impressed with the rebels' good wishes, nor were his colonial administrators. I don't want to get all Mel Gibson here, so let's just say the rebel leader was publicly executed in Cuzco by Spanish officials in a gruesome manner. His wife and two of his sons were also put to death by the forces of the Enlightened Despot.

This rebellion, and perhaps even more so a revolt of blacks and Indians in Venzuela in 1795 which openly proclaimed the radical democratic ideas of the French Revolution, pushed the reluctant and conservative crillo elite in the Nuevo Mundo into taking the idea of independence more seriously.

Sources:

T.R. Fehrenbach, Fire and Blood: A History of Mexico (1973)

Carlos Fuentes, El Espejo Enterrado (1992)

Zorro's times: classes and races in el Nuevo Mundo

Spain's New World was diverse, but not "multicultural"

Working to understand more about the real-life times of the fictional Zorro, I found myself needing to learn about some previously-obscure issues. Like the ones in this post.

A critical concept in Spain was limpieza, literally cleanliness, but which also meant "racial purity". More specifically, it meant descent from Christian Spaniards, i.e., without Jewish or Muslim ancestors.

In the Nuevo Mundo (New World) colonies in Zorro's day (early 19th century), there was an elaborate system of racial categories which also translated to a large degree into class position and social/political power.

Carlos Fuentes describes the following categories, in Spain's New World empire. He estimates about 18 million inhabitants around 1810 who he classifies as follows:

Caucasians; 4 million. This included "limpieza" Spaniards born in Spain, who were known as peninsulares or gachupins. This group also included "limpieza" Spaniards born in the colonies, called criollos (Creoles). Peninsulares had a more privileged and powerful position than criollos. The colonial independence movements were largely led by the criollo elite.

Indígenas, or indios (indigenous Indians); 8 million, and, negros (blacks); 1 million. Blacks and indígenas were the poorest, least powerful and most exploited groups. Some blacks were slaves.

The remaining 5 million were composed of a variety of distinct groups, defined by their parents' race, of which Fuentes gives the following: mestizos (white and Indian); mulato (white and black), a derisive term; tercerón (mulato and white); cuarterón (tercerón and white) tenteneaire (tercerón and mulato); and, saltapatrás (cuarterón and black).

The criollos in Mexico and Central America also referred to the lower classes more generally as "léperos".

Isabel Allende in her Zorro novel gives quite a bit of emphasis to the role of these racially-defined social categories. I'm not sure at what point in the literary development of the Diego/Zorro character that he bacame a mestizo. In Johston McCulley's original story The Curse of Capistrano/The Mark of Zorro (1919), Diego was a criollo.

Allende definitely made much of Diego's indígena heritage from his mother Toypurnia/Regina. She also makes his relationship with the indígena Bernardo one of a lifelong, sibling-type relationship: "hermaos de leche" (like brothers from birth). She has Diego and Bernardo learn about the network of tunnels in their area, which Zorro later used to navigate his way around secretly. In her version, he takes the name Zorro from his meeting his totem animal, a fox (zorro), during a rite-of-passage indígena vision quest.

The 2007 telenovela, Zorro: la espada y la rosa, reatins Diego's mestizo status and uses the same background with Toypurnia as his mother.

The various racial divisions played a big role in the telenovela, as in El Gobernador Fernando's tortured relationship with the indios. They also add the various complications with the gitanos (Gypsies, Romany).

The various geogrpahical/administrative division of Spain's New World Empire can be confusing. As of 1784, the divisions were the virreinatos (vicroyalties), each ruled by a virrey (viceroy). They lay roughly as follows in present-day terms.

Virreinato de Nueva España: Mexico, Texas, California and much of present-day southwest and western United States; sparsely populated territories of Lousiana and Florida were also administratively part of Nueva España.

Virreinato de Nueva Grenada: Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador

Virreinato de Perú: Peru, part of Brazil

Virreinato de Buenos Aires (aka, Virreinato del Río de la Plata): Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay

The Virreinato de Brasil, generally corresponding to present-day Brazil, was ruled by Portugal.

Sources:

T.R. Fehrenbach, Fire and Blood: A History of Mexico (1973)

Carlos Fuentes, El Espejo Enterrado (1992).

Zorro's times: Napoleon Bonaparte and militant liberalism

The historical time period of Zorro in the days when Los Angeles was part of the Spanish colony of Nueva España (Mexico) would most likely fall within the period 1800-1823. I've put together several posts on the historical background of that time. This is the first one.

One of the key concepts for the politics of this period is liberalism, which is hard to relate to our current concepts of "liberal" in the United States. There is more of an historical resemblance to the present-day liberalism in the European sense, as advocated by the parties of the Liberal International. (A bit of advice: don't give yourself a headache trying to translate the LI's brand of liberalism to the American political meaning; their Web site lists Ayn Rand and Thomas Sowell as "liberal" thinkers. Yikes!)

But rather than try to summarize two centuries of the concept's evolution, here I'll just briefly describe the version of Zorro's time.

