Joaquin Murrieta: The Real Zorro,Joaquin Murrieta:,biography of Joaquin Murrieta, history of Joaquin Murrieta

                                             
                         

Joaquin Murrieta: The Real Zorro

Nearly everyone has grown up hearing the storiesof the masked vigilante named Zorro. He was dressed all in black, and fought witha sword to defeat his enemies. Instead of superpowers, he used his wits andstrength to take down the bad guys. He took from the rich to give to the poor,just like Robin Hood. This is a fictional character, of course,but Zorro was inspired by the real Mexican-American man named Joaquin Murrieta.  we are going touncover the life and the legend of this bandit who became a hero. Spanish-Occupied CaliforniaBefore we get into the meat of Joaquin Murrieta’s life story, it helps to know a bit of a backgroundon the history of California, and the political situation at the time.

It all started in 1542, a Spanish explorernamed Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo entered San Diego Bay, and dubbed the new land “AltaCalifornia.” Of course, the Native Americans were alreadyliving on this land that everyone called “The New World”, and the Spanish did not botherto establish their first permanent colony until 1769, called San Diego. The state of California was split up intofour military districts, or “Presidios”. A group of Spanish officers were given hugeplots of land for their ranches. These were called the “Rancheros”.

Mexico was also occupied by the Spanish atthat time, so hundreds of people walked from Mexico City all the way up to San Diego, Californiain order to work at these ranches. From 1769 to 1833 total of 21 Spanish “Missions”,which were built to attempt converting Native Americans to Christianity. As time went on, more and more Spanish settlementssprung up around these Missions, and more immigrants came from Mexico to establish colonies. In 1821, California gained their independencefrom Spain as a Mexican territory, but their victory was short-lived. The Mexican-American War raged on from 1846to 1848. When the war was over, that territory nowbelonged to the United States. There was a rumor that California was filledwith gold, and as the new victors of this massive territory, the Americans did not wasteany time making sure they claimed it all for themselves. Early LifeNot much is known about the very early life of Joaquin Murrieta, aside from the fact thathe was baptised in a Catholic Church in 1830. It is likely that he grew up working withhis family for one of the Rancheros. But he was ambitious, and wanted to becomea rich man.

 So when he was just 18 years old, he and hisyoung wife went to live on their own in the mountains so that he could search for gold. This was years before men were traveling fromaround the world to become apart of the California Gold Rush. He would have been one of the very first Mexicanmen to discover the gold. He kept it quiet, only telling his wife andbrother about his discovery. We have no way of knowing how much money hewas making by prospecting gold. But there was rumor and speculation that spreadlater on than some of the early miners were finding upwards of $300 a day- and that’sbefore modern inflation. Joaquin and his wife would have been veryhappy, saving up as much money as they could before starting a family. In 1848, the war was over, and the UnitedStates won the California territory. That same year, gold was discovered by a Swisspioneer named John Sutter, and thus, the great California Gold Rush began. Men traveled from all over the world to tryingto make it rich. The American government wanted more peopleto settle in the new territory, and mine the gold so that they could begin to revive theUS economy. They didn't waste any time at all lettingpeople know that there was gold in California, and even went to the extent to over-exaggeratehow much men could potentially make. We are not sure exactly how many men movedthere, the estimates are around 300,000 new immigrants from the United States and Europe. The only problem, of course, was the factthat Mexican men had already been mining the gold decades before the Americans got there. One day, Joaquin Murrieta and his wife wereapproached by a group of American men.

