But eventually Don Alejandro has had enough of his son’s running wild and sends him to the other side of the world, to Spain, to receive his formal education. The tribe accepts this easily and the bond between the boys grows even stronger, with an understanding between them that needs no words.

After a traumatic experience when they were little, Bernardo has stopped speaking. So the boys grow up in an unusual manner, at the house of a rich Californian gentleman and with the tribe of their people. Diego’s grandmother is White Owl, the shaman and spiritual leader of the tribe. She teaches him the language and ways of her people and she takes both boys on regular visits to her tribe. As both children share the servant’s milk, they are now brothers, according to the ways of their tribe.Įducating her son gives Regina, or Toypurnia, which is her actual Native name, a reason to live and run wild once again. When she gives birth to her son Diego, a servant girl bares a son as well, Bernardo. The Native American woman is now called Regina, soon becomes pregnant, but she is unhappy and she feels caged in a house. He falls in love at once and eventually manages to make her his wife. However, when the Captain strikes down the chief, he finds that she is a woman.

The story starts off in the eighteenth century with the handsome Captain Alejandro de la Vega, who helps a priest when the Native Americans are attacking his Californian mission. Allende’s Zorro tells the story of Zorro’s childhood, education in Spain and eventually his metamorphosis in the fox ( El Zorro) and choice to always fight for justice. In Zorro, Allende explores the myths and stories about Diego de la Vega, a.ka. To this day, a small part of me wishes to be this masked hero by night and some Mediterranean gentleman by day, but obviously I can’t, so I have to make do with the series, my imagination, and this wonderful book by Isabel Allende. I carved Z’s into walls, I ran around in a mask and I even tried to get my horse to prance, without much success. The point I’m getting at, is that I watched the reruns of Zorro, the clumsy series from the fifties, and therefore I played I was Zorro a lot when I was little. Kids from the 80s grew up with The A-Team, 90s’ kids with Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and I have no idea what kids watched who were born after 2000. Many children these days are formed by the things they see on television.

Zorro isabel allende review