The Robin Hood of El Dorado: The Saga of Joaquin Murrieta, Famous Outlaw of California's Age of Gold

by Walter Noble Burns, Richard Griswold del Castillo (Foreword by)

First published in 1932 and never reprinted since, this historical drama re-creates the life and adventures of Joaquin Murrieta, a Hispanic social rebel in California during the tumultuous Gold Rush. Published during the Great Depression, at a time of mass deportations of Hispanos to Mexico, this sympathetic portrait of Murrieta and Mexican Americans was a unique voice of social protest. The author romanticizes the pastoral society of Mexican California into which Murrieta was born and introduces the protagonist as a quiet, honest, unpretentious, and reserved resident of Saw Mill Flat, California. But the rape and murder of his wife, Rosita, by racist Anglo miners unleashes his vengeful rage. Picking up his pistols, Murrieta tracks and kills Rosita's murderers and defends Hispanos against violence and dispossession by rampaging gold rush miners. Richard Griswold del Castillo discusses the significance of Murrieta to twentieth-century Mexican Americans and Chicanos and of Burns's history to contemporary understanding of the mysterious social bandit.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

Walter Noble Burns was a writer of Western history and a Western fiction author, notable for his book, The Saga of Billy the Kid (1926).

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s actually a pretty good read - except the author tries to pass it off as history when it is largely fiction, legend and myth.

[LonewolfMX Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have just finished reading about the life of Joaquin Murrieta who was a miner who came from Trincheras, Sonora, Mexico. During the Gold Rush in 1850 when California became a state. He had come along with his wife Rosita Feliz to find fortune, but instead he would encounter racism and discrimination from the Anglo-American miners who had claimed California for themselves following the Mexican-American War of 1846-48

In which Mexico would surrender her Northern territories such as Nuevo Mexico (New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, & Colorado) and Alta California (California & Nevada)with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo which surrendered these land to the U.S. and the people inhabiting these territories would become U.S. citizens and granted these rights, but it was not to be when the Gold Rush came with the discovery of Gold at Sutter's Mill many Easterners as well as other people from across the globe especially Mexico would flood to California in order to strike it rich. Murrieta would stake a claim for himself, but before he could mine for Gold his brother Jesus would be falsely accused of stealing a Burro from an Anglo-American miner in which Jesus would be lynched, Joaquin would be humiliated and whipped for being "an accomplice" to the crime and later Joaquin would come home and find out that some Anglo-American miners invaded his home & raped & killed his wife Rosita, as a result he would become a bandolero (outlaw) and take revenge on the Anglo miners becoming the terror of the Sierra Nevada, while in essence became a hero & inspiration for the Mexican-Californios to rise up against US occupation of California who were being forced off their land by the greedy anglo miners!

[Curtiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chronicles the adventures (legends/myths/tall tales) of Joaquin Murrieta, the notorious bandit of the California gold rush; and perhaps the real-life inspiriation behind the legend of Zorro.

A vivid depiction of California in the 1840's and 50's, with portraits of other well-known characters and some not-so-well known from the days of placer mining, panning for gold, and claim-jumping.

I found it especially interesting because I have cousins who live in Chinese Camp and Jamestown, near where Joaquin Murrieta staged some of his most infamous exploits, and most of the names and places mentioned were familiar to me.