Raphael Monterro

Raphael Monterro is a fictional character and the first villain of the film The Mask of Zorro. In the film, he is portrayed by Stuart Wilson.

Film Biography
In the film, Spanish generals are leaving California. Raphael is the only general who refuses to leave, and to show his dedication in "protecting the country from peasants", he has three random men chosen in a large crowd to be executed. His assistant, Don Luiz, shows some dislike in his ideals. However, Zorro arrives in time to prevent the execution and later carves a "Z" into his neck, a sign never to return. He later discovers that Zorro is Don Diego De le Vega, and has him arrested for treason. A short fight ensues, in which a fire is started. Diego's wife, and (presumably) Monterro's former lover is killed by one of his soldiers. Monterro kills the soldier in revenge. Although he assures Diego he would never let her be harmed, De le Vega responds: "She was never yours to protect." As Diego heads to get his daughter, Monterro coldly incapacitates him, wanting him to live with the agony of losing everything, "That your child should have been mine." He steals Elena, Diego's daughter and has him imprisoned.

20 years later, he has Capt. Harrison Love join his yet unknown cause, as his military assistant. Monterro seeks out the original Zorro after returning to California. The first and only attempt goes completely awry, leaving Monterro to assume De le Vega is dead. Diego later escapes from prison for revenge, but cannot kill him when Elena is around. He later shares his plans with a yet-unknown Alejandro Murrieta, the brother of whom was murdered by Captain Love. His plan is to use gold to buy California from Santa Anna with gold from his own land. Zorro (Murrieta, now taking up the role and fully trained) steals the map to the mine. Alejandro goes to stop the plan, while Diego plots revenge. Diego gets it, but in a different way: he tells Elena about her true father, which causes Monterro to lock Diego away while he goes to the mine. Elena releases Diego, and the two have a final fight over the mine. As he is disarmed, Elena intervenes, causing him forcefully take full advantage of the fight. He then mortally wounds the unamred De le Vega with his pistol. The two finally fight at the edge of the gold carridge.

Monterro is killed when Diego forces the cartridge over a cliff. Monterro is tangled in the horse saddles, and the carridge sends him plummeting to his death. (in the death shot of Captain Love, Monterro can be briefly seen just a split second before the shot ends.) If he was not killed in the fall, he certainly would have died in the later explosion.

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