PART 6: Continuing the Legacy

I had to do something about my Father, but I could not let everyone know Zorro's personality. I had to act like the ill, sissy man i pretended to be in Barcelona. Padre Mendoza was not happy with the way I "turned out", and i pretended to go to the Capital of California to petiton the Governer. In secret, I conspired with Bernardo and my tribe, including White Owl, who told me of her blind brother who still works at the prison, who knew its every twist and turn. I "borrowed" Padre Mendoza's cape and hat, and pasted on a mustache. I met Bernardo and the Indians in the woods, and outlined my plan. Then, it was time to act, they went to carry their part of the plan and i stole into the prison using my disguise. Carlos Alcazar, the warden of the prison and one of the town's bullies in my childhood, suspected little. I helped Bernardo break into the prison and cause a distraction. In the chaos, i slipped out of my robes and into my zorro outfit, saving my father from prison, and taking the pearls that Carlos and Moncada had been forcing the indians to harvest.

Alcazar suspected that I was zorro, and came to take me and hold me prisoner back at my own house. Before I was taken, i have two sets of pearls to Padre Mendoza (as zorro). When Moncada and Alcazar came to collect me, Padre Mendoza gave moncada back one of the bags, saying that zorro gave it to him, keeping the large bag for himself. As i was being questioned in the same room with the secret fireplace, another zorro appeared to trick Alcazar, Moncada and his men away. I could not believe it, it was Bernardo! Just at that moment, a shadow appeared in our secret fireplace, and a pistol clicked into the neck of the lone guard in my room. It only could have been Bernardo. I escaped into the secret fireplace, and there i met Bernardo, who revealed to me that it was really 2 other "zorro's" helping me escape that day. Who was the third? What happens to me after i escape? You will just have to read my tale to find out.

PART 4: Barcelona and Beyond

A very import piece to my life was about to unravel and that was the meeting of Amelia and the gypsy’s. Amelia was a gypsy whose tribe worked in the city and lived on the outskirts of town. Helping them is small circuses they performed on Sundays Bernardo and I honed our skills as acrobats and I as a magician. This was actually were my Zorro costumed was started. To hide my face from Juliana, Isabel, and Nuria who went to see the show both Bernardo and I wore masks. Amelia was actually the first person I made love to. I believe she saw that I wanted a woman that she, as a friend and nothing more, helped me with that. Soon after that I would have to do something that would prove how much of a friend she was; but alas I am getting ahead of myself with that.

First I have to tell you about how I became a member of La Justicia the final step in becoming Zorro. It was a secret society that was started two hundred years before in reaction to the power of the Inquisition. La Justicia save the accused, smuggling them out of the country when possible and helping them begin a new life elsewhere, they provide food, obtained false documents, and when possible paid ransoms; these are things I believed in. to become a member I had to go through not only gruesome train physically but as well I had to go through mental training as well. When the day finally came and I passed the induction I was overjoyed on many levels. They asked me what my secret name should be for the secret society and at that moment I remembered the red eyes of the fox during another rite of initiation and I said “Zorro.”

My first action as La Justicia was about to take place when I found out the Amelia, in the wrong place at the wrong time was taken prisoner by the French and was scheduled to be executed. I could not allow that and decided to do something about it. First I talked to maestro but he declined the help of La Justicia. So I with the help of my brother had to break into the palace of Le Chevalier Duchamp and get him to sign the release of all prisoners that were taken. To do this I had to mask myself so Le Chevalier did not recognize me so I used my disguise from the gypsy circus that I performed, and also put on a fake mustache so he did not recognize the rest of my more adolescent face. I succeeded in freeing them and felt such a rush and doing so and knew that helping people in need was what I was meant to do.
After the gypsy’s had to leave the city and go back into isolation for being persecuted by the French for accusations that they did not even commit. In short time both the leaving of my brother and the retreat of the French from Spain. The leaving of my milk brother broke my heart. I really had never been apart from him for really long periods of time. But I knew that we have not communicated with words and knew what the other was feeling and thinking without them so a whole ocean should not keep us from that. I started to really miss him when maestro was taken to prison for treason to the king and I needed help to get him out. With my great luck he was in a low guarded barracks and I was able to retrieve without anyone dieing.

The last thing that happened in Spain with large importance was that of Tomás de Romeu’s arrest and prosecuted for treason. This time I nor Zorro could do anything to save him; at this point I felt the most useless in all of my days, I could not save him. So Tomás de Romeu’s had to sell everything he owned so that his daughters could have some money to live off of.

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.

