El Fuerte is a magic Pueblo on the banks of the Rio Fuerte. Our visit was in february which is a good month because the temperature by july breaks 110° F ( 45° C). In the late afternoon we were treated to the Zorro Show which seems to be a nightly staple at the Hotel Posada. Pure tourist fun and all of it based on a sublime legend.
Let me explain about El Zorro, (The Fox), as many know him, was the Mexican version of "class conscience". The modern story goes like this. El Zorro, a young aristocrat, named Don Diego de La Vega, with a sympathetic heart, a cape, a mask, and a terrible swift sword battled for truth and justice in California when it was still part of Mexico. He became a voice for the poor fighting tyranny and greedy creole villains somewhere between 1821-1846. Don Diego had a devoted mute indigenous servant, named Bernardo, from whom it is said the aristocrat Zorro learned empathy. This is the point where he learned humility and where folk religion metamophoses into an epic story. El Zorro, like many other heroes is humanity's answer to a world seemingly dominated by fragile duplicitous morals,,,, but did El Zorro exist? No one really knows, however, his legend is claimed by many,,,, even in the Hotel Posada in El Fuerte where they claim Don Diego was born only to later migrate with his family to Mexican California.
Zorro the hero first appeared in literature in 1919 in a pulp magazine which ran a story titled Capistrano's Curse written by Johnston McCulley, a North American author. It seems McCulley popularized the character Zorro at least the familiar character wether he appeared in the movie The Mark of Zorro with Douglas Fairbanks, the Disney t.v. series version played by Guy Williams, or Antonio Banderas in The Legend of Zorro.
Some say McCulley's model for Zorro was taken from the life of Joaquin Murrieta Orozco, born in Sinaloa, and who migrated with his wife to California during the gold rush. He became a prospector like so many others, and garnered some success. It seems after California became a US territory Mexicans who had been living there all at once became aliens. Ruthless yankee miners pressured the Sacramento government to pass a law called The Greaser Act,,, yes that is the real name of the act,, a slippery law designed to rid the State of Mexican miners. According to one version of the story (there are many) Joaquin was attacked by some Yankee miner's, who killed his brother,raped his wife, and horsewhipped him until he looked like a sausage bursting open in the frying pan. Murrieta tried to find justice in the courts but laws barred Mexicans from participating in the judicial system. That is when Joaquin Murrieta, displaced and humiliated mexican prospector, turned bandit forming a gang of five who coincidentally were all named Joaquin. It's like George Foreman's family of all George's. Murrieta and the five Joaquins began stealing horses, murdering and robbing yankee miners, and banks in revenge for transgressions against their people and families. There are many variations of Murrieta's life but all contain the common thread of being wronged then seeking revenge all the while a sudden stranger in what was once your own house.
After his life of crime escalated beyond the pale the governor put a bounty on his head. A California Ranger, named Captain Harry Love, ( great name for the task) who was a Commander, a famous scout, indian fighter and veteran of the Mexican War. Love assembled a group of controversial men whose mandate gave them license to clean up the State of California using any means they chose. Love's crew found and confronted the Murrieta gang near Fresno killing Joaquin. Love cut off his head and put it in a jar of whiskey. The head became a show piece and carnival attraction for Love who charged a dollar each for a peek.
There is another legend of Zorro which I find very fascinating. It claims Zorro was really an Irishman named, William Lamport, born in 1611 in Ireland. Lamport was educated by Franciscans and Augustinian monks who must have imparted unto him a feel for the meek. He already had a soft spot for the oppressed Irish. This is another case of humility elevating the character of a person from a higher class,, like a downwardly mobile rebirth. It is worth noting that most revolutionaries came from a middleclass background. They have education, time to mull ideas and an elastic class position. This means they can take up and leave on a motocycle like Che Guevera, leaving their comfortable routine in exchange for new experiences. The rich are sequestered aloft, unless they receive the gift of humility like Don Diego de la Vega received from Bernardo,,, but that is very rare. The poor live to survive and have no time for much else. The only difference is that those in the middle class that are affected by disporportion often turn to the sword to achieve their ends.
