Zorro is Don Diego de la Vega. Born in 19th century Spanish California. Trained in Spain. Hes Spanish to the core. So no it wouldnt make any sense for a man as obviously Spanish as Don Diego to be a white pasty Irish person. Unless they introduced an adoption element to the story.
Bruce Wayne is an American born in modern times in a fictional huge city There's nothing about Bruce that demands he be caucasian. Nothing about his character breaks down if he isnt caucasian. Gotham is a huge port city. Bruce Wayan's parents or ancestors could have immigrated from countries other than England. The only ethnicity the Wayne's probably cant be African American due to the limited rights of blacks in America for hundreds of years making it hard to believe that an African American Wayne family could be "old money". The Wayne's, during the time of Batman, are a modern family and there has never been a law in America that prohibits americans of latino descent from earning or maintaining a fortune so a Wayne family of Spanish descent could be old money.
Spaniards (inhabitants of Spain) are essentially Europeans, they're racially distinct from Hispanics descending from Latin American countries where the presence of non-white elements is prevalent (e.g., Panama, the Dominican Republic, certain regions of Mexico). They actually have more in common--genetically speaking--w/ somewhere like Argentina, a nation with a population largely consisting of other Spanish, Italians, Germans, etc. Also, I wouldn't call Farrell 'pasty' despite his Irish lineage. He's a bit tan/olive like Welsh-born Catherine Zeta Jones. Interestingly enough, she portrayed Diego's daughter Elena in The Mask of Zorro.
Anyway, to Shauner's point, "old money",
as used in the US, has a very specific meaning. It generally refers to New Englanders with a well-established fortune going back at least four or five generations. Also, to be stratified as such (i.e., part of the social circle), you almost always had to be of white Protestant heritage. By white, I don't exclusively mean English, although said ethnicity was certainly one of the more common pedigrees, as was Scots-Irish, German and French Huguenot. To put things into further perspective, even the Kennedys and other notable Catholic families weren't considered old money back then; they were instead regarded as "lace curtain Irish" or "nouveau riche." The latter term especially was (and still is) applied to social climbers who only very recently came into wealth and some prominence. So, as you see, money wasn't the only determining factor.
Now, Oscar Isaac wouldn't be my first choice for the role (he's too short and doesn't have the right look IMHO), but if an Italian American or a Catholic actor is deemed suitable enough, I don't see why the former should be disqualified from the running on account of
his respective background. Again, the non-white element which frequently appears in people of Latin American descent isn't owed to Spanish blood; it's their indigenous (American Indian) or, to a lesser extent, West African roots. Those without "Indian" or African ancestry, however, are of wholly European stock; ergo, they're white. For instance, John Leguizamo, a Columbian, is of mixed European and American Indian/indigenous ancestry; Andy Garcia is a Cuban of wholly European descent; Rosie Perez is Puerto Rican and has mixed African/European roots. I'm not sure where Isaac hails from, but he looks closer in appearance to someone like Garcia. So, I'm going to assume he doesn't have much non-white ancestry in his makeup. I still don't want him playing Batman, though.
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