Diego Márquez is an 8-year-old Latino action-adventure hero with a big heart. His goal is to save and protect the animals and their environment. Athletic and fearless, he is always at the ready no matter what the situation. Diego loves learning new things and his animal friends, like Baby Jaguar. He takes a scientific approach to problem-solving and also uses a variety of high-tech gadgets and gizmos to save the day.
Diego is Dora's cousin. Though it's never confirmed how they're related, they're presumably first paternal cousins considering they share the same last name (i.e. Dora's father and Diego's father are siblings). Like Dora, Diego comes from a family of three kids, with the three kids consisting of himself and two girls. However, while Dora's the oldest kid in her family (her younger brother and sister, Guillermo and Isabella, are fraternal twins), Diego's the youngest kid in his family (he has two older sisters named Daisy and Alicia). While he's a supporting character in his cousin's show, Diego's the host of his own show where the opposite happens (Dora appears as a supporting/minor character). He can also speak both English and Spanish, just like his cousin.
Looks
Diego has dark-tan skin, brown eyes, and brown hair.
In his debut on Dora the Explorer throughout Season 3 and most of Season 4, he originally wore a dark blue shirt with a tan vest, green cargo shorts, green socks, brown shoes, and a silver watch.
In Dora's World Adventure!, Dora Saves the Mermaids, and Season 5 of Dora the Explorer, as well as the first three seasons of his show Go, Diego, Go!, Diego was slightly redesigned with slightly lighter skin and hair, and wears a lighter blue shirt with the same vest, darker blue cargo shorts, white socks, gray shoes, and a blue and yellow watch. These changes were done to better fit his 8-year-old appearance and also to differentiate from Dora's appearance. This version of his outfit reveals that his vest can transform into either a light coat when he is in the mountains, a thick coat when it gets very cold, a raincoat when it rains, a lifejacket (similar in function to Tico’s vest), or both a coat and a lifejacket.
However, starting in the fourth season of Go, Diego, Go!, he wears a short-sleeved red sweatshirt with an orange top underneath, black cargos, white socks, and black and red sneakers. Diego is seen wearing his previous outfit in a few flashbacks in the episode Fiercest Animals.
In Dora and Friends: Into the City, Diego switches back to his outfit from Seasons 1-3 of Go, Diego, Go!, but it receives a few changes: He retains his light blue t-shirt, but his tan vest now has dark blue trim, lacks pockets, and his Animal Rescue badge is now on the right side of his chest. His dark blue cargo shorts are shorter and have smaller pockets, he discards his socks, and now wears a new gray pair of converse sneakers with orange laces. He keeps his video watch, and his Rescue Pack now rests on his left shoulder.
In the reboot new generation, Diego reverts to his season 4 (Dora's 6th, 7th, and 8th seasons) outfit with upgraded blue lines and a new version of his Animal Rescuer Patch. Even his Rescue Pack now has the color changed from orange to blue.
For more information about his outfits, click here.
"Our special camera click can help us find the (insert animal here)/animal(s) in trouble!"
"Say, 'Click'."
"¡Vamonos, amigos!" (or just "¡Vamonos!")
"¡Al rescate, amigos!"
"My Rescue Pack can transform into anything we need! To activate my Rescue Pack, say '¡Actívate!' (short pause, waiting for the viewer to respond) Louder! ¡ACTÍVATE!"
"What do I/we need? (the item to transform Rescue Pack into)!"
"¡Misión cumplida! Rescue/Adventure complete!"
"You are a great animal rescuer/adventurer!"
"You're great at helping/rescuing animals!"
"We found out/learned so much about (animals) today."
Diego was voiced by a total of eight voice actors.
Under his first three actors (brothers Andres and Felipe Dieppa, and later Gabriel Alvarez), Diego had a voice resembling that of an adolescent (roughly ages 14–17). Beginning with Jake T. Austin, and continuing with most subsequent voice actors, the character was given a higher-pitched, prepubescent voice more consistent with his 8-year-old (andlater 9-year-old) appearance. The only exception was Sebastian Aristizabal (who would later voice Diego in all Nick Jr. crossover video games released between 2010-2012, as well as in the Dora the Explorer episode "Dora's Rescue in Mermaid Kingdom"), in which his voice was a bit more akin to that of a preadolescent (ages 10–13).
Diego's first three voices all resembled "Big Pig" from "Wibbly Pig and Friends", while his later voices sounded more like "Tiny Pig".
Oddly, Diego's voice was still high-pitched when Nicolas Cantu voiced his 11-year-old self in the Dora and Friends episode "For the Birds".
Rescue, Rescue, Rescue! is the only episode where his best friend, Baby Jaguar appears without him.
"To activate my Rescue Pack, say 'Actívate!'" is the Go, Diego, Go! equivalent of "You have to say, 'Backpack'".
"Say, 'Click'" is mostly the Go, Diego, Go! equivalent of “You have to say, 'Map'".
In Latin Spanish of the first three seasons of "Go, Diego, Go!" and Seasons 4 and 5 of Dora the Explorer, he is voiced by Manuel Díaz; who also made the Latin Spanish dub of Leo from Little Einsteins.
In the Dutch dub of Season 3 and part of season 4 of Dora the Explorer, Diego was voiced by Sander van der Poel. But when Go, Diego, Go! started, Kim van Zeben started voicing Diego instead (presumably to make him sound younger and more appealing to young viewers). This change of voice was also reflected in any Dora the Explorer episodes he appeared in following the spin-off's debut.