Guillen became a pirate, moved to Spain and sanitized his past and romantisized his aire when he changed his name to Guillen Lombardo. He was a fair swordsman and a rake, (his piece often outside his scabbard), who gained the ear and respect of the Spanish Court for his prowesses both on the field and off. Lombardo was sent by a Spanish Duke to New Spain (Mexico) to spy on a new Viceroy there suspected of corruption and cruelty. Guillen used his amorous talents (bed and no breakfast) to rise in the social circles, and soon became witness to the savagery, thievery, and corruption in New Spain,,, all the while sending information back to his overlords in Spain. This guy played both sides of the Atlantic,,, at least for a while. Soon he plotted an overthrow of spanish rule in Mexico which he considered inhuman. He was arrested and jailed accused of wanting to organize a rebellion employing willing creoles, indios, and black slaves, then setting himself up as King of Mexico. He was arrested and passed some time in prison with Jews who had been persecuted by the inquisition. I can only suppose that the Jews completed his education. On the night of December 25th 1650 he broke out of prison , not an easy task in Mexico at the time. Rumors circulated that he had been assisted by devils. Lombardo then passed his evenings posting bills all about Mexico City denouncing inquisitors. He became a local legend however. Apprehended once again he was sent to prison and passed nine years in solitary confinement he turned to writing psalms on his bedsheet with a chicken feather for a pen and ink manufactured from the smoke of candles.The psalms were sacreligious, scandalous, and defamatory. Here is just one line:
"The Gentiles are confused by worshiping a mockery of God alien to you, idols of you who are truly the wickedness of demons."
Don Guillen was finally burnt at the stake in 1659, despite the Mexican Inquisition having received orders to the contrary from Madrid. As a last act in the face of the inquisition, it was said that when the flames were lit he managed the ultimate act of freedom freeing his hands and hanging himself by his shackles before the blaze could consume him.
This was not a Disney or Speilberg Zorro. His memory lived on after his death in the hearts of indigenous Mexicans as an early supporter of the rights of the downtrodden. In 1872 Vicente Rivas Palacio, a retired mexican general, wrote a romantic book entitled Memories of an Imposter. The hero of the book was Guillen Lombardo who lives during the day as member of court and at night he is part of a society whose aim is sedition. Riva Palacio portrayed the Irish-Spanish "player of sides" as part of the masonic order. For the Masons the letter Z, whose meaning comes from the hebrew, signifies zenith, splendor, or abundance. For Lombardo "Z" is the spark that creates passion in life. Later Johnston McCulley took the raw clay from Lombardo's and Murrieta's legends and formed the new legend of El Zorro,, or at least the one with which we are more familiar, however the life of Guillen Lombardo seems to me the germ of it all.
As I said the Hotel Posada, fashioned out of a large colonial house, also claims to be the birthplace of El Zorro or Don Diego de La Vega. They even have his supposed bedroom preserved. Legends abound like too many zucchinis and are employed at times as embellishment. A life sized statue of Zorro graces a garden in the hotel. Each evening there is a "Zorro Show", featuring Miguel Angel who not only plays Zorro but is an excellent guide during the day. Miguel Angel appears in costume, like a wild raven dragging his sword across the cement floor. A norteño band begins to play and Zorro sings and works the ladies in the crowd gathered about the pool. His "compañera", Zorrita (it also means whore) by this time begins working the men in the crowd choosing some with whom she dances.
Zorro Statue in the Hotel Posada
Miguel Angel as Zorro
Miguel Angel with his microphone visible
Zorrita Dancing to the Norteño Music
Miguel Angel as a guide
Another evening in El Fuerte we sat in on a dance on the Zocalo put on by university students. There were dancers in a Veracruzano style but then something else. This was our first introduction to La Danza del Venado or the Deer Dance.
Danza del Venado
To Be Continued:
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