PART 5: My Return to Alta California

The time had come. We had to get out of the country. Thomas de Romeau was dead and his girls were entrusted in my care. I returned to America the same way I left it, on board the ship captained by Captain Santiago de Leon. We were captured by pirates, and held ransom in the swamps of New Orleans, where we were held ransom by the dashing pirate, Jean Latiffe. They all lived in a democratic community, and i petitioned my father for the ransom. Unbeknownst to me, back home in Alta California, revenge was had. Rafael Moncada's arm had grown long indeed, he was appointed as Spain's envoy to the California territory, and when he discovered that Diego and Juliana were not there, he took his revenge on the surrounding areas, including the Mission, the indian tribes, and Alejandro de la vega's hacienda. Juliana was not meant for Moncada, however, as she fell madly in love with her captor, Jean Latiffe, who, after the marriage, let Diego and company leave peacefully. On return to his childhood home, desolated by Rafael Moncada, Diego is reunited with his Brother Bernardo, and learns that his father was thrown into prison by Rafael Moncada. It was time for zorro to make another appearance.

PART 1: My Birth, and my Parents

Let me begin my life story even before I entered this earth. My father, Alejandro de la Vega, a
Spanish Military Caballero, was one of the bravest fighters alive. He protected the Mission San Gabriel from the indiano attackers. He was also a great business man, making deals with anyone and everyone, regardless of their skin or color, but that was not until later. My mother on the other hand came from the opposite side of society. Believe it or not, she is Half Native American. Her name is Toypurnia. My father and my mother met in a very strange way. My mother’s tribe attacked a Mission, and my father was called to defend it. When my father believed that the chief of their tribe was dead, he went over and checked the body. It was then he realized that the chief of their tribe was a woman.

After my father realized what had passed, he soon tried to help her heal as soon as possible. She was sent to live with the Governer and his wife, so that his wife would not be so "bored". The governer's wife, Eulalia de Callis, taught her how to dress like a Spanish lady, and even renamed her Regina. My mother and father started spending time together, and before anyone knew it, they two got married and started talking about having a child. My father’s family has a history of having many children, so he naturally wanted to have a good amount of children with mother. During my birth in 1790, my mother almost passed away due to the large amount of blood that she lost. After that, she told my father that she would never have another child again, and he agreed. When I first came out, my father instantly wanted to name me after him, but my mother said that my name would be Diego, and nothing else.

PART 2: My Childhood

I had an exceptionally fun and interesting childhood. One prank that I can remember vividly is when my best friend (who is more like a brother to me) Bernardo, another boy, Garcia, and I, agreed to a few bullies that we could bring them a bear with a sombrero on his head, in order for them to stop bullying us. At first, I had no clue how I was going to go about getting this done, until I remembered something that I stole from my Grandmother. White Owl was her name, one of the leaders of the Indian Tribe of which my mother was a part. I stole from her an ancient sleeping potion, which was used to sedate her daughter, my mother, after her raid on Senor Mendoza's Parish. Sure enough, after creating a trap for the bear with potion covered meat, the bear was asleep! We transported him back to the Town and paraded him in front of everyone. The word of this great tale even reached as far away as Russia, although it was much embellished in that time. You might think that my childhood was one that many would envy, but you would be wrong. There is a part of my childhood that I would love to forget for the rest of my life. Something that was so horrid, so horrible, so frightening, that it is hard for me to continue. You see, when I was about 11 years old, pirates came onto the land that my hacienda was on while my father was away on business. They destroyed only a small part of the house, but killed many who stood in their path. They came into my house and wounded my mother, who tried to defend us. Thankfully i was able to save her, taking her into the secret passageway constructed by Bernardo and I. They went into my brother’s house and murdered his mother. After Bernardo saw what had happened, he refused to talk to anyone, and from then on he was understood to be mute. When that happened, I realized that I want to take part in stopping these horrible crimes. I want to stop the imbeciles who have the nerve to come into my house and destroy what my father After the attack, we had to slowly build everything back up, but the damage had already been done, especially my brother Diego. We tried to restore things back to normal, but we both knew that things would never be normal again. My grandmother White Owl was the person who really saved my mother. After she healed my mother, White Owl put Bernardo and myself on a very hard and long test. We had to trek through the woods with little food, as a part of a sacred Indian rite to find our spirits. As i was just about to give up hope, a fox, a zorro, red eyes gleaming, led me to a place where my brother and grandmother would find me. After that encounter, the zorro has been the one to guide my personality. Shortly thereafter, my father and I came to the conclusion that I should complete my education in Spain. I agreed on the condition that Bernardo could come with me, which my father agreed to. So ended my childhood, and began my adolesence.