Joaquin Carrillo Murrieta (sometimes spelled
Murieta or
Murietta) (c. 1829 – c. July 25, 1853), also called the
Mexican or Chilean Robin Hood or the
Robin Hood of El DoradoEl Dorado is the name of a Muisca tribal chief who covered himself with gold dust and, as an initiation rite, dived into a highland lake.Later it became the name of a legendary "Lost City of Gold" that has fascinated – and so far eluded – explorers since the days of the Spanish Conquistadors...
, was a semi-legendary figure in
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
during the
California Gold RushThe California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
of the 1850s. Depending on the point of view, he was considered an infamous bandit or a Mexican patriot.
Controversy over his life
Controversy surrounds the figure of Joaquin Murrieta: who he was, what he did, and many of his life's events. This is summarized by the words of historian
Susan Lee Johnson-Life:In 1978 Johnson received her B.A. in history from Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and later her M.A. at Arizona State University, and Ph.D. from Yale University in 1993...
:
"So many tales have grown up around Murrieta that it is hard to disentangle the fabulous from the factual. There seems to be a consensus that Anglos drove him from a rich mining claim, and that, in rapid succession, his wife was raped, his half-brother lynched, and Murrieta himself horse-whipped. He may have worked as a monteThree-card Monte, also known as the Three-card marney, Three-card trick, Three-Way, Three-card shuffle, Menage-a-card, Triplets, Follow the lady, Les Trois Perdants , le Bonneteau, Find the lady, or Follow the Bee is a confidence game in which the victim, or mark, is tricked into betting a...
dealer for a time; then, according to whichever version one accepts, he became either a horse trader and occasional horse thief, or a bandit."
John Rollin RidgeJohn Rollin Ridge , a member of the Cherokee Nation, is considered the first Native American novelist.-Biography:...
, grandson of the
CherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
leader
Major RidgeMajor Ridge, The Ridge was a Cherokee Indian member of the tribal council, a lawmaker, and a leader. He was a veteran of the Chickamauga Wars, the Creek War, and the First Seminole War.Along with Charles R...
, wrote a
dime novelDime novel, though it has a specific meaning, has also become a catch-all term for several different forms of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S...
about Murrieta; the fictional biography contributed to his legend, especially as it was translated into various European languages. A portion of Ridge's novel was reprinted in 1859 in the
California Police Gazette. This story was picked up and subsequently translated into
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. The French version, featuring a Chile-born Joaquín Murrieta, was translated into Spanish by Roberto Hynne. He claimed to have been in California during the Gold Rush and to have learned of Murrieta there.
Early life and education
The place of Murrieta's birth is disputed. Sources say that he was born in
ÁlamosThe town and municipality of Álamos in the Mexican state of Sonora was founded in the late 17th century following discoveries of silver in the region. It was named by the conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, and became the capital of the surrounding region...
in the northwestern state of
SonoraSonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, or in
QuillotaQuillota is a city and commune located in the Aconcagua River valley of central Chile's Valparaíso Region. It is the capital and largest city of the Quillota Province where many inhabitants live in the surrounding farm areas of San Isidro, La Palma, Pocochay, and San Pedro...
,
ChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
(near
ValparaisoValparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
).
Although biographical sources generally held that Murrieta was born in Chile or Mexico, a few reported that his mother's family were of mixed-
CherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
and
AngloAnglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England or the English people, as in the terms Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American, Anglo-Celtic, Anglo-African and Anglo-Indian. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas, Australia and...
-Protestant ancestry. Her family was said to have migrated to either Mexico or, questionably, Chile from the Southeastern United States and to have adopted European customs, such as private land ownership and a
plantationA plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
system. (Note: The Cherokee were one of the
Five Civilized TribesThe Five Civilized Tribes were the five Native American nations—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole—that were considered civilized by Anglo-European settlers during the colonial and early federal period because they adopted many of the colonists' customs and had generally good...
in the Southeast United States and had adopted many European-American customs before the 1830s.) His mother was said to have married into the Murrieta family, which was connected to the colonial Spanish landed elite. Many scholars dispute the purported Murrieta-Cherokee ancestral connection.
Migration to California
By a fictional account that added to his legend, Murrieta reportedly went to California in 1849 to seek his fortune in the
California Gold RushThe California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. He encountered
racismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
in the extreme competition of the rough mining camps. While mining for gold, he and his wife supposedly were attacked by American miners jealous of his success. They allegedly beat him senseless, then raped and killed his wife. But, the source for these events is not considered reliable, as it was a dime novel,
The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murrieta, written by
John Rollin RidgeJohn Rollin Ridge , a member of the Cherokee Nation, is considered the first Native American novelist.-Biography:...
and published in 1854.
In contrast, the historian Frank Latta, in his twentieth-century book,
Joaquín Murrieta and His Horse Gangs (1980), wrote that Murrieta had a criminal band made up of family and friends. Latta documented that they regularly engaged in illegal horse trade with Mexico, and had helped Murrieta kill at least six of the Americans who had attacked him and his wife.
