Tuesday, January 9, 2007

PART 3: Journey and Settling in to Barcelona


I write this to account my actions through the four or so years I stayed in Spain with señor Tomás de Romeu. Through my journey of not only starting my Zorro legacy but also becoming a man; from family to friends, from peace to war, and from times of being carefree to the feeling of the weight of the world on my shoulders. My encounters started on my journey from California to Spain with the merchant ship Santa Lucia and the Captain José Díaz. This is where I not only found out how skilled I was in poker but also in hanging from the masts and ropes on the ship. But the most significant part of the journey was when I almost lost my milk brother, Bernardo. He had fallen overboard and Captain José Díaz was not going to help him. So in that moment I decided to jump in after Bernardo because I knew that the Captain would not leave me out in the water in fear of my father. The water was cold, at that moment I hit the water I went into shock, and because of that Bernardo swam over and was the one that was saving me instead of the other way around.

When we first landed in Panama Bernardo and I were both a little nervous for the horrifying stories both father and Padre Mendoza had told them about the natives that lived there. But as time went by we found out that the natives were actually very kind to them. Getting from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean was a very hot and humid time that I do not remember much. When we finally came to Portobelo we searched and found the vessel named Madre de Dios that we were to cross the Atlantic on. The captain, Santiago de León, was a great teacher of navigation and maps, as well as an entertaining conversationalist. The books he carried with him were also good to help the time go by and to learn even more, the captain traded theses books at every port. The captain was actually the one that opened my eyes to the fact that there were many different ways of thinking and you as a person had the choice to choose a way to think. Once I was done reading and was tired of winning beans in shells in poker, I had decided to learn magic from Señor Tempesta. For the rest of the voyage I spent almost every waking moment on learning all I could from Tempesta.

When my brother and I reached Barcelona we bid everyone on the vessel farewell and were headed on our way to Tomás de Romeu’s home. That same night I saw the most beautiful women in the world, she was the daughter of Tomás de Romeu. I will never forget the first time I laid eyes on her and I saw her raven black hair, milky skin, and the most alluring jade green eyes that were simply unforgettable. Isabel, on the other hand, was like an annoying younger sister at times. At the School of Humanities I learned Latin and a lot about philosophy; but one of my greatest attributes I would learn outside of the school at Maestro Manuel Escalante’s Fencing Academy for the Instruction of Nobles and Caballeros. Here I learned the style of Fencing and everything else Manuel Escalante could teach me. I was there diligently at 8:00 o’clock no earlier and definitely never later. On a visit the Eulalia de Callís’s palace I had an encounter with Rafael Moncada when I saw that he had struck my brother, Bernardo, across the shoulders. At that point I became enraged and I challenged him to a duel. When it finally started to come to pass Bernardo pointed out to me that the duel was not to avenge him but more because of Juliana, even though he was right I would never admit it. That duel was never to kill Rafael Moncada but to humiliate him in front of all the witnesses, even though it cost me a wound in the arm. But that was more to my advantage because that gesture made Juliana recognize me, even if for a little while she still recognized me.

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