To many of his contemporaries, particularly Mexicans and Mexican Americans, Joaquín Murrieta was a folk hero who stirred terror in the hearts of many Anglo-Americans. Murrieta quickly gained a reputation as the Mexican American Robin Hood or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, a fearless and intrepid defender of an oppressed minority. In essence, Murrieta is an excellent example of the phenomenon the historian Eric Hobsbawm calls “social banditry” or instances where outlaws became, in the eyes of ordinary people in rural societies, heroes and beacons of popular resistance. On the other hand, many others, particularly Anglo-American citizens of California, regarded Murrieta as a dangerous and ruthless bandit who had to be stopped through the use of any means necessary. Not only did the California state legislature offer a substantial reward for his capture, they also passed an act creating the California State Rangers to capture Murrieta and his lieutenants. After his death, Murrieta’s life was so sensationalized that it has become nearly impossible to determine what was real and what was invented. Joaquín Murrieta inspired admiration as well as fear and loathing in his contemporaries, and this division of opinion continues to the present day.
It is difficult to make any claims with certainty about the details of Murrieta’s life, but historians and commentators agree on some points. While some of the stories claim that Murrieta was born in the United States or Chile, he was likely born in Hermosillo in the state of Sonora, in Mexico. Murrieta does not make much of an appearance in the historical record until the California gold rush of 1849. When Swiss immigrant John Sutter and several of his employees discovered gold at his sawmill in 1848, they sparked a frenzy that culminated in more than three hundred thousand people, nicknamed “Forty-Niners,” migrating to California in an attempt to make their fortune. Contrary to popular belief, the Forty-Niners did not come exclusively from the United States. Tens of thousands of immigrants from Latin America, Europe, and Asia made their way to the land of golden opportunity. Murrieta and his wife joined the stream of eager fortune seekers and traveled to California.
Once he arrived, Murrieta’s life took a very different turn. The world of the California gold mines was an intensely violent one, and racism by Anglo-Americans toward Mexicans and Chinese was commonplace and virulent. According to the legend, Murrieta was targeted by racist Anglos due to the wealth produced by his claim. Murrieta was allegedly driven from his claim, and shortly thereafter Anglos raped his wife, lynched his half-brother, and horsewhipped Murrieta, all on the pretext that Murrieta had stolen a mule. However, after this point, some discrepancies appear in the stories. Some posit that Murrieta became a horse trader and a horse thief while others contend that the formerly peaceful man, driven into a towering rage by the indignities he and his wife suffered, became an infamous bandit and began targeting Anglos in California for retribution. The second contention has proven the most tenacious.
By these accounts, Murrieta gathered a gang of like-minded men, including Manuel Garcia, nicknamed “Three-Fingered Jack.” For a period of several years, Murrieta and his band attacked settlers and wagon trains in California and are believed to have killed thirteen white people and twenty-eight Chinese immigrants, although it is difficult to verify these numbers. Eventually, the California state legislature decided that Murrieta was a serious threat and passed a bill on May 11, 1853, providing for the formation of the California State Rangers, who were placed under the command of the infamous Captain Harry Love. Love and the Rangers were charged with the capture of Murrieta and four other bandits with the first name Joaquín. On July 25, 1853, Love and the Rangers fought Murrieta’s gang, and the battle ended with the death of Murrieta and Three-Fingered Jack. Love cut off Murrieta’s head and preserved it in a jar of alcohol. This grisly souvenir was displayed in California until 1906, when it was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and fire. Of course, despite seeing his head on display, some people were never convinced that Murrieta was dead. Reports that he was alive continued well into the 1880s and some people believed that Love beheaded an innocent Mexican to claim the reward money.