The liberalism of the 18th century was very much identified with the class interests of the rising capitalist class all over Europe, and also with the ideas of the Enlightenment. Liberals sought to abolish or (more often) limit the power of monarchies in favor of elected assemblies. They wanted to establish greater limits on the political power of the Church, especially the Catholic Church but also the Protestant. Free trade and the sanctity of contracts were important goals for the liberals.

So were personal freedoms, such as freedom of speech, religion and conscience, a press free of government censorship, and security of the person against arbitrary arrest: rights like those in the American Constitution and Bill of Rights. These rights were also central to their political goals. Limiting the privileges of the landed aristocracy was a part of the liberal project.

Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Adam Smith would be exemplary liberals of that period.

The French Revolution of 1789 was, on the whole, a liberal revolution against the French monarchy and aristocracy, and was initially led by liberals. The French Revolution underwent a radicalization that took it beyond classical liberal goals and methods.

Eventually, the French Republic established by the Revolution became an empire led by Napoleon Bonaparte. Here is where the interactions of the French Revolution with other European powers including Spain gets complex and contradictory.

Napoleon as Emperor certainly wasn't going to stand for election, much less allow himself to be voted out of office. During the Napoleonic Wars, France occupied other European territories like the German Rhineland and Bavaria. Napoleon's occupation imposed many classical liberals institutions and practices on them, such as more democratic local elections, or restrictions on the great power of the feudal Junkers (aristocratic large landholders) in Prussia (then one of the German kingdoms).

From the standpoint of the development of democracy, these produced contradictory results. In the Germans lands, it was Napoleon's introduction of "French" ideas and practices, along with the end of the Holy Roman Empire framework and restrictions on the aristocratic powers like the Junkers, that began concrete political developments toward democracy there. It's no accident that the German Rhineland areas most influenced by France became a leading hotbed of the democratic Revolution of 1848.

At the same time, resistance to French occupation was also an important source of democratic sentiment and also greatly increased national consciousness in Europe. It may not be quite so easy to picture today, but at that time nationalism and democracy were closely related concepts. (And, no, not just in the United States.)

In the German lands including Prussia, the opposition to French occupation was organized by German officials raising regular armies and the struggle is remembered as the Wars of Liberation.

However, the legendary Prussian army of "Old Fritz", aka, Frederick the Great, had been a professional army, a "standing army" of the kind that the American Founders considered an inherent threat to democratic institutions. The armies raised for the Wars of Liberation were popular armies drawn from a much wider cross-section of ordinary people who volunteered to fight against French occupation.

This didn't mean that Prussian Junkers were ready to accept farmers and factory workers as equal citizens. But the experience of participating in a "people's army" (by early 19th century standards) was a major step toward a democratic consciousness. And in Germany as in other countries, the democratic movement was heavily identified with the "national movements".

A similar movement occurred in Spain when Napoleon occupied the country and set up his older brother as Jose I, King of Spain. But that's a story for another post in the series.

Tags: españa, jose i, king joseph of spain, liberalism, king joseph of spain, zorro, zorro's times

The Mark of Zorro (1940)

I finally saw the classic black-and-white 1940 film, The Mark of Zorro, with Tyrone Power as our hero and Basil Rathbone as his main enemy, Capitán Esteban Pascal.

The movie opens with Don Diego Vega (no "de la" in this version) in Spain training in the military. We quickly learn he's known as an outstanding horseman and sword fighter. He's summoned back to la Ciudad de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles by his father, Alejandro Vega.

Diego's return home is reminiscent of the opening scenes in the Beli Lugosi Dracula movie. When Deigo mentions at an inn along the way that he is the son of the alcalde (mayor), the men in the bar react much like the Transylvanian peasants in Dracula when they learn their English visitor is on his way to meet the Count. We learn that the alcalde has become a cruel tyrant. This greatly surprises Diego that Alejandro has taken such a Dick Cheney-ish turn.

When he reaches town, Diego learns for the first time that his father is no longer the alcalde, but has been replaced by Don Luis Quintero. Quintero is obviously little more than a front for the evil Capitán, who apparently everyone calls, "Esteban". Diego immediately starts playing the fop (sissy), much to the disgust of Alejandro.

Soon Zorro is riding around defending the poor from ruinous taxes and general oppression. One night, hiding out in a chapel dressed in a cowl as a friar, he starts flirting with Quintero's niece Lolita, played by the lovely Linda Darnell.

Lolita was the name of Zorro's love interest in Johnston McCulley's original novel, The Curse of Capistrano, aka, The Mark of Zorro. But they make a point of having Lolita mention that she's "almost eighteen", giving a gentle nod to the more famous Lolita. This is immediately followed by her aunt, the scheming Doña Inez Quintero (Don Luis' wife), telling us that marriages at an even younger age were common then.

Much intrigue ensues. El Capitán comes up with the idea of creating a family alliance between the Qunteros and the (not "de la") Vegas by having Lolita marry Diego. Part of his calculation is that he's carrying on an affair with Doña Inez, who quickly develops an interest in Diego. Diego uses her attraction to bring pressure or Don Luis to leave Los Ángeles and make Alejandro alcalde again. El Capitán wants to remove Diego as a rival.