He and his band attacked settlers and wagon trains in California. The gang is believed to have killed up to 28 Chinese and 13 Anglo-Americans. By 1853, the California state legislature considered Murrieta enough of a criminal to list him as one of the so-called "
Five JoaquinsThe Five Joaquins were an outlaw gang in California led by Joaquin Murrieta and composed of himself, Joaquin Botellier, Joaquin Carrillo, Joaquin Ocomorenia, and Joaquin Valenzuela...
" on a bill passed in May 1853. The legislature authorized hiring for three months a company of 20 California Rangers, veterans of the Mexican-American War, to hunt down "Joaquin Botellier, Joaquin Carrillo, Joaquin Muriata [sic], Joaquin Ocomorenia, and Joaquin Valenzuela," and their banded associates. On May 11, 1853, the
governorThe Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...
John BiglerJohn Bigler was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat. A Democrat, he served as the third Governor of California from 1852 to 1856 and was the first California governor to complete an entire term in office successfully, as well as the first to win re-election...
signed an act to create the "
California State RangersThe California Rangers, or the California State Rangers, was California's first state wide law enforcement agency formed in 1853 to deal with the outlaw gangs troubling the Gold Country during the early 1850s. The force was disbanded following the success in suppressing the Five Joaquins gang...
", to be led by Captain
Harry LoveHarry Love was the head of California's first law enforcement agency, the California State Rangers, and became famous for allegedly killing the notorious bandit Joaquin Murrieta.-Early life:...
(a former
Texas RangerThe Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
and Mexican War veteran).
The state paid the California Rangers $150 a month, and promised them a $1,000 governor's reward if they captured the wanted men. On July 25, 1853, a group of Rangers encountered a band of armed Mexican men near Arroyo de Cantua near the Coast Range Mountains on the Tulare plains. In the confrontation, three of the Mexicans were killed. They claimed one was Murrieta, and another Manuel Garcia, also known as Three-Fingered Jack, one of his most notorious associates. Two others were captured. A plaque (
California Historical LandmarkCalifornia Historical Landmarks are buildings, structures, sites, or places in the state of California that have been determined to have statewide historical significance by meeting at least one of the criteria listed below:...
#344) near the intersection of State Routes
33State Route 33 is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California. SR 33 replaced part of U.S. Route 399 in 1964 during the "great renumbering" of routes. In the unincorporated sections of Kern County it is known as the West Side Highway...
and
198State Route 198 is an east–west state highway that connects the California Central Coast to the mid-Central Valley at Visalia, although the most-traveled portion is in the Central Valley itself....
now marks the approximate site of the incident.
As proof of the outlaws' deaths, the Rangers cut off Three-Fingered Jack's hand and the alleged Murrieta's head and preserved them in a jar of
alcoholIn chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
to bring to the authorities for their reward. Officials displayed the jar in
Mariposa CountyMariposa County is a county in the U.S. state of California, located in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It lies north of Fresno, east of Merced, and southeast of Stockton. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,251 up from 17,130 at the 2000 census...
,
StocktonStockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
, and San Francisco. The Rangers took the display throughout California; spectators could pay $1 to see the relics. Seventeen people, including a Catholic priest, signed
affidavitAn affidavit is a written sworn statement of fact voluntarily made by an affiant or deponent under an oath or affirmation administered by a person authorized to do so by law. Such statement is witnessed as to the authenticity of the affiant's signature by a taker of oaths, such as a notary public...
s identifying the head as Murrieta's, alias
Carrillo.
Love and his Rangers received the $1,000 reward money. In August 1853, an anonymous Los Angeles-based man wrote to the
San Francisco Alta California Dailythat Love and his Rangers murdered some innocent Mexican
mustang-Animals:* Mustang , a free-ranging horse of the American west. -Aircraft:* Cessna Citation Mustang, a modern business jet which is currently the smallest model in the Cessna Citation range...
catcher and bribed people to swear out affidavits. Later that fall, California newspapers carried letters by a few men claiming that Capt. Love had failed to display Murrieta's head at the mining camps, but this was not true. On May 28, 1854, the California State Legislature voted to reward the Rangers with another $5,000 for their defeat of Murrieta and his band.
But, 25 years later, the myths began to form. In 1879, O. P. Stidger was reported to have heard Murrieta's sister say that the displayed head was not her brother's. At around the same time, numerous sightings were reported of Murrieta as an old man. These were never confirmed. His preserved head was destroyed during the
1906 San Francisco EarthquakeThe San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
and subsequent fire.
Legacy
Murrieta's nephew, known as
ProcopioProcopio , also known as Red-Handed Dick and Red Dick was one of the most well-known bandits in California history. His nickname was reportedly given due either to his red hair, or his violent nature and bloodthirstiness...
, became one of California's most notorious bandits of the 1860s and 1870s; he purportedly wanted to exceed the reputation of his uncle. Murrieta was possibly partly the inspiration for the fictional character of
ZorroZorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....