Given the tumultuous, controversial, and romanticized nature of Murrieta’s life, as well as his grisly end, it is not surprising that the true details of his life were quickly obscured behind a tapestry of half-truths and inventions. John Rollin Ridge’s The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murrieta, the Celebrated California Bandit (1854) created much of the framework of the legend that endures to this day. Ridge sympathized with Murrieta and painted him as a folk hero, a man who was so driven by rage over what happened to his family that he turned to outlawry. Given that Ridge was a Cherokee Indian, it is not difficult to understand why he sympathized with Murrieta in his quest to attack Anglo racism. However, unlike other commentators, Ridge saw that Murrieta was not to be wholly praised, as many of Murrieta’s victims were Chinese immigrants, not racist Anglos. Ridge’s work proved tremendously popular and was published in multiple languages, but other authors quickly began to plagiarize his narrative of Murrieta’s life. The historian Hubert Howe Bancroft, writing in the 1880s, emphasized the romantic nature of Murrieta’s legend in his History of California.
During the twentieth century, Murrieta, unlike many of his nineteenth-century contemporaries, was neither forgotten nor lost to the historical record. Indeed, Murrieta appeared in a variety of books and songs throughout the century, usually portrayed in a favorable fashion, demonstrating his continued resonance in popular culture. Furthermore, Murrieta became an important symbol to the Chicano movement, a fact vividly illustrated in the poem “I am Joaquin” by Rodolfo “Corky” González. González’s depiction of Murrieta would have resonated with many of Murrieta’s contemporaries: a man who chose to defend his people and culture, even though he had to become an outlaw. In addition, some contend that Murrieta was the inspiration for the character of Zorro, who was created by Johnston McCulley and first appeared in 1919. The 1998 film The Mask of Zorro introduced a new dimension into the relationship between Zorro and Murrieta. The original Zorro (portrayed by Anthony Hopkins) trains Alejandro Murrieta (portrayed by Antonio Banderas) as his successor. This training allows Alejandro to kill Captain Harrison Love, the man who murdered Alejandro’s brother, Joaquín Murrieta. The film also includes a scene where Love (unaware of Alejandro’s true identity) reveals to Alejandro that he kept Joaquín’s head preserved in a jar of alcohol. There are enough elements of truth in this depiction to demonstrate that the writers either read or were familiar with certain elements of Murrieta’s legend and enough differences to suggest that they did not feel restrained from taking creative liberties with the material.
It is hardly likely that Joaquín Murrieta will be forgotten anytime in the near future. His story, even if mythologized and heavily edited, is compelling. Many people find Murrieta a fascinating lens through which to study the gold rush, Mexican-American relations, border violence, and social banditry. In addition, Murrieta’s legend is sufficiently malleable that it can easily be used by a variety of people with very different ideological goals. To Ridge and Bancroft, the romantic aspects of the legend proved the most compelling. To González, Murrieta became a useful symbol for the Chicano movement and a way to promote the goals and objectives of the movement in a powerful way. For Johnston McCulley, the creator of Zorro, Murrieta was a model of a social bandit and an outlaw who protected the poor and defenseless from the corrupt and venal rich. And, for the writers of The Mask of Zorro, Murrieta became the conduit that fueled Alejandro to seek revenge and assume the mantle of Zorro. On the other hand, many people, particularly given the tense state of U.S.-Mexican relations today, disapprove of the tendency to praise Murrieta and contend that he was a ferocious bandit who deserved an early grave and a quick death. A story this rich, appealing to so many disparate groups, is not likely to disappear any time in the near future, and the legend of Joaquín Murrieta, whatever the truth it may contain, will continue to inspire people and influence popular culture.
Evan C. Rothera
See also Cortez, Gregorio; James, Jesse; Outlaw Heroes
Further Reading
Dworkin, Mark J. 2015. American Mythmaker: Walter Noble Burns and the Legends of Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, and Joaquín Murrieta. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Hobsbawm, Eric. 1969. Bandits. New York: Delacorte Press.
Jackson, Joseph Henry. 1939. Bad Company: The Story of California’s Legendary and Actual Stage-Robbers, Bandits, Highwaymen and Outlaws from the Fifties to the Eighties. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
Johnson, Leigh. 2012. “Joaquin Murrieta.” In Celebrating Latino Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Cultural Traditions, edited by María Herrera-Sobek. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Johnson, Susan Lee. Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush. New York: W. W. Norton.
Ridge, John Rollin. 1955. The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murrieta, the Celebrated California Bandit. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.