The Robin Hood of El Dorado: The Saga of Joaquin Murrieta, Famous Outlaw of California's Age of Gold (Historians of the Frontier and American West Series) - Softcover

Burns, Walter Noble

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826321550 ISBN 13: 9780826321558

Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr, 1999

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Walter Noble Burns was a journalist-historian in Chicago. Richard Griswold del Castillo is the director of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at San Diego State University.

Review:

." . . a fascinating retelling of the life and times of the notorious Joaquin Murietta. . . . the best $15 dollars I've spent in a long time. It is simply put, a great read, and it provides an insight into what drove Murietta into what is still unthinkable violence in the days of the Gold Rush."

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0826321550
• ISBN 13: 9780826321558
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304