They informed him that Mexico had lost thewar, and demanded that he give up his gold mine. He refused, of course, since this was hishome, and their family’s entire future. So these men grabbed Joaquin Murrieta, andtied him to a chair. They forced him to watch as they torturedand abused his wife in front of him. Then, they killed her, and left Murrieta alonein his grief. This 18-year old boy was still tied to thechair as these men galloped away, taking his entire life savings with them. Eventually, he managed to undo the knots fromaround his wrists, and buried his wife. Within just a few moments, this group of mentook everything he had worked hard for, and he was left with nothing. Problems in ParadiseHeartbroken and traumatized, teenage Joaquin Murrieta had no choice but to return to hishometown empty-handed. He had expected to return to his family triumphantin the riches he had found, but now, he had nothing left to his name. When he arrived, he saw that the village hadbeen transformed in a short period of time. American men were now living there, and thenative Mexican people had to be subservient in order to avoid confrontation. He soon learned that he was not alone in theabuse that he had endured. After all, this was the “Wild West”, andthere were few options for Mexican people to receive any kind of help from law enforcement. In the minds of the Americans, they were thevictors of the war, and that gave them the right to that land, even if Mexican familieshad been living near the Rancheros and Missions for decades. Many of these American men were also veterans,and to some, it didn’t matter if these Mexican people were civilians.

They were still considered the enemy. Joaquin Murrieta knew that if he wanted tosurvive, he would need to integrate into the new society that was being put in front ofhim. He began working as a card dealer at a localsaloon for the cowboys who were looking to play blackjack and poker. But even though he tried to keep his headdown, he was still constantly harassed by the white men. Over the next two years, the situation onlygrew worse for Mexican-Americans living in California. After the Compromise of 1850, California wasbringing a lot of new money into the US economy, and its population was large enough to officiallydeclare it a state. That same year, California legislation passedThe Foreign Miners Act, which charged men $20 a month in taxes to anyone who wantedto mine gold. With modern inflation, this was more likeroughly $1,000 a month, and it made it far too expensive for your average worker to actuallymake a living. This caused gold miners to revolt, and manymen became desperate for money, and there was a lot of tension in local communities. More and more white men began resorting tostealing from the Mexicans in order to make ends meet. Eventually, the government could see thattheir tax laws were only causing chaos. So they exempt “all free white men” frombeing considered “foreigners”, even if they were European immigrants. They also reduced the tax from $20 down toa more reasonable $3 a month. There were far more entrepreneurs who wereable to make a fortune from selling products to gold prospectors, instead of having the“get rich quick” mindset.

For example, Levi Denim company began becausethe founder, Levi Strauss, was able to sell pants to the prospectors who kept gettingholes in their clothes. Of course, the company still exists today,and it is now valued at $6.6 billion. Many of the men who traveled for the GoldRush died from disease, or left penniless. Just like Levi Strauss and his trousers, entrepreneurswere making much more money than gold prospectors. Mexican business owners were able to makeloads of money from the tourists coming through town. Even though Joaquin Murrietta had lost everything,he was still ambitious. His brother was also clever and business-savvy,so he was able to earn enough money to purchase a beautiful horse. Back then, having a high quality horse waslike driving a luxury sports car. It was a sign of wealth and status. So when the Americans noticed a Mexican ridingone, they were incredibly jealous, especially since they were struggling to make it richin the Gold Rush. They couldn’t believe that a Mexican mancould actually afford it. So they accused Joaquin’s brother of beinga horse thief. Back then, being a horse thief was an extremelyserious crime, punishable by death. Joaquin Murrietta tried to defend his brother,saying that he had purchased the horse legally. The men chose to punish him just for speakingup and telling the truth.

They tied Murrietta up, and whipped him bloody. Then, the American men lynched Murrietta’sbrother in the town square, even though he was completely innocent of any crime. Now, for the second time, the white men hadkilled someone that Joaquin loved dearly. At this point, the two closest people in hislife had been taken from him. And it was clear that even if he tried towork hard and make a living through honest means, the extreme racism that now ruled overCalifornia would continue to keep him down, no matter how hard her tried to better himself. The young, ambitious part of Joaquin Murriettawas now dead. He had now transformed into someone who woulddevote his life to revenge. If You Wrong Us, Shall We Not Revenge? The day after his brother’s lynching, JoaquinMurrieta completely snapped. He felt that he had nothing left to lose,and was ready to get revenge, even if it meant risking his own life. Joaquin waited until the middle of the night,and he kidnapped the man who was responsible for his brother’s death. Then, he murdered the man using a blade, andchopped up the body. He left pieces lying around the camp, so thatthe American men would find their friend in the morning. One of the men could hear something goingon, so he walked outside to see their friend’s body parts scattered around the camp, theyran to catch the killer. The only light came from the flames of thecampfire, and they spotted Joaquin Murietta. They recognized him as the young man theyhad whipped earlier that day, and brother of the man who was killed. He was dressed all in black, which made itdifficult for them to see him in the darkness, besides the whites of his eyes, which werefilled with rage. Before the men could react, Joaquin Murriettawas already riding away on a horse.

