'Zorro Goes to Law School'

I was happy to get an email from our alum Bob Mendez '80 detailing a play, "Zorro Goes to Law School," he and classmates performed for the King Hall Over The Hump Talent Show in 1980. He is on the Class of 1980 reunion committee and he came upon the script and photos while preparing for the virtual event coming up this fall.

Included in the photo of the cast are Francisco Zarate, Butte County Chief Deputy District Attorney, and Jesse Sanchez,  who became the first Latino member of the Salinas City Council. Bob let me know that Jesse unfortunately passed away in his 40s. He said David Hyman is a partner in a Philadelphia law firm. And Zorro is Ed Blanco '80, who is an attorney for the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

Bob shared how they got the idea for the skit:

"My recollection is that Fred Capuyan and I were in the library one evening and we started to come up with silly ideas for a skit.  We thought, 'wouldn’t it be funny if we had Zorro go to law school?'  After fooling around for 30 minutes we got serious and decided that we should relate Zorro's story to our experience at Davis. We put together a cast, wrote the skit in two days, recorded some music and performed it to a standing ovation at the talent show.  In a nutshell, Zorro is from the barrio, he is the smartest kid in the hood, gets admitted to UC Dixon School of Law, is placed on academic probation, quits, goes back to the barrio humiliated and then has to make a decision about giving up or moving forward with his life when he gets a new letter admitting him to Peoples College for Law. The whole thing was three acts over 15 minutes.  It was rough and amateurish but the message really struck a chord with our classmates."

What a fun memory from Bob - I'm sure the Class of 1980 will have a great reunion!