Lolita is not thrilled with the idea of marrying Diego because she thinks he's a sissy and already has a crush on Zorro. So Zorro pulls a Dracula visit to her bedroom and reveals his double identity, just as Christian Meier's Zorro (in the telenovela Zorro: la espada y la rosa) would do for Marlene Favela 67 years later.

In the end, he dispatches el Capitán to the next world, forces Quintero to resign and appoint Alejandro in his place and is set to marry Lolita.

I was a bit surprised to see that his final battle with el Capitán takes place as Diego, and he thereby exposes himself as Zorro. Nirvana is achieved, though, when Alejandro becomes alcade and Zorro gives up his sword to marry Lolita, planning to have fat children (that's what he said) and watch his vineyards grow.

Tags: basil rathbone, linda darnell, mask of zorro, tyrone power, zorro

Zorro: Capítulos 107-112 (July 16-23) Part 2

I've stalled doing my final narrative post on the Zorro telenovela because I hate to see it end. I wouldn't have minded if they went on for another month or two.

Of course, our hero and heroine got married at the end. It was a bit of an unusual wedding, even for a telenovela. But let's look at some of the other final resolutions first.

Even though Sargento García was a bumbler and comic relief for a while, we always knew he was basically a good guy. Especially after he prevented el Comandante from executing an innocent family to pressure Zorro. So General Gobernador Alejandro de la Vega appointed him head of security.

Santa María! I'm in charge now! García's happy ending

Sor Suplicios/Ana Camila was happily established in the gayje life with Renzo the cute but useless gitano. And the gitano tribe remained on good terms with them both.

The former demon-possessed nun and her cute-but-useless former-gitano husband at Diego's and Esmeralda's wedding: Ana Camila and Renzo look forward to "happily ever after"

With wife #2 (Yumalai/Guadalupe) off on an extended spirit quest with her sister's ghost, Almudena gets the new Gobernador all to herself. Until she has a baby later on when they make huge time-jumps in the final episode.

I've got you, babe: Alejandro poses with Almudena at Diego's and Esmeralda's wedding

I mentioned in Part 1 that the local gitanos found a home on the De la Vega hacienda. Mercedes turned down the throne but got Queen María Louisa's promise that the gitanos back in the Old Country would be well treated. And she sailed off after the wedding to make sure her gitanos really were taken care of.

Yo te agradesco pero no: Mercedes decides to remain Sara Kalí, Queen of the Gitanos, to Esmeralda's obvious approval

María Louisa was a pretty open-minded monarch. She was fine hobnobbing with the gitanos at the big wedding.

The radical Queen: María Louisa with Azucena, the wife of the gitano patriarch, at Diego's and Esmeralda's wedding

Zorro was dutifully recognized by the Queen for saving her life and generally being of service against the illegitimate tyranny of el Comandante Montero and el Capitán Pizarro by honoring him in a public event. This isn't maybe quite as far-fetched as I had first thought (the rebels fighting for the queen, I mean, not the queen honoring a masked bandito). The original independence fighter of the 19th century in the Spanish New World colonies fought in the name of a legitimate king. But that's a story for other posts.

Bandito no more: The Queen honors Zorro (that's her ceremonial sword on his left shoulder)

Okay, the wedding. Wedding disruptions are nothing unusual in telenovelas. Shoot, I think the Telenovela Code requires at least one per novela. But stressful weddings were a specialty in Zorro. The whole thing began the first night with Esmeralda running frantically through the streets of Barcelona with soldiers in pursuit as she tried to escape from her marriage to some tottering old rich guy her father had arranged.

Diego's and Esmeralda's may have been the Mother of All Disrupted Weddings. They got hitched and did the kiss, with Padre Tomás happily presiding, of course. Padre Tomás also showed his revolutionary consciousness by including in the wedding ceremony a comment about how proud the happy couple were of their baby who had been conceived out of wedlock.

But nobody noticed Mariángel/Mangle lurking in her black Persian chador over there by the wall. As you remembered, she somehow escaped from the cannibals with bloody legs and an apparently scary appearance generally, seeing as how we saw a couple of grown men fleeing in terror at the sight of her naked body a few days (in novela time) earlier.

Her plan was to wait until the marriage was done, then gun down her erstwhile sister Esmeralda. But Fernando, finally converted to the light by the late, lamented Aaron the Exorcist was determined to save Esmeralda, who he had mistreated all her life. He arrives just in time to throw himself in front of the bullet. Much to Mangle's surprise.

Mangle finally kills somebody herself; she just didn't intend for it to be Daddy

After all of Fernando's sins, this amounted to a happy ending for him. While he was dying on the floor in the arms of his beloved María Pía, who unbeknownst to both was carrying his child from their one and only love-making session, Alejandro and Diego both forgave him for having murdered Toypurnia/Regina.

Fernando's happy ending - or as close as he was likely to come to having one

Speaking of whom, Toypurnia showed up to be Fernando's guide to the next world. Only Fernando could see her, though. I couldn't help but noticed that her general demeanor was less inviting that when Almudena was on the verge of death and Regina appeared to her in a beautiful coach with a soft blue glow all around. She had forgiven him earlier for murdering her. But apparently she still thinks a decade or two of torment in Purgatory would still do Fernando's soul some good.