The men shot after him, but none of the bulletscame in contact with him. Clearly, the men must have missed. But according to their version of the story,it was as if Joaquin had some super-human quality about him that helped him make itout unscathed. The men were terrified, and they had goodreason to be. Every night, another one of them would befound dead, with their body parts scattered around the camp. Even when they were on the lookout for Murrietta,he still somehow managed to slip in and slaughter his next victim. Word spread that there was a phantom-likebandit coming for revenge on behalf of the Mexican people. At first, Joaquin Murrieta was only killingthe white men who were responsible for killing his family, but that was not enough for him. He moved on to hearing the stories from otherMexican people who had been abused, and decided to go after the men who were the most violentrapists and murderers. He was passing judgement on them like theGrim Reaper, deciding when it was time to die. Murrietta was serving vigilante justice ashe saw fit, and he had no guilt or remorse for doing so. At this point, Joaquin Murrieta was technicallya cold-blooded serial killer. But the Mexican people had been beaten downfor so long, everyone saw him as a hero. Finally, the white men were afraid to be toocruel to the Mexicans, for fear of getting on Murrietta’s hit list. It did not take long for other young peopleseeking revenge to step up to offer to help Joaquin Murrieta. A gang of men and women began to look up tohim man as their leader. All of them were in their 20’s and 30’s,and they had similar tragic back-stories to Murrieta. The Americans had killed their family, money,and homeland for themselves. Since many of these young people had losttheir families, they decided to call themselves “The Murrietas”. One of the most memorable members of the gangwas named Manuel Garcia, but everyone called him Three Fingered Jack, because, well...as you can imagine, he only had three fingers.

There was also a 16-year old boy named ReyezFeliz, and his older sister. Their parents had been killed, and they hadnothing left to live for, except revenge. Joaquin Murrieta fell for Feliz’s sister,and they became lovers who were both willing to live to avenge the families that they hadlost. After a while, the gang had killed all ofthe men responsible for ruining their lives, but they did not stop at their life of crime. They became like a troupe of Robin Hood’smerry men. The gang members would travel throughout theSan Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys lassoing white men. They would steal his gold, and take theirhorses before riding off with their treasure. In their minds, they were really just takingback the gold that had been stolen from them in the first place, and rebelling againsttheir oppressors. Upon returning home to their villages, thegang was met with cheers, and people were finally able to rebuild their lives afterhaving everything taken from them. However, since they were only killing whenit was absolutely necessary, and left many of these men alive, it left plenty of witnesseswho were able to report the theft to the authorities. Eventually, they demanded help from the CaliforniaRangers. The California RangersThe name “Wild West” is very fitting, for good reason.

In the new American territories, there wereplenty of areas that were totally lawless. The California Rangers were asked with beingthe state’s law enforcement, but they would only be sent out on-location for the mostserious cases. Once word spread that a Mexican serial killerand his gang of bandits were murdering white men around the gold rush, the governor ofCalifornia offered a $6,000 cash reward for Joaquin Murrietta. He was wanted dead or alive. Now, $6,000 doesn’t sound like a lot ofmoney for a group of men to split over killing a guy, but keep in mind that with inflation,that was closer to $200,000. This was more than enough incentive for theRangers to assemble and try to find him. A man named Harry Love was the head of theCalifornia Rangers. For several weeks, they tried and failed tofind Joaquin Murrieta. This was especially difficult, consideringthat several other desperados were also named “Joaquin”. Finally, they kidnapped Joaquin Murrieta’sbrother-in-law, and tortured him until he gave up the location of where the gang washiding. In 1853, the California Rangers rode out tothe location where the men had been spotted, and shot all 8 members of The Murrietta gang. After examining the bodies, they saw the famous“Three Fingered Jack”.

