The Curse of Capistrano

The Curse of Capistrano is a 1919 story by Johnston McCulley and the first work to feature the fictional character Zorro (zorro is the Spanish word for fox). It would be later published as a novella in 1924 under the title The Mark of Zorro The book tells of the story of Don Diego Vega—Zorro in the company of his deaf and mute servant Bernardo and his lover Lolita Pulido, as they rival the antagonists Captain Ramon and Sgt. Gonzales in early 19th-century California, before it became a U.S. state .