I've wanted to do a lot more Zorro-ish-ness on this blog for years -- and, one day, hopefully it'll happen -- but meanwhile, I'm just really wanting to add a little Zorro flair to LOWCW. There's a lot of debate out there on whether or not Zorro's a western and, properly speaking, it does belong more to the genre of swashbuckling cloak-and-dagger tales (think royal intrigue, spies and assassins, Three Musketeers, etc). But it's in CA, as far west as you can get, and -- though it's true the first mental image I always tend towards when it comes to the west is high plains, mountains, cattle ranchers, cowboys etc. -- the southwestern flavor is also an entirely valid influence on western history, literature, films, etc. And like some of the most famous spaghetti westerns, this particular Zorro was filmed entirely in Europe (i.e. Madrid, Spain), which is just a fascinating link to those more famous films as well.
So! Here's my humble Zorro contribution. Also FYI, they're not my personal absolute favorites from the series or even 5 star eps, they're just ones that specifically overlap most with my ideas of typical western iconography. In addition, while these particular episodes are pretty simplistically straightforward plot-wise (they are, after all, 20 min eps for a tv series), they're absolutely family friendly. And as there are 88 episodes for the series in total, (as you may imagine) the stakes and emotional investment do intensify as you delve into the entire thing. ;)
For me now, though, too, it's also just a great deal of nostalgia, so I'm definitely looking forward to finally introducing and rewatching it all in the near future with my own small person.
So! All that said, let us to a quick recap of the two eps in question. First up we have:
Season 2, Episode 18: The Whistling Bandit
Summary: "A bandit robs the people of Los Angeles while whistling Beethoven's Ninth Symphony."
This one is getting honorary mention as the entire inciting incident revolves around a stagecoach hold-up -- with Zorro performing some masterful feats of agility to stay on the speeding stage. It's also especially good fun as it makes you genuinely wryly sympathize with the Alcalde (Zorro's bumbling arch-nemesis). In fact, in this one, pretty much everyone is on the same page. Cousin Hermalinda is frightful. (And she's way over-acting, but either way, it's a fantastic visual object lesson in how terrible it is to be a bona fide scold of a woman. xP) While checking up on a spelling, I also found the entire transcript here, which kinda tickles me. Anyway, yes, definitely a memorable one!
Season 3, Episode 4: The Man Who Cried Wolf
Summary: "A family is traveling to the Oregon territory to make a new life, but they are pursued by a man who the father crossed when he fought him for his pet wolf."
An unusual ep, this one brings a buckskin clad leather-fringed fighting mountain man into Zorro's territory.
Warning: Historical Rabbit Hole upcoming... Because... *coughs* I wasn't sure how much this one was fudging on time period and... I went down the rabbit hole. XD (Also keeping it to US western history in the following, but for an era reference, Jane Austen's Persuasion was published Dec 20, 1817.)
Zorro adaptations are, of course, pretty fluid on dating: basically they just have to take place any time after 1781 (when Los Angeles was founded), but before 1821 when Mexico gained independence from the Spanish crown and took over control of California. Mexico then oversaw the region till Feb 1848 when the Mexican-American War ended and California became part of the ginormous amount of territory ceded to the US.
It's a little confusing, but as for the Oregon Territory proper (encompassing what is now Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming) it existed from Aug 1848 to Feb 1859 (during which time you had the massive influx of settlers coming in via the Oregon Trail). Interestingly, it doesn't seem to have exactly been called Oregon Territory (only kinda, sorta?) before 1848, but from 1818-1846 the region was jointly controlled by the US and Britain (including British Columbia; but also apparently the entire region, which makes sense as I know the British Hudson Bay Company was dominating the area around Portland -- and I believe much more of the PNW as well -- in the early 1800's). So in a sense, it was still Oregon Territory before 1848, just didn't have a US governor? According to Wikipedia: "Although the Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled the boundaries of U.S. jurisdiction, the provisional government continued to function until 1849, when the first governor of Oregon Territory arrived. A faction of Oregon politicians hoped to continue Oregon's political evolution into an independent nation, but the pressure to join the United States prevailed by 1848, four months after the Mexican-American War."
I just think this is all so interesting -- and so interesting to overview and factor into our definitions of what makes 'western' films / stories. And what I found really attention grabbing, is just fleshing out how everything came together to create the set-up we see in the mid to late 1800's. It's like the stage is perfectly arranged and everything is poised for the giant explosion of activity that we see in the era of classic westerns.
To sum up:
- Spain establishes Los Ángeles in 1781
- Zorro takes place anywhere from 1781-1821 (in 1821 Mexico acquires control of what is now California)
- Meanwhile Britain and the US (from 1818-1846) are jointly ruling what becomes the Oregon territory via a provisional government, and there's a lot of fur trade and logging going on in the region + (I think) much burgeoning maritime activity / ports developing up and down the Pacific seaboard (another entirely interesting rabbit trail). This is the window where our current Zorro episode could definitely take place. (So it is historically possible!)
- Jan 1848 gold is discovered in CA
- US Oregon Territory becomes an official thing in Aug 1848
- The Mexican-American War also ends in 1848 and the US acquires control of what is now California (can't believe how much was happening in this year! I didn't even list two other smaller 1848 things I ran across)
- Heyday of the Oregon Trail in the 1840's-1860's
- In the 1850's we enter the era of the famous railroad barons and there was a lot of survey work being done
- Pony Express ran April 1860 - October 1861
- The first transcontinental railroad was completed from Omaha to Sacramento in 1869
So yes, you can see the definite frames and transitions happening, but on the ground, in real life, we know things are rarely so clear cut and people's lives actually overlapped all the different eras. As a for instance, I often think of all the shifts that happened between 1915 and 1965, but a lot also happened in the 50 years between 1815 and 1865.
Anyway! A lot of interesting research sparked from that one little episode, so it definitely gets points just for that. ;D
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I enjoyed working on this! And as there are tons of Zorro adaptations out there, I thought it'd be great to toss out yet another western-y trail for y'all to explore. :) Have fun!