This is how they confirmed that they had,in fact, found the right group of people. The only problem was that no one actuallyknew what Joaquin Murrieta actually looked like. There were plenty of illustrations of himcirculating around, but they were all artistic renderings of a maniacal-looking Mexican manwith crazy eyes. However, Harry Love claims that he was confidentthat he could identify the leader, Joaquin Murrietta. So he cut off his head, preserved it in alarge jar of liquor, and carried back home with him. Then, he put the head on display, and chargedpeople $1 per ticket to come see it. As morbid as it sounds, people came from allaround to stare at the head of the dead bandit who had been terrorizing California. Just one year later, in 1854, a writer namedJohn Rollin Ridge published a book called The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta,the Celebrated California Bandit. The author, John Rollin Ridge, also went bythe named “Yellow Bird” because of his Cherokee heritage. It was important to him to document the storyof Joaquin Murrieta from the perspective of the Mexican-American people, because it wasan example of the atrocities native people had to endure after the United States occupiedthe California territory. Without this book, the true backstory mayhave never been told, and he would have gone down in history as nothing but a cold-bloodedkiller.

The story of Joaquin Murrietta has been retoldmultiple times since then, but Yellow Bird’s version is considered to be the most accurateportrayal. Unfortunately, this was not the end of theoppression against Mexican people in America. In 1855, The Greaser Act became law. Back then, Americans called the Native AmericanIndians and Mexican people “Greasers”, because of the perception that they were dirty. It gave Americans the right to arrest nativepeople for being “vagrants”. The definition of a “vagrant” was veryvague, and it could just mean someone who was considered loitering, or traveling fromplace to place. This was meant to cut down on gang activityby the Mexican Desperados, but it was also targeted at forcing Native Americans to stayin their reservations, limiting their ability to travel. Because of the Greaser Law, any Mexican orNative American man could be thrown in jail for 90 days simply by standing around town,or going on a vacation.

 This took away the ability for anyone exceptwhite men to search for gold in California, and it limited their opportunities for growthin the local communities. As the years went on, it only gave more andmore power to the Anglo-American economy. LegacyThe story of Murrietta’s vigilante justice was so compelling, people began to tell itover and over again throughout the west. In 1919, a writer named John McCulley wrotea short story called “The Curse of Capistrano”. This was based on the true story of JoaquinMurrietta, only he changed the name of the main character to Don Diego Vega. The story was so popular, it was turned intoa movie in 1920. John McCulley decided to published a full-lengthnovel starring Don Diego Vega. This was The Mask of Zorro in 1924. As time went on, the Legend of Zorro transformedwhenever people needed that spark of inspiration. In the 1930s, people were suffering throughthe Great Depression, and they blamed the 1% for ruining their livelihoods. People of all races began to feel that theyresonated with the character of Zorro, because they wanted to believe that there could bejustice in the world. Through Zorro, they could live vicariouslyand see someone who took from the rich and gave to the poor. By the 1950’s, the character was still justas popular as ever, and from 1957 to 1959, Walt Disney Pictures aired the show Zorroon TV. Then, in 1998, The Mask of Zorro premiered,starring Antonio Banderes. But the inspiration did not stop there.

 Author Bob Kane credits The Legend of Zorrofor inspiration for the Batman comics, and Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride sharessome clear influences, as well. And it all started with Joaquin Murrieta. For a man who inspired so much popular culture,you might be wondering- is there a grave where we can pay homage to this bandit-hero? Well, it turns out that there never was one. In 2005, A filmmaker named John J. Valadezwent on a quest to find the head of Joaquin Murrietta that Harry Love kept on display. After ten years of searching, Valadez believesthat he truly did find the head of Joaquin Murrietta, and he filmed a documentary abouthis entire journey on how he tracked it down. In 2015, he finally gave the man a properburial 162 years after his death. Even though Joaquin Murrieta has inspiredso many people, there are still many American historians who refused to see him as a goodguy. They say that he was nothing but a criminaland a bandit who terrorized unsuspecting Americans. But in Mexican history, it is clear that JooquinMurrietta is, and always will be a hero.