Bernardo was Diego de la Vega's servant and Zorro's sidekick in many versions of the Zorro legend. In the original story, The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley, Bernardo was a Native American deaf mute. However, beginning with Disney's television series, Bernardo became merely a red-haired Spanish mute who pretended to be deaf so he would be able to act as Zorro's secret agent. In the Zorro novel by Isabelle Alende, Diego and Bernardo were revealed to have been milk brothers, which would put them around the same age. In the 1920 film, Bernardo was portrayed by Tote du Crow and by Gene Sheldon in Disney's television series. This character is renamed Felipe in the 1990s television series where he was performed by Juan Diego Botto.