Point of View
In The Hills Truth Meets Fiction
By Joann Deutch
Aug 10, 2008 - 8:51:18 AM

If you were a kid in the late '50s, you were glued to your black and white TV set, being thrilled by the adventures of that debonair, masked crusader Zorro!  I say he gained his honor, dignity and charisma right here in the Santa Monicas.  There is always some truth in the characters that live their lives on 35 mm celluloid.  So who was the real life Don Diego de la Vega — aka Zorro?
   The story of Zorro was written in 1919 by Johnston McCulley, then a 25- year-old writer and history buff who relied heavy on California for his storylines.
   Who was the real hero-outlaw?  Making his dramatic entrance stage right is the true life Californio Tiburcio Vasquez. Vasquez was born Jose Jesus Lopez in Monterey, California in 1835.  He was from a well established family, educated, speaking both English and Spanish. However, in his time the newly independent Mexico was still torn by revolution and political mayhem. When Lopez was growing up, the Gold Rush was on, and many of the first miners were Californios, including our Jose Lopez.  Life was rough and tumble. There was a lot of resentment between Californios and Euro-Americans.
   By the 1850s Lopez had made himself a leader of young Mexicans who distrusted the Euro-Americanos, who were already talking statehood for California. The story goes that Lopez had grown confident, bold and arrogant. One night at a dance his young, beautiful girlfriend [or possibly his younger sister] was reputedly insulted by remarks from an American.  The chivalrous Lopez demanded an apology and in the ensuing brawl, stabbed the American.  He fled, certain of American retaliation.
   Lopez shed his identity as a young dilettante, and became the dual personae of Tiburcio Vasquez, the marauding bandit leader, putting fear into the hearts of lawmen throughout California, and Tiburcio Vasquez, the Californio hero robbing from rich Americanos, fighting to keep Mexico in the hands of Californios.
   During a stage coach robbery, it is reported that a young elegant senora leaned out from the carriage window.
   "Tiburcio, is that you?" she said.
   "Senora, I didn't know you were traveling today."
   "Tiburcio, we have the miners' payroll. Please don't take it. Those poor men will not be paid if you do."
   Vasquez raised his sombrero, smiled and let the stage with its payroll pass.  That was the nature of Vasquez, the bandit and lover.
   He was imprisoned three times and escaped each time.  He called the hills over the Cahuenga Pass and Lookout Mountain home, and often sought refuge there.  He was finally captured only when the family of a young girl he had gotten pregnant ratted him out.  Here in the hills over Cahuenga Pass on the ranch of his friend Greek George he was finally captured.
   Newspapers reported that while in jail awaiting trial, Tiburcio was visited by hundreds of people. On one of the busier days he was visited by 673 people, 93 of whom were ladies — giving credence to his hero status among the locals.
   It’s tough to deny the striking similarities between the 1850s true-life hero, bandit, and suave lady killer who roamed the local hills, and the recreated more gentile, clever, swashbuckling, mustachio-ed hero who “carves a 'Z' with his blade. Zorro!”


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