I forgive you for murdering me, Fernando, trust me: Toypurnia comes to take Fernando to the Other Side

But it wasn't just Mangle's patricide that stirred things up at the ceremony. Outside, rampaging pirates were ransacking Los Ángeles stabbing people right and left. Olmos the humpback had arranged this to find Mangle. But the pirates seemed to be having such a great time plundering and killing that they forgot about searching for Mangle.

The pirates gave Catalina and Tobías the chance to finally have their happy ending. A pirate was carrying Catalina off to have his way with her. And Tobías intervened and ran the guy through with the first thrust of his sword. He passed out into Catalina's arms afterwards. But that's all right. Now the two of them can live happily ever after. Too bad Tobías wasn't the same clothing size as Catalina. That way he could indulge his cross-dressing habit with her clothes instead of having to buy his own.

This may not look like a happy ending for Catalina and Tobías, but it really is

The Mangle-and-Olmos story came to a tragic but romantic end outside the church. Well, romantic in a twisted, macabre way. With pirates rampaging in the background, Mangle shot him and he staggered over to her and stabbed her. They collapsed together side by side.

But first we got to see her recently-hideous face. Thanks to the remarkable regenerative powers of the southern California environment in those days, which we witnessed on numerous occasions in Zorro, she looked a little banged up, and a tad pale. Plus, her hair style was a bit shorter and more casual that she usually wore. But otherwise, she was healing fast. (Actually, I kind of prefer her pale leprechaun look, but that's just me.) In fact, she was almost a sympathetic character for a second or two there, in between murdering her father while trying to murder her sister whose baby she had kidnapped and tried to kill, and murdering her ex-servant and ex-boyfriend Olmos the hunchback. They met the end that the One the Only the Great Selenia had prophesied.

Mangle's two seconds of being a sympathetic character, between murdering her father and murdering her former lover

After the newly-empowered García got that pirate disturbance under control, Fernando and Mangle had their funeral. General Gobernador Alejandro joins the Cofradía as a fellow fighter for justice. And Zorro turns in his sword to Padre Tomás at a Cofradía meeting.

Mission accomplished (for now): Zorro turns in his sword

Then we began time-travelling into the future. Almudena and Fernando had a baby boy. María Pía had Fernando's baby, a girl she named Fernanda. Then her old boyfriend showed up and married her, so they could live happily ever after. He didn't need to "make an honest woman out of her" just because she had a baby out of wedlock. Under the peaceful, liberal regime of General Gobernador Fernando and the enlightened spiritual guidance of Padre Tomás, that was no problem around there.

Niños en todos partes de la hacienca: the De la Vegas prove to be a fecund family

And we saw Baby Zorro, Alejandrito, growing up by leaps and bounds. While everyone else, benefitting from the phenomenally healthy climate and crops showed no signs of aging as Alejandrito grew up into a young man.

But the reign of Good Queen María Louisa lasted only nine years, when she passed away. Her successors weren't so enlightened, it seems. And, eventually, a new Comandante appeared on the scene, of a gneration that did not know Zorro. (Extra points for those who catch the Biblical reference.) And the old troubles began anew.

The new Comandante probably thinks Zorro was just a legend

Fortunately, Old Man Zorro and and an equally ageless Bernardo had trained Alejandrito in the secret Zorro skills. No doubt with some help from Aunt Yumalai along the way. So in the end, we get to see the Second Generation Zorro suit up to fight the good fight, while his proud parents give him a joyful send-off. Oh, and Diego and Esmeralda had a baby girl. Diego said that learning how to choose the sex of a baby before conception was one of the first secrets he learned as Zorro. But, unfortunately, he just whispered it in Esmeralda's ear as they prepared to implement the procedure, so we didn't get to hear what it was.

Zorro, the next generation: Alejandrito carries on the family tradition

In a corny but sweet touch, Diego gives Zorro's faithful steed Tornado his freedom, telling him to stop by and visit if he has children later. So we're led to believe that Alejandrito's steed is Tornado's offspring - or maybe grandson.

The proud and ageless parents send Zorro, Jr., off to work

Remaining mysteries

We never learned who the mystery woman was in the picture on Fernando's office wall:

Mystery woman: identity unknown

And, ah, sad to say, the final fate of the One the Only the Great Selenia remains unknown:

The One the Only the Unforgettable Great Selenia: Fate unknown (sigh!)

To conclude with the more literal translation of the famous ending in Grimm's Fairy Tales - no, "they lived happily ever after" isn't very literal: And if they haven't died, they are living still. (Okay, so "happily ever after" sounds a bit snappier in English!)

Tags: zorro, zorro telenovela

Zorro: Capítulos 107-112 (July 16-23) Part 1

It may be kind of jarring to see a post about Zorro sprinkled in with others discussing the Iraq War and the tactics of fringe political groups. But, hey, high politics, high literature, quality TV: that's what we do here at Old Hickory's Weblog. And our cultural staff are unanimous that Zorro: la espada y la rosa has earned a place for itself among the classics of Quality TV.

