Zorro

by Isabel Allende

Captain Alejandro de la Vega, a Spanish soldier, marries a Native American woman named Regina. He retires from the military and becomes a hacienda owner, and later an alcalde. The two have a son, Diego. While Regina is pregnant with Diego, she befriends Ana, a young convert assigned to care for her during her pregnancy. Diego and Ana's son, Bernardo, grow up together and become close friends. As teenagers, Diego and Bernardo undergo a test to prove their maturity and to find their spirit guides. Bernardo's spirit guide is a horse and Diego's is a fox (zorro in his native Spanish).

Alejandro receives a letter from his old friend, Tomas de Romeu, who resides in French-occupied Spain. Tomas urges Alejandro to send Diego to Barcelona, where he can receive more formal schooling, and learn fencing under the famed maestro Manuel Escalante. Alejandro reluctantly allows Diego to go, with Bernardo accompanying him. Upon arriving in Barcelona, Diego and Bernardo live with de Romeu and his two young daughters, Juliana and Isabel. Diego is immediately struck by Juliana and decides to pursue her romantically. Diego's main adversary for her affections is Rafael Moncada, whom Diego humiliates in a duel. At Escalante's invitation, Diego joins La Justicia, a secret organization devoted to justice, and takes the name Zorro.

The political landscape changes as Napoleon is exiled. Escalante and de Romeu are arrested for being French sympathizers. Diego convinces La Justicia to rescue Escalante. Juliana goes to Moncada and asks him to use his influence to release her father, Don de Romeu. He agrees on the condition that she marry him. She agrees, but Moncada is unable to secure a release and de Romeu is executed for treason. Moncada offers protection to Juliana in the hope that she will either marry him or become his mistress. She demands that he provide compensation for the loss of her father. He attacks Juliana but Diego and Isabel intervene, subduing Moncada. The girls and Diego decide to leave the city and head for the Americas. After months of traveling on foot, dressed as religious pilgrims, they reach the port and board a ship captained by Diego's old friend, Santiago de León. When the ship reaches Cuba, it is attacked by a pirate crew led by Jean Lafitte. Diego and the girls are taken hostage. Lafitte takes them to his home in Louisiana, where they await a ransom from Alejandro de la Vega. Juliana becomes smitten with Lafitte, until she learns that he is married to a Creole woman named Catherine.

Diego begins gambling in New Orleans in an attempt to win enough money to buy their freedom. The girls use jewels they obtained before leaving Spain to buy their freedom. Lafitte returns the jewels back to Juliana, an indication of his love for her. Catherine's mother tells Juliana that Catherine had chosen Juliana to marry Lafitte and raise Catherine's child, Pierre. Juliana agrees to marry Lafitte and Diego and Isabel are freed.

Diego returns to California with Isabella and her chaperone, to find his father in prison and his lands confiscated by his arch-enemy, Moncada. Diego frees his father from prison, and gives him in to the care of the natives and his wife Regina to convalesce. Diego is captured and arrested, and freed by not one, but two Zorro figures. Zorro confronts Moncada, forces him to sign a confession of treason, and sends him back to Spain. Diego clears his father's name and has the charges dropped by the governor.