Not the sanitized version presented by the Disney Company, famous for cartoon princesses who aren't genuine either. No, this is the real man who actually existed and buckled swash from Europe to the New World.
He was born in Wexford and came of age during the Tudor conquest of Ireland, a time when the Catholic faith was under assault by those who created their own religion and sought to foist it on all. So right there you have the basis for a character trait, the rebel who had to flee after publishing a screed against the Protestant king James I.
Think of the possibilities his life presents for a piece of historical fiction.
He fled to the Irish exile colony in Spain and involved himself in a plan to take back his homeland with help from the Spanish who didn't like the Tudors, or the Stuarts in their time.
There's a woman in his history, an illegitimate pregnancy and another flight that leads to his capture by pirates, which in turn introduced him to piracy as a way to craft his leadership skills.
His actions in Mexico are yet another subplot filled with adventure as he devised a plan to liberate Mexico from Spanish rule. He became a champion of the poor and oppressed, dreaming of a New Spain in which he would rule with wisdom and concern for the littlest of his subjects.
The last years of his life are tragic, his demise heroic.
So attend Zorrofest if you're in Wexford this weekend. If you're unable to visit, why not sit down and start writing a novel of liberation and strife and one Irishman's attempts to outfox his adversaries?
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