I learned via the Caray, Caray! blog that my episode count is probably different that what the DVD version will be. It was apparently shot for 120 hourly episodes. But some of them got combined into 1 1/2 hour episodes in the broadcast. So my count wound up at 112.

Our hero and his friends had quite a busy final six episodes. Especially since a couple of decades were squeezed into the final one. A summary can't possibly do justice to the climactic events of this telenovela. But I'll do what I can. Here, I'll cover the outcome of the hostage crisis, in which el Comandante Montero and Mariángel (Mangle) have kidnapped the Queen of Spain and are also holding Baby Zorro captive.

Ah, Selenia, we may never see each other again - but we'll always have Los Ángeles

Sadly, despite the clamor from her fans, there was no return appearance of the One the Only the Great Selenia. She and her magic dwarf Tarsisio headed out for greener pastures several weeks ago and never returned to our Zorro story. Que lastima!

When last we checked in with Zorro here at Old Hickory's, he and Xenameralda in costume were being held at gunpoint by Zorro/Diego's flaky friend Santiago, the one who had kidnapped Baby Zorro and given him to Zorro's evil wife Mangle. Olmos the scarred humpback also showed up. Olmos insisted on going into Montero's safe house to get Baby Zorro. (I forget offhand if he had a particular reason.) When he walked in, the explosives Montero had rigged to blow the place up went off, knocking our hero and heroine to the ground along with Santiago and allowing them to take his gun. Later on, we find out that Olmos, displaying the phenomenal recuperative powers that people living in southern California circa 1810 evidently had, walked out of the exploded, burning house alive. But with more wounds, and scars to come.

And that's the deal, my dear: El Comandante tries unsuccessfully to charm his captive, the Queen of Spain; apparently "Stockholm syndrome" hadn't been invented yet in 1810 or thereabouts

Montero and Mangle took shelter in the villa that Olmos had built secretly out in the woods to be his and Mangle's love shack. But Olmos shows up there, too, and almost chokes Mangle to death with a chain. Montero's men show up and shoot him in the back a couple of times, adding to his wounds but not sending him off to his eternal rest. Olmos also told Mangle that the kid was really Diego's and Esmeralda's.

So Montero gives Baby Zorro to a couple of his goons to kill. Zorro and Xenameralda show up to stop him. But he holds a dagger over the baby and forces them to lay down their weapons and unmask. That episode was in classic movie-serial meoldrama mode. You just had to go with the flow to not worry about why Zorro thought he could save the baby by totally surrendering to the two people who hate him and Esmeralda the most in the world, instead of going for a pistol shot at Montero's head.

But he didn't. So their secret identies were revealed to their worst two enemies, who proceeded to tie them up in a building and set it on fire. Meanwhile, they put Baby Zorro in a wagon and made the horse take off at a gallop.

Fortunately, the ever-resourceful Zorro is able to untie himself with some broken glass and the two escape and go after the baby, while Montero and Mangle take la Reina (the Queen) to the river to get to the port to get away from Los Ángeles.

Fortunately, Santiago the flaky friend happens to come across the wagon running by while he's in the process of escaping two creditors who intend to feed him to the sharks. So Santiago saves Baby Zorro and eventually hands him over to Old Man Zorro, having repented of his previous foolishness. Esmeralda then hightails it back to the De la Vega hacienda to greet everyone in her civilian identity. While Zorro (with his mask back on) gallops off on his faithful horse Tornado to save la Reina.

Los Ángeles ain't Baghdad: the Queen and the radical priest Padre Tomás are showered with flowers by her subjects who are in the midst of an uprising against her local army

Which he does by attacking the boat and giving la Reina time to get out of her bonds and struggle with Mangle, including royal bites on Mangle's arms (a little preview of the future of a couple of the characters). As Zorro jumps into the boat, la Reina finally knocks Mangle out into the river and then she jumps in herself and swims to shore.

Fortunately, la Reina picks the right shore and can swim well. Because Padre Tomás the radical priest picks her up in a wagon and takes her back to town. It turns into a triumphal procession, colonial Los Ángeles style, because a popular uprising is under way against Montero's troops and his military dictatorship. The rioting masses don't blame la Reina for that; in fact, they see her as their champion. Much to her and Padre Tomás' delight. (And probably relief.)

But the people do blame Capitán Anibal Pizarro who was Montero's right-hand man. Pizarro was recovering from a gut shot delivered by his girlfriend Catalina, who was stopping Pizarro from murdering her husband Tobías, who had showed up in drag to have a sword fight with Pizarro. But even the healing wonders of colonial L.A. air couldn't say Pizarro from being stomped into the dirt by the rioters. So Pizarro's story was wrapped up.

Uh, dude, I think we're about to go over a waterfall: Zorro and el Comandante share a rare moment of solidarity as they find themselves in the same boat together (literally) headed toward a big waterfall

Meanwhile, back at the river, Zorro and Montero are having yet another sword fight in the boat, distracting them from the fact that they are rapidly approaching a big old waterfall. That made for a classic cliffhanger at the end of the episode.

We didn't get to see them actually go over the waterfall. But apparently the two of them plus Mangle, who couldn't swim as well as la Reina, all went over the falls. But they came out of the water in separate places. Mangle struck off through the woods, which we soon see is in cannibal country. (We met the cannibals early on, with Zorro narrowly saving Esmeralda from becoming a midday feast.)

