His character was a parody of the fictional hero Zorro, wearing a similar black cowl mask and huge sombrero, appearing unexpectedly to save the townsfolk from injustice, and generally swinging around on his bullwhip – however, unlike Zorro, he was often quite inept (in fact, on one occasion, Tanto tipped a bucket of water onto him after he made him reenact the Incy Wincy Spider rhyme).
When El Nombre first appeared on Numbertime in 1993, his purpose was merely to write numbers in the desert sand and demonstrate the correct ways to form them as his four-piece mariachi band played The Mexican Hat Dance (and said "Again!"
once he had finished, as it gave them an excuse to play again); this was shot from an angle directly overhead leaving El Nombre almost completely eclipsed by his large sombrero.
The stories moved away from solving simple mathematical equations to fighting petty crime, unrelated to the number-solving which made his name and for which he was created.
A gerbil named Pablo also appeared in the ninth series of Numbertime after Juan entered a competition on Radio Flamingo to win a holiday to the seaside resort of Costa Fortuna and won; Juan, Mama, Pedro, Juanita and Maria met him when they arrived at the resort's hotel (because he was their guide to it), and he went on to front a ring-toss stall when they visited its fairground the following week.