Comstock's magazine 1117 - November 2017 | Page 59

a cut along his face. In the next bed over, his brother Dylan
was also heavily bandaged. Larry entered the room.
“Boys, there was an accident,” Cabaldon recalls his
father saying. “You were in a car accident, and your mom
didn’t make it.”
The next thing Cabaldon remembers is the sound of
himself screaming.
sations that would end with Cabaldon upset when Russell
said he had to get off the call.
The two also participated together in Junior State of
America, a student-led debate and mock government or-
ganization. “He liked order,” Russell says. “He was friendly
and outgoing, but at the same time had a reserved quality
about him. I’d say it was looking out for himself and trying
to protect himself.”
Cabaldon moved to Sacramento in 1987 after graduat-
ing from UC Berkeley with an economics degree, the same
Tully says Cabaldon barely uttered a word at the funeral. subject taught by his mother. Armed with an inexhaust-
He didn’t cry; he just stared blankly ahead with his arm in ible work ethic, Cabaldon quickly rose the ranks as a State
a cast. Cabaldon says his isolation grew over the following Capitol staffer. After a few years, he was appointed chief
weeks, months and years. He seldom left his room. Some- consultant of the Assembly Higher Education Committee.
times he sought refuge in the darkness of the bedroom
That same year that Cabaldon moved to Sacramento, the
closet. Other times, he dragged in couch cushions, shut the voters of West Sacramento took a pioneering leap by approv-
door and build a fort to hide in.
ing cityhood. The previous three decades had seen a slow
“My room was not enough. I had to be inside this clos- deterioration of West Sacramento’s primary neighborhoods
et,” Cabaldon says, recalling the period. He adds, “If I could — Bryte, Broderick and the one with the city’s namesake —
have just called up Postmates and had someone come over as well as their shared crown jewel, West Capitol Avenue.
and execute me painlessly, I wouldn’t be here today.”
The main drag of West Sacramento was an erstwhile
Cabaldon would sometimes play with X-men action fig- gem, formerly frequented by anyone traveling east from San
ures in his room — but instead of fighting with fists and Francisco. According to local lore, President Eisenhower
super powers, his X-men formed superhuman government and Clark Gable stayed along the storied motel row. But af-
committees and delivered f loor speeches concerning mu- ter World War II, the completion of the four-lane Interstate
tant policy. The play sessions marked the first musings of 80 bisected the former Highway 40 that shuttled travelers
a child naturally drawn to politics,
down West Capitol Avenue, and
but took on a greater significance
the former glitzy drag slowly be-
after Diane’s death. Government,
came the domain of drifters and
with its laws, customs and proto-
prostitutes.
col, offered structure to a life that
The incorporation of cityhood
Cabaldon viewed as pointless.
was largely a referendum on the
“Under no set of regular rules
blight of West Capitol Avenue, a
would you take someone’s mom
symbol of the entire area’s dilapi-
away at that age for no reason,” he
dation. Food and shopping options
says. “This was a way to reassert
were virtually nonexistent in “East
some sense of order.”
Yolo,” as the locals called it. Crime
Cabaldon attended the first
rates were high, the roads were
magnet school in Los Angeles, the
pocked with potholes and water
Center for Enriched Studies, at the
quality was poor.
behest of his mother because the
Cabaldon moved to West Sac-
West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon on his
campus represented the corner-
ramento in 1993 and embraced
first birthday, with his mother Diane and father Larry.
stone of a racial integration effort
the blue-collar community as a
photo : courtesy of christopher cabaldon
by the school district. But Cabal-
modern-day Mayberry, the fictional
don’s enrollment, a political action pressed by his mother, working-class paradise of “The Andy Griffith Show.” Outside
left him geographically distanced from his classmates. Gar of work, Cabaldon admits he had “nothing going on in life.”
Russell, a childhood friend, remembers long phone conver- He stopped dating women in his mid-20s and barricaded his
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November 2017 | comstocksmag.com
59