Zorro's mask was lost in going over the waterfall, so he fights with Montero without the mask after they both also crawl out of the river into cannibal territory. Eventually, Montero has Diego on the ground with Montero on top of him slowly pressing his knife's point toward his throat. But Diego gets the best of him, turning the knife around and stabbing him in the stomach. (Not your Walt Disney Zorro, as I've mentioned before.)

As it turns out, there are ravenous piranha in the river in cannibal country, too. Given the exceptionally healthy climate and general recuperative powers around there, Montero wouldn't likely have died from just a deep knife wound in the stomach out in the middle of the forest with cannibals hunting him down. But Diego cleverly tosses him into the river, where the piranha go nuts and drag him under water for their own midday feast.

We know that he's really gone, too. The cannibals caught Mangle and mangled her up, so that for a couple of episodes all we saw were her bloddly legs and feet. We don't know how she escapted. But presumably she was too nasty even for the cannibals. So, as seen below, Mangle's bloody legs discover Montero's severed hand with his military insignia lying nearby, allowing her the chance for a sentimental farewell to her old lover.

Together again: Mangle and Montero meet one last time - well, Mangle's bloody legs and Montero's hand, which the piranhas apparently spit out onto the bank after they had devoured the rest of him

Diego still had cannibals to deal with. Fortunately, Esmeralda and Bernardo showed up when Diego was surrounded by a dozen or so cannibals in the river. Esmeralda took one of them out with her crossbow. Then Diego used a cannibal's spear he had caught in mid-flight and dispatched the rest of them in 20 seconds or so.

But then who shows up on shore but Diego's father Alejandro? And Diego without his mask. Alejandro is surprised. And Diego and Esmeralda and Bernardo all have a guilty look on their faces like children caught breaking into the candy stash. Before they can talk, Diego has to go back into the river to dispense with another eight on ten cannibals who showed up. Then he and Alejandro talk for a while. Alejandro gives a quick little smile that only the viewers can see, showing that he's really proud of his son. But he makes Diego squirm for a minute or two before telling him he would be incredibly proud of him even if he weren't Zorro. And they share a manly hug.

"Mi hijo Diego es ... el Zorro?" (My son Diego is ... Zorro?): Alejandro discovers the secret - he makes Diego squirm a bit explaining it, but he's a mighty proud pappa

Sara Kalí/Mercedes Mallorca has a final encounter with Fernando. He asks her to forgive him and she refuses. He hands her his knife so she can stab him but she stabs the ground instead.

Alejando invites the local gitano tribe to live on the hacienda grounds. Things turn out well for the gitanos. Except for Laisha, who betrayed them one too many times. Jonas the patriarch kicks her out of the tribe, making her one of the gayje (non-Gypsy) that she's always dispised. Ana Camila/Sor Suplicios talks her husband, the cute-but-useless Renzo, into leaving the tribe with her, but they still are on good turns with the gitano home folks.

Back to the Blue Lagoon: Now this is what I call a happy ending! From slave labor for the Spaniards to love-slave for the Amazons, Kamba returns to the Amazon tribe

I'll get to the resolutions for the major characters in a separate post. But Kamba the escaped slave has what may the happiest Happy Ending of all. He hasn't been bothered by the demon he caught from Ana Camila since he spent some time with the Amazon tribe. And that's where he decides to return. Kamba has found his destiny. Lucky man. I'm guessing that's a happily-ever-after arrangement for him.

Tags: zorro, zorro telenovela

Zorro telenovela wraps up

Zorro/Diego hangs up his sword at last! (Photo: Telemundo)

Zorro: la espada y la rosa concluded last night. Lots of happy endings for our heroes, with weddings and babies all around. Plus villains getting their just desserts.

I'll do a separate post on the final week in a day or so.

Tags: valentina acosta, zorro, zorro telenovela

Zorro: Capítulos 102-106 (July 9-13)

Make love (with each other), then war (against the bad guys): Diego/Zorro and Esmeralda/Xenameralda, together again at last!

This week set up what are likely to be the final battles, with the good royals backed by General (and now Gobernador) Alejandro de la Vega - with our hero's support, of course! - against the evil Comandante and his rogue army.

The masquerade ball turned out to be quite the event. The Louvin Brothers song "Together Again", beautifully covered by Emmylou Harris, could have been the theme song for this week. Zorro/Diego and Xenameralda/Esmeralda were reunited and apparently stopped to make love (after kinkily undressing each other with their swords) before going in to save the two Spanish Queens (the sitting one, María Louisa and the rightful one, Sara Kalí/Mercedes Mallorca) from the forces of evil at the masquerade ball.

First, forgiveness all around, then a little pecado (sin): María Pía and Fernando finally work something out

Former Governador and former beggar monk Fernando got together with María Pía and they made love, too. Finally, after all these years! And General Alejandro and Almudena did the same. Almudena's talking about having a baby.

Yumalai/Guadalupe gave some of her killer juju juice to Fernando and put him on speed-mend from severe torture and a bullet wound. And the spirit of her sister Toypurnia/Regina appeared and forgave him for murdering her. So Regina and Fernando were together again, too.

