Zorro's Shadow: How a Mexican Legend Became America's First Superhero

by Stephen J.C. Andes

Overview

“SADDLE UP! Andes takes us on an exhilarating, dust-kicking ride through the actual origins and history of the first hemispheric Latinx superhero: Zorro.” —Frederick Luis Aldama, editor of Tales from la Vida: A Latinx 

Zorro’s Shadow explores the masked character's Latinx origins and his impact on pop culture—the inspiration for the most iconic superheroes we know today.

Long before Superman or Batman made their first appearances, there was Zorro. Born on the pages of the pulps in 1919, Zorro fenced his way through the American popular imagination, carving his signature letter Z into the flesh of evildoers in Old Spanish California. 

Zorro is the original caped crusader, the first masked avenger, and the character who laid the blueprint for the modern American superhero. 

Historian and Latin American studies expert Stephen J. C. Andes unmasks the legends behind Zorro, showing that the origins of America’s first superhero lie in Latinx history and experience. 

Revealing the length of Zorro’s shadow over the superhero genre is a reclamation of the legend of Zorro for a multiethnic and multicultural America. 

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641602938
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/15/2020
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	489,794
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Stephen J. C. Andes is an associate professor of history at Louisiana State University. He is the author of The Mysterious Sofía and The Vatican & Catholic Activism in Mexico & Chile.
 

Table of Contents

Preface: Who Is America's First Superhero? ix

Part I Ghosts

1 The Statue 3

2 The Pyre 9

3 The Legend of Don Guillén de Lampart 11

4 Welcome to the Hotel Zorro! 23

5 Back to the Desert 28

6 Mexican Argonaut 35

7 I Am Joaquín 46

8 The Return of the Head of Joaquín Murrieta 57

Part II Masks

9 Writer Behind the Mask 67

10 The Blood of Lolita Pulido 81

11 Becoming Zorro 97

12 The Mark of Douglas Fairbanks 111

13 Zorro in La La Land 134

14 The Lone Ranger: Or, How Zorro Gets Whitewashed 142

15 Fox Does the Fox 158

16 Disneylandia 182

17 Guy Williams Becomes Zorro 192

18 Zorro, Alias Batman 207

19 Zorro Reborn 214

Epilogue: Zorro in an Alternate Nerdverse 233

Acknowledgments 245

Notes 247

Index 269

Editorial Reviews

“Zorro’s Shadow is a wonderfully fascinating account of a pop specter that has long haunted North America: Zorro, a settler-colonial avenger brought to life by Stephen J. C. Andes’s dogged archival research and sharp interpretation.” —Greg Grandin, author of Fordlandia and The End of the Myth 


“Zorro's Shadow is the history I've been waiting for all my life, without even knowing it.” —Jeffrey Mariotte, Goodreads ​  


“...a wildly entertaining journey. Andes leaves no stone unturned in his quest for the first superhero on the continent. Just in time for the original caped crusader’s 100th anniversary, you owe yourself a look through this fun and fascinating ride.” —Kilewy, Goodreads 


“In this swashbuckler of a ride, Andes powerfully excavates the true significance of that swish-slash Z: the super-symbol that signifies the strength, struggle, and spirit of Latinx folx yesterday, today, and tomorrow.” —Frederick Luis Aldama, editor of Tales from la Vida: A Latinx 


“Zorro’s Shadow is definitely a ‘come for the geeky details, stay for the powerful insight’ kind of book. Would recommend!” —Noelle, Goodreads 

From the Publisher

Zorro (Spanish for “fox”) had a sword, a cape, and a secret identity, and he always fought for the little guy. What more could you want in a superhero? In a voice finding just the right midpoint between an academic tone and a sense of fandom and fun, award-winning narrator Robert Fass takes listeners on a deep dive into the history and cultural background of a character who sold millions of books and spawned dozens of films before Batman and the Lone Ranger popped up in comics and on the radio in the late 1930s. Zorro made his first appearance in THE CURSE OF CAPISTRANO by pulp writer Johnston McCulley in 1919, but it’s the search for a historic Latin-American prototype that will keep the listener enthralled. B.P. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2021 - AudioFile