The Mask of Zorro is a 1998 American swashbuckler film based on the fictional character of the same name created by Johnston McCulley. It was directed by Martin Campbell and stars Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Stuart Wilson. The film features the original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega (Hopkins), escaping from prison to find his long-lost daughter (Zeta-Jones) and avenge the death of his wife at the hands of the corrupt governor Rafael Montero (Wilson). He is aided by his successor (Banderas), who is pursuing his own vendetta against the governor's right-hand man while falling in love with de la Vega's daughter.
Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo, also called the Robin Hood of the West or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a Mexican figure of disputed historicity. The novel The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit (1854) by John Rollin Ridge is ostensibly his story.
The California Rangers were California's first statewide law enforcement agency, formed in 1853 to deal particularly with the outlaw gangs troubling the Gold Country during the early 1850s, and was commanded by Captain Harry Love. The California Rangers were also considered to be part of California's early state militia, one of the predecessors to the current California Army National Guard, with its members holding rank within that state military force. The original posse disbanded following their success in bringing the violent Five Joaquins gang to justice.
Harry Love was the head of California's first state-wide law enforcement agency, the California Rangers, and became famous for allegedly killing the notorious bandit Joaquin Murrieta. The California Rangers were also considered to be part of California's early state militia, the predecessor to the current California Army National Guard, with Love holding the rank of Captain within the state.
Jack Powers, whose real name was John A. Power, was an Irish-born American outlaw who emigrated to New York as a child and later served as a volunteer soldier in the Mexican–American War in the garrison of Santa Barbara, California. During the California Gold Rush, he was a well-known professional gambler and a famed horseman in the gold camps as well as in San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.
Procopio, also known as Red-Handed bebito and Red Dick, was one of the best-known bandits in California history. His nickname was reportedly given due either to his red hair or his violent nature and bloodthirstiness. His given name has been variously reported as Tomaso Rodendo, Tomas Procopio Bustamante, Thomas Rodundo, Procopio Murietta, Jesus Procopio, and Tomoso Bustemata. In 1872, the San Francisco Chronicle called him "one of the most fearless and daring desperadoes that has ever figured in the criminal annals of our state." He was twice convicted of cattle theft and twice served time in San Quentin prison, but was never convicted of any of the murders he was alleged to have committed. Contemporary newspaper accounts compared him to Robin Hood, and he was reportedly aided in escaping from lawmen by Mexicans residing in California.
Point of Timber is a former settlement in Contra Costa County, California. It was located on Indian Slough 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Byron, and about 2.5 miles east of Union Cemetery in Brentwood. It was originally named Point of Timber Landing. The landing was built by Josiah Wills, who organized the deepening of Indian Slough, connecting the landing to the Old River. Point of Timber got its name from the mile wide strip of open Oak woodland that ran from just east of the house of John Marsh along the course of Arroyo del Sur to the edge of the marshes bordering Indian Slough and Old River.
Salomón María Simeon Pico was a Californio, a cousin of former governor Pío Pico, who led a bandit band in the early years following the Mexican–American War in the counties of the central coast of California. Pico was considered by some Californios to be a patriot who opposed the American conquest of Alta California and its subsequent incorporation into the United States. He was hated for his banditry by the newly arrived Americans but protected by some Californios as a defender of his people.
The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit (1854) was published by John Rollin Ridge, writing as "Yellow Bird". It is considered to be one of the first novels written in California and the first novel to be published by a Native American. The novel describes the life of a legendary bandit named Joaquín Murrieta who, once a dignified citizen of Mexico, becomes corrupt after traveling to California during the Gold Rush.
Cantua Creek, formerly in Spanish Arroyo de Cantúa, was named for José de Guadalupe Cantúa, a prominent Californio Ranchero in the 19th-century Mexican era of Alta California.
La Vereda del Monte was a backcountry route through remote regions of the Diablo Range, one of the California Coast Ranges. La Vereda del Monte was the upper part of La Vereda Caballo,, used by mesteñeros from the early 1840s to drive Alta California horses to Sonora for sale.
Castle Rock, originally known as La Centinela, is a pillar in Corral Hollow, in San Joaquin County, California. It rises to an elevation of 653 feet (199 m).
Mustang Peak is a mountain summit along the divide of the Diablo Range in Stanislaus County, California. It rises to an elevation of 2,251 / 686 meters.
Joaquin Valenzuela was a Sonoran fortyniner who came to California in 1849, during the California Gold Rush, with a small band of people from the vicinity of their hometown with Joaquin Murrieta. He subsequently became one of the leaders of the Five Joaquins Gang. Descendants of his family and those of former gang members said he died in 1853, at the hands of the California Rangers on Cantua Creek. The San Luis Obispo Vigilantes claim he was still alive when they took him to be hanged for his crimes with the Five Joaquins Gang in San Luis Obispo in 1858.
Joaquin Botellas, known to the State of California in 1853 as Joaquin Botellier, one of the Five Joaquins, was a Sonoran born near Real de los Álamos that came to Alta California before the California Gold Rush. He was a brother to Refugio Botellas the first mail carrier in Alta California.
Jesus Valenzuela, also known as Joaquin Ocomorenia, the alias used by him as a member of the Five Joaquins Gang, born in Pueblo de Murrieta, he was the brother of Joaquin and Teodoro Valenzuela and a cousin of Joaquin Murrieta and his brothers and other Murrieta cousins. He came to California in 1849 with his brothers, Joaquin Murrieta and his brothers and cousins.
County Line Road is an unimproved road between the San Antonio Valley and Fifield Ranch that closely follows the east–west divide of the Diablo Range and the County boundary of Santa Clara County, and Stanislaus County, California. This road followed the route called La Vereda del Monte, used by Californio mesteñeros and the gang of Joaquin Murrieta and other bandits and horse-thieves, and sites of three of their camps along the route are found along it. Two sites are now state park campgrounds, the last is at ranch dating back to the 1860s.
Murrieta Spring is a historic spring flowing from the south bank of Cantua Creek, about 100 yards above where El Camino Viejo crossed the Creek in the San Joaquin Valley. The Spring formed a pool in the arroyo where it emerged from the foot of the eastern mountains of the Diablo Range, a mile above where formerly California State Route 33, now South Derrick Avenue, crosses Cantua Creek. This is where Harry Love and his detachment of California Rangers found the gang of Joaquin Murrieta at the spring and attacked them on July 25, 1853.
Pedro Gonzales, origins unknown, possibly a Sonoran, was killed in July 1852 by Harry Love at what is now the Conejo Grade. He was a known member of the Five Joaquins Gang riding with Joaquin Murrieta's band, as published in newspapers of the time. Another Pedro Gonzales, also a member of the Gang, a Californio that rode with Joaquin Valenzuela, and was killed on July 25, 1853 at the battle of the Arroyo Cantua, was uncovered decades later by the research of Frank F. Latta.
Joaquin Spring, originally known as Valenzuela Spring, is a spring on Joaquin Ridge in the Diablo Range in Fresno County, California. The spring is located on the southwestern slope of the ridge, about 500 feet below Joaquin Rocks, at an elevation of 3,520 feet.