Even Olmos and Mariangel (Mangle) got together again. But it wasn't exactly pleasant for either of them. Olmos tried to rape her. Mangle clobbered him with something on the head, then doused him with burning kerosene and finally stabbing him with a broken lamp or bottle or something. Olmos survived but he wasn't looking good what with the livid burns on the side of his head and all.

Una "machala" más: the Amazons return to help fight the bad guys

Mercedes and the current Queen were together, although not "again", since they had never met. Mercedes and Almudena, who knew each other from when she was married to Fernando, were reunited. And, of course, Esmeralda and Mercedes, neither of whom knew the other was alive until the night of the ball. Esmeralda was even reunited with her Amazon sisters, who helpfully showed up when the fighting broke out at the ball. And even Renzo the cute-but-useless gitano was reunited with Esmeralda, although his new wife Ana Camila, formerly the demon-possessed num Sor Suplicios, has cured him of his crush on Esmeralda.

Do I need to add that Tobías' transvestite plan to kill el Capitán Pizarro also flubbed? We knew that was coming.

But wouldn't you know, the evil Comandante Montero had to spoil all the togetherness, with help from Mangle. The Queen ordered him arrested for high treason. But he fought back and in the commotion managed to take the Queen prisoner and high-tail it to his secret cabin hideaway in the woods.

More togetherness: Esmeralda and Sara Kalí - with Ana Camila in the background - and you're in a heap'a trouble, Comandante Montero!

Even worse, Diego's flaky friend Santiago discovered that his thuggish creditors had showed up in Los Ángeles and they threatened to turn him into shark-bait if he didn't pay up the next day. So he snatched Baby Zorro and turned him over to Mangle. Who didn't bother to pay him anyway. But then he met the half-toasted Olmos, who told him the baby was Esmeralda's, not Mangle's. So Santiago and pan-fried Olmos set off to find the baby.

Old Hickory's Weblog exclusive! What Baby Mangle-Montero would have grown up to look like

The end of the week found Zorro and Xenameralda outside the cabin, which el Comandante Montero and Mangle have by now abandoned and Montero has booby-trapped to explode when someone opens the door. Just as Zorro is about to head to his doom, Santiago and Olmos-on-the-half-shell show up and pull guns on them. We can see where this is going. Santiago and/or Olmos will go into the house thinking there's going to get the baby and be blown to smithereens instead.

Selenia (Valentina Acosta): her fans are hoping for her return, too

Meanwhile, Mangle and Montero are on the lam with Baby Zorro and presumably with the kidnapped Queen. Fortunately, they think Baby Zorro is actually their baby. Although the lack of fangs, claws and horns on the kid should have tipped them off to their error. At least General Alejandro arrested the evil Duque and sent him to El Callao prison.

So, there still an Empire to save, and Baby Zorro to rescue. And yet several karmic debts to be paid. Plus, we can still hope for the return of Selenia the Good Witch.

Tags: valentina acosta, zorro, zorro telenovela

Zorro: Capítulos 98-101 (July 2-6)

Xenameralda and Diego/Zorro are finally together again! Although one of the appealing things about this telenovela's Zorro is that he's often kind of clueless about things. Especially when it come to the Sanchez de Moncada sisters. So he doesn't quite realize that his true love, Xenameralda Sanchez de Moncada, is back in town. Having gone through the Amazons' legendary "Become a Warrior Princess in One Week" program, she's become a female Zorro. At the end of the week, she saved the original Zorro from being blasted by royal riflemen.

Everything is building up to the Queen's masquerade ball, which is likely to be the event that sets of the mother of all Alta California battles. Xenameralda and García are holed up in a villa in town, having purchased titles as count and countess, with Kamba along as their valet and coachman. Xenameralda is no longer just plotting revenge but putting it into action. Apparently the Amazons trained her on the crossbow, as well, because that's been her main weapon as the female Zorro so far. She left el Comandante Montero a threatening note via crossbow. And she clobbered three of his soldiers using only legs, arms and fists, taking each of them out with a single blow.

The big day arrives: Olmos was eager, and so was Mangle

But the aftermath wasn't quite what Olmos had expected

Diego and Bernardo (who thanks to Yumalai achieved one of this novela's many rapid recuperations from near-fatal wounds) see Contessa Xenameralda in town one day. But neither of them recognize her. Because, as Jen la novelera writes at Caray, Caray!, "you can’t tell it’s Esme at all, because the sheer black lace fan that covers only half her face makes it impossible, combined with her finely tailored dress, her height and figure, and long, thick, curly hair". We might also question why someone undercover would be walking around the market square in the middle of the day with García who's also on the lam from el Comandante and Pizarro. But I'm sure there's a logical explanation.

Xenameralda got some definite good news at the cemetery, though. When García and Kamba dug up what they all thought was her dead child, she realized from the blanket in which he was wrapped that it wasn't Baby Zorro at all! Going immediately into Nancy Drew mode, she rapidly deduced that the dead child was Mangle's baby and that the baby at the hacienda really is her own Baby Zorro. I had kind of thought that the dead baby would turn out to have fangs and horns, given that his parents were Mangle and el Comandante, but, oh well.

