Don Diego de la Vega (also known as Diego Vega) is a Spanish nobleman of the 19th Century, and is the main protagonist of the Zorro series. He is a young scholar whose alter ego is El Zorro. Upon returning home he found that Los Angeles was being ruled by a tyrant (usually the Alcalde although in some stories it is an evil Commandante of the Spanish army and even still in other stories, the Governor of California).
Background[]
Don Diego de la Vega is depicted as a former university student, newly recalled by his father from Spain to his home outside El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de los Ángeles sobre El Rio Porciuncula (later shortened as Los Angeles). Just before reaching California, Diego learns of the tyranny of Captain Monastario from the ship's captain, and realizes that his father, Don Alejandro (George J. Lewis), summoned him to help fight this injustice. Although he won medals for his fencing back in Spain, Diego decides that his best course of action is to conceal his ability with a sword, and to affect the demeanor of a milquetoast intellectual rather than a decisive man of action. His alter ego, Zorro, operates primarily at night, taking the direct action that Diego cannot. This deception does not always sit well with Diego, especially as it affects his relationship with his disappointed father. In reality, Diego relies heavily on his wits, both with and without the mask on. Later in the series, Diego emerges as a respected figure in his own right, a clever thinker and loyal friend who just happens to be hopeless at swordplay.
The character's name in Johnston McCulley's writing and previous adaptations was Diego Vega; the Disney version expands the name to Diego de la Vega, an innovation retained in some subsequent versions of the story.
Gallery[]
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