This limited-run serial shows the masked crusader as a hero torn between his fight for justice and his love for a beautiful woman.

Telemundo president Don Browne called this show "without doubt the best production offered on Hispanic television in the United States today.

[4] The melodrama loosely follows the retcon of Zorro from the 2005 novel by Isabel Allende, yet also uses the major characters from the 1950s Disney series.

It shows a fantastic, ahistorical version of colonial Los Angeles full of romance, royal intrigue, and witchcraft, even polygamy.

The city is populated with gypsies, slaves, clerics, cannibals, conspirators, rebellious Indians and Amazon warriors, along with Spanish settlers, soldiers, pirates and mestizo peasants.

The hero, Don Diego de la Vega, adopts the secret identity of Zorro, the masked avenger.

Diego learned his acrobatics and fencing skills in Spain, under the tutelage of a great sword master.

Here, Zorro falls in love with a beautiful young widow, Esmeralda Sánchez de Moncada.

The hero must challenge a host of evildoers, branding them with the distinctive Zorro "Z" – made from three swift scratches.

The story arc focuses on mysteries concerning Esmeralda's long-lost mother and the man whose atrocities changed Diego's life forever.

Episode 1 The series begins with showing Esmeralda Sánchez de Moncada being forced to marry a wealthy old man by her father.

Elsewhere in the hacienda his aunt María Pía de la Vega, is horrified to learn her former fiancé, Fernando, is going to return.

Two Indian siblings, Yumalay and Jacó, realize that the new governor is the same man who murdered their family years ago.

Almudena tries to explain it with saying her father has suffered a lot in his life, but Esmeralda points out that he doesn't treat Mariángel the same way.

They tell her they've finally found her daughter and discover she is being held in the dungeons of the prison wearing an iron mask.

Episode 4 Azucena and Renzo kidnap Esmeralda and take her to the Traveller camp and the Roma present her with flowers.

Zorro began filming on November 8, 2006, in Bogotá, Villa de Leyva and Cartagena, Colombia.

[6] Telemundo and RTI Colombia developed the show with Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), while CPT Holdings is listed as copyright holder.

Venezuelan screenwriter Humberto "Kiko" Olivieri, a fan of Disney's Zorro, developed the story.

The originally-announced storyline began with Don Diego as the protege of a great English knight, Sir Edmund Kendel.

Beyoncé and Alejandro Fernández performed "Amor Gitano" ("Gypsy Love"), a flamenco-pop track commissioned by Sony for the series.

The audience jumped 28 percent from February in the network's key demographic, Hispanic adults from age 18 to 49.

In Spain, the telenovela aired on Antena 3TV weekdays at 16hrs from Monday 27 April 2007 where it achieved moderate success in the tough "second Primetime" afternoon slot.