The Angel of Death pays a visit to María Pía (actually, it's a monkified Fernando but he looks like the Angel of Death here)

This week Olmos finally got his wish. Mariángel/Mangle finally made love to him. And, as Selenia had set it up, as soon as they both climaxed, the hypnotic spell wore off and she went back to her pre-love-potion attitude toward Olmos. Which means Olmos' ecstasy was very short-lived.

Former Gobernador Fernando continued to atone for his sins this week. El Comandante Montero busted him at the church where he was sitting in his brown friar's cowl waiting for people to donate alms. Montero wanted to impress el Duque Jacobo by getting Fernando under wraps. I'm not quite sure why, but Montero arrested him for high treason ont he grounds he abandoned his governor's post. But Fernando's snake of a daughter Mangle also let Montero know that Fernando wanted to stop the bloodbath that Montero is planning. So Montero took him to the prison El Callao and tortured him, finally throwing him in a cell with Laisha the gitana and Olmos. (What's with the co-ed cells in that prison?)

Tobías tries cross-dressing in his latest sure-to-fail plot to get revenge on Pizarro

The only good news for Fernando right now is that María Pía left poor devoted Alfonso at the altar. She just can't get that murdering bad boy Fernando out of her heart.

In other subplots, Diego's dubious friend Santiago covers for him on his Zorro identity with Mangle. But he seems to be willing to play along with Mangle's scheme to snatch Baby Zorro.

Yumalai comes to say goodbye to Wife #1 (Almudena)

Tobías, our comic relief stalwart and sometime swishy Zorro imitator, has a new scheme to kill Pizarro. He's going to go to the masquerade ball dressed as a woman. Hopefully he remembers to shave his beard first. His plans seems to be to get Pizarro to make a pass at him and then kill him. Or maybe he plans to do The Crying Game number on him and when Pizarro is stunned at discovering his new blond girlfriend has male equipment, he'll stab him. Or something.

Tobías schemes always go wrong. But at least his wife Catalina prefers to stay with him than run off with Pizarro. Pizarro, though, plans to kill el Comandante Montero at the masquerade ball and then run off to Spain with Catalina, whether she likes it or not. Her expressions now when Pizarro's around are great: dread mixed with ever-increasing amounts of horror.

Regina/Toypurnia appears to Almudena in her role as psychopomp (the mythological term for a being who guides the spirits of the dead to the next world)

The big mystical action this week was with Yumalai. She was back at the hacienda treating a dying Bernardo when Alejandro discovered Almudena was on the verge of death from the big ole dose of poison that Olmos gave her on behalf of Mangle. Then she came to see Almudena who woke up and acted affectionate. Yumalai told her she came to say goodbye to her.

But my prediction from last week is already wrong on those two. Almudena didn't die. She was seeing visions of Regina/Toypurnia's spirit coming to take her across the Big River. But Yumalai ran off into the night and went out to the actual crossroads that Almudena was seeing in her dream. She calls Toypurnia and says she's ready to go with her. Back at the hacienda, we see Almudena suddenly gasp and sit up in bed, totally cured. So it looks like Yumalai is dead.

Tangled up in blue: Yumalai meets Toypurnia's spirit at the crossroad

But not so fast. Almudena and Alejandro drive by the crossroads during the daylight in a day or so. And they notice a bed of yellow flowers that Alejandro says he's never noticed there before even though he drives by there every day. Later at the Indian village, Almudena sees some more yellow death flowers and then Yumalai shows up, looking all ghostly.

She and Almudena have a talk, all is forgiven and Yumalai says she has to go to the mountain and they hug. Alejandor shows up after Yumalai is gone and says that Yumalai took all her things but nobody has seen her. The fact that she took all her stuff tells me that she's still alive and is off doing some spirit quest or something.

Almudena and Alejandro discover the yellow flowers of death - or the yellow flowers of Toypurnia, maybe

A ghostly-looking Yumalai drops by to chat with Almudena

So Alejandro's Big Love arrangement isn't over; it's just on hold for now.

Okay, why'd you poison me, you ungrateful little harpy? A newly-healthy Almudena confronts Mangle

But now Almudena is safe as Wife #1, Wife #2 is off at the Spirit Mountain and Almudena takes the opportunity to go confront her red-haired viper of a neice about that little poisoning incident.


Not your Walt Disney's Zorro: this Zorro doesn't just carve Z's on the bad guys' clothes; here he runs through one of el Comandante's men (ouch!)

"Esto no es mi hijo": Xenameralda realizes that the buried baby is not her son and that Baby Zorro is still alive


A jungle idyll ends: Xenameralda bids farewell to her Amazon warrior sisters

After fencing practice: Xenameralda and García relax while a discreet García inspects her cleavage

Padre Tomás has one of his heart-to-hearts with Diego and makes an expression that says, "I'm glad all my parishioners aren't this much trouble"

La Rosa Oscura? Xenameralda adopts the rose as her symbol in her female Zorro mode - the telenovela's subtitle is "la espada y la rosa"

Tags: zorro, zorro telenovela