Decades earlier, a popular writer in Mexico, Riva Palacio, was writing stories with a character called El Zorro, and a character called Guillen Lampart. Much of Palacio’s work was published in New York in 1908, where it could have partly inspired Johnston McCulley. Palacio’s fictional character of Lampart was based on meticulous research in to the real-life crime story of Guillen Lombardo from two hundred years earlier, when Mexico was a colony of Spain, and the Catholic world was in the grip of the Inquisition. Modern-day research in to the Inquisitions records reveals an intriguing fact; Lombardo was not Mexican, he was not even Spanish, he was Irish, and his real name was William Lamport. Posing as an aristocrat by day, Lamport was in fact a spy on a mission for the King of Spain. When he arrived in Mexico City he set about starting a revolution to liberate the local Indians from the tyranny of corrupt Spanish rulers. His actions got him arrested by the Inquisition who put him on trial, and from whose prison he made a breakout that would become legend. This programme examines the personal papers of Lamport, it reveals long-hidden reports from the Mexico archives, and investigates the daring prison escape, to open the Mystery Files on Zorro.
Francisco A. Eissa-Barroso – IAS-Santander Early Career Fellow at the University of Warwick’s Institute of Advanced Study
Dr. Francisco A. Eissa-Barroso is a political historian of the early modern Spanish world. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Warwick (2011) with a thesis titled ‘Politics, Political Culture and Policy Making: the reform of viceregal rule in the Spanish world under Philip V’. With Enrique Florescano, he published Atlas Histórico de Mexico (Aguilar, 2009). He is the IAS-Santander early career fellow at Warwick’s Institute of Advanced Study and has taught Latin American history at the Universities of Warwick and Manchester and at CIDE in Mexico City.
Gerrard Ronan – Author of ‘The Irish Zorro’
Local historian, Gerrard Ronan was born in 1959. He was reared and educated in Dublin, Ireland. He is a serving Irish civil servant with a passion for collecting obscure adventure stories.
Professor Fabio Troncarelli - Professor of Latin Paleography at the University of Tuscia
Professor Fabio Troncarelli Professor of Latin Paleography at the University of Tuscia near Rome. He has a passion for medieval manuscripts and cinema. He has authored several_small
Tom Lyon - Escapologist
Tom Lyon began performing magic at the age of seven. By the time he was eighteen he had performed all over the world: sealed into a steel-lined vault in America, arrested by police in Australia, challenged to escape live on television from restraints he had never seen before and asked to present a unique act for Her Majesty the Queen. He also became the youngest member of The Magic Circle and the only performer to join Equity as an escapologist. Notable performances and clients include: - HM The Queen - The Directors of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden - The Official Olympic Handover Party, Beijing - The US ambassador to London - The British ambassador to Beijing - The Magic Circle
William Lamport
William Lamport, the inspiration for the legendary Zorro.
Bishop Juan Palafox
Bishop Juan Palafox, a powerful member of the church in Mexico.
Zorro first appeared in the short stroy "The Curse of Capistrano", by Johnston McCulley published in 1919. The story caught the attention of Douglas Fairbanks who brought the character to the screen. Due to the success a further 65 stories were publish by McCulley.
McCulley’s stories were horrendously inconsistent. The first magazine serial ended with the villain dead and Diego publicly exposed as Zorro however, in the sequel the antagonist was alive, and the next entry had the double identity still secret!
McCulley’s inspiration was thought to be based on the adventurous life of Irishman William Lamport who real true life biography posses a better tale than many of the fictional tale of Zorro.
On Christmas night in 1650 Lamport escaped in a manner so brilliant that it was rumored he had been assisted by demons. The pamphlets he posted throughout the city as he fled made him a local legend and inspired the works of several Mexican novelists and playwrights, one of which appears to have played a part in the creation of Johnston McCully's Zorro.
Lamport was such an inspirational figure for independence that a statue of him stands in the vestibule of Mexico City's Column of Independence.
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