, the lead character in the five-part serial story, "The Curse of Capistrano", written by
Johnston McCulleyJohnston McCulley was the author of hundreds of stories, fifty novels, numerous screenplays for film and television, and the creator of the character Zorro...
and published in 1919 in a pulp-fiction magazine.
For some activists, Murrieta had come to symbolize resistance against Anglo-American economic and cultural domination in California. The "Association of Descendants of Joaquin Murrieta" says that Murrieta was not a "gringo eater", but "He wanted to retrieve the part of Mexico that was lost at that time in the
Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoThe Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United States to the interim government of a militarily occupied Mexico City, that ended the Mexican-American War on February 2, 1848...
."
Representations in media
Joaquin Murrieta has been a widely used romantic figure in novels, stories, and films, and on TV.
Fiction and drama:
- The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murrieta (1854) by John Rollin Ridge
John Rollin Ridge , a member of the Cherokee Nation, is considered the first Native American novelist.-Biography:...
, published one year after Murrieta's supposed death. Parts of this were translated into French and Spanish, adding to his legend in Europe.
- Fulgor y Muerte de Joaquín Murieta, (tr. The Splendor and Death of Joaquin Murieta), a play by Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
, published in English in paperback in 1972.
- Звезда и смерть Хоакина Мурьеты (Zvezda i smert’ Khoakina Mur’ety — The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta), 1976, by Alexei Rybnikov
Alexey Lvovich Rybnikov is a modern Russian composer.He is the author of music for the first Soviet and Russian musicals "Star and Death of Joaquin Murrieta" and "Juno and Avos" , for numerous plays and operas, for more than 80 Russian movies. More than 10 millions discs with his music have...
and Pavel Grushko, is based on Neruda's play.
- Daughter of Fortune
Daughter of Fortune is a novel by Isabel Allende, and was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in February 2000...
, a 1999 novel by Isabel AllendeIsabel Allende Llona is a Chilean writer with American citizenship. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts , which have been commercially successful...
, includes the mythical figure of Murrieta.
Film and TV:
- The Robin Hood of El Dorado 1936
The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon...
film by William A. WellmanWilliam Augustus Wellman was an American film director. Although Wellman began his film career as an actor, he worked on over 80 films, as director, producer and consultant but most often as a director, notable for his work in crime, adventure and action genre films, often focusing on aviation...
.
- Stories of the Century
Stories of the Century is a Western television series that ran in syndication through Republic Pictures between January 23, 1954, and March 11, 1955.-Synopsis:...
, United States TV series, 1954-1954, episode "Joaquin Murrieta."
- Zorro (1957 TV series), United States TV series, 1957-1959
- The Mask of Zorro
The Mask of Zorro is a 1998 American swashbuckler film based on the Zorro character created by Johnston McCulley. It was directed by Martin Campbell and stars Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Stuart Wilson...
(1998) film features a youthful Murrieta and his death. His fictional brother Alejandro (Antonio BanderasJosé Antonio Domínguez Banderas , better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer...
) assumes the role of Zorro and kills Captain Love in revenge. Victor Rivers played Joaquin.
Music:
- "Así Como Hoy Matan Negros", recorded by Víctor Jara
Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, political activist and member of the Communist Party of Chile...
, based on Pablo Neruda and Sergio Ortega's collaboration Fulgor y Muerte de Joaquín Murieta.
- "Cueca de Joaquín Murieta" recorded by both Víctor Jara
Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, political activist and member of the Communist Party of Chile...
and QuilapayúnQuilapayún are an instrumental and vocal folk music group from Chile and among the longest lasting and most influential exponents of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement. Formed in Chile during the mid-1960s, the group became inseparable with the revolution that occurred in the popular music of the...
, in the style of Chile's national dance, the cuecaCueca is a family of musical styles and associated dances from Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina. In Chile, the cueca holds the status of national dance, where it was officially selected on September 18, 1979.- Origins :...
.
- "Premonición de la Muerte de Joaquin Murieta" (Premonition of the death of Joaquin Murieta), a tribute to Murrieta, performed by Quilapayún
Quilapayún are an instrumental and vocal folk music group from Chile and among the longest lasting and most influential exponents of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement. Formed in Chile during the mid-1960s, the group became inseparable with the revolution that occurred in the popular music of the...
.
- "The Ballad of Joaquin Murrieta", performed by the Sons of the San Joaquin
The Sons of the San Joaquin is a Western family band. Jack and Joe Hannah are brothers, while third member Lon Hannah is Joe's son. They began performing together in 1987 at a birthday party for Lon's grandfather....
on the album Way Out YonderWay Out Yonder is the twelfth album released by the Sons of the San Joaquin. It was made available through their website in October 2005, and saw a worldwide release in January of the following year.-Track listing:-Personnel:...
.
- "The Bandit Joaquin" recorded by Dave Stamey
- "Murrietta's Head" written and recorded by Dave Alvin
Dave Alvin , is a guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been one of the leading proponents of 'roots' or 'American' music, bringing together elements of rock-and-roll, blues, rural and tejano music....
on the album Eleven Eleven
Additional reading
- Susan Lee Johnson, Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush, New York: Norton.
External links