It seems as the Joaquin Murietta (insert any alternate surname you wish) backstory was very likely the source for the Zorro novel (“The Curse of Capistrano”). This was the same novel upon which the “Mask of Zorro” movie, starring Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins, was based. Banderas was cast as Alejandro Murietta, Joaquin’s brother, who later takes revenge as the next Zorro.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmurieta.html
Key elements in the movie include:
Three-fingered Jack
Capitan Love
Murietta’s decapitation by Capitan Love
…But does anyone know if the Rafael Montero character (the original Zorro’s enemy) was based upon anything to do with the “historical” Joaquin?
Well… while the recent movie tried to tie the two stories together, it’s not at all clear that the originals had any relationship.
See Is there a historical basis for Zorro?
Some of the characters used in the recent film Mask of Zorro were historical – one of the screenplay authors rot a history of Zorr coincident with the film’s release (and in which she goes into the history a bit, where you can see the names). However, I don’t think that the original novels (or anything based on them) had any real historical characters in it.
(Underlining by kaylasdad99)
Hooked on Fonix, are we? Nice to see people concentrating on the basics. 
I believed Zorro was set in the Spanish Period (before 1810) while Murrieta lived in the early American period, after 1848. Zorro (completely fictional) fought the Spaniards and Murrieta (mostly fictional) fought the ‘Forty Niners’.
Pablo Neruda, a Chilean, wrote a fictional piece casting Murrieta as a Chilean!
In Texas there is very similar folklore about ‘Gregorio Cortes’. All we know is that there may have been someone by than name.
I believed Zorro was set in the Spanish Period (before 1810) while Murrieta lived in the early American period, after 1848. Zorro (completely fictional) fought the Spaniards and Murrieta (mostly fictional) fought the ‘Forty Niners’.
Pablo Neruda, a Chilean, wrote a fictional piece casting Murrieta as a Chilean!
In Texas there is very similar folklore about ‘Gregorio Cortez’. All we know is that there may have been someone by than name.
In other words, exactly like Robin Hood .
Not quite. Robin Hood is far enough back that there could be something substantial behind the legend. Whereas we know that the Murieta story is bullshit. (Even more vexing is King Arthur, where there’s just enough evidence – the Saxons did back off for several generations, and a good many baby boys suddenly got baptized “Arthur” – to drive us crazy.)
Good enough, all… but I was more concerned for any existing basis for the Raphael Montero character in the recent Zorro movie. We all know that most of these legends are based only VERY loosely (if at all) in any real history 
there was an IRISH Zorro?
He wasn’t really an Irish Zorro, but he was an Irishman who ended up in Mexico in the late 17th century and amassed a legend around his romantic and criminal exploits before he was captured and executed.