Nearly everyone has grown up hearing the stories
of the masked vigilante named Zorro. He was dressed all in black, and fought with
a sword to defeat his enemies. Instead of superpowers, he used his wits and
strength 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. On today’s Biographics, we are going to
uncover the life and the legend of this bandit who became a hero. Spanish-Occupied California
Before we get into the meat of Joaquin Murrieta’s life story, it helps to know a bit of a background
on the history of California, and the political situation at the time. It all started in 1542, a Spanish explorer
named Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo entered San Diego Bay, and dubbed the new land “Alta
California.” Of course, the Native Americans were already
living on this land that everyone called “The New World”, and the Spanish did not bother
to establish their first permanent colony until 1769, called San Diego. The state of California was split up into
four military districts, or “Presidios”. A group of Spanish officers were given huge
plots of land for their ranches. These were called the “Rancheros”. Mexico was also occupied by the Spanish at
that time, so hundreds of people walked from Mexico City all the way up to San Diego, California
in 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 settlements
sprung up around these Missions, and more immigrants came from Mexico to establish colonies. In 1821, California gained their independence
from Spain as a Mexican territory, but their victory was short-lived. The Mexican-American War raged on from 1846
to 1848. When the war was over, that territory now
belonged to the United States. There was a rumor that California was filled
with gold, and as the new victors of this massive territory, the Americans did not waste
any time making sure they claimed it all for themselves. Early Life
Not much is known about the very early life of Joaquin Murrieta, aside from the fact that
he was baptised in a Catholic Church in 1830. It is likely that he grew up working with
his family for one of the Rancheros. But he was ambitious, and wanted to become
a rich man. So when he was just 18 years old, he and his
young wife went to live on their own in the mountains so that he could search for gold. This was years before men were traveling from
around the world to become apart of the California Gold Rush. He would have been one of the very first Mexican
men to discover the gold. He kept it quiet, only telling his wife and
brother about his discovery. We have no way of knowing how much money he
was making by prospecting gold. But there was rumor and speculation that spread
later on than some of the early miners were finding upwards of $300 a day- and that’s
before modern inflation. Joaquin and his wife would have been very
happy, saving up as much money as they could before starting a family. In 1848, the war was over, and the United
States won the California territory. That same year, gold was discovered by a Swiss
pioneer named John Sutter, and thus, the great California Gold Rush began. Men traveled from all over the world to trying
to make it rich. The American government wanted more people
to settle in the new territory, and mine the gold so that they could begin to revive the
US economy. They didn't waste any time at all letting
people know that there was gold in California, and even went to the extent to over-exaggerate
how much men could potentially make. We are not sure exactly how many men moved
there, the estimates are around 300,000 new immigrants from the United States and Europe. The only problem, of course, was the fact
that Mexican men had already been mining the gold decades before the Americans got there. One day, Joaquin Murrieta and his wife were
approached by a group of American men. They informed him that Mexico had lost the
war, and demanded that he give up his gold mine. He refused, of course, since this was his
home, and their family’s entire future. So these men grabbed Joaquin Murrieta, and
tied him to a chair. They forced him to watch as they tortured
and abused his wife in front of him. Then, they killed her, and left Murrieta alone
in his grief. This 18-year old boy was still tied to the
chair as these men galloped away, taking his entire life savings with them. Eventually, he managed to undo the knots from
around his wrists, and buried his wife. Within just a few moments, this group of men
took everything he had worked hard for, and he was left with nothing. Problems in Paradise
Heartbroken and traumatized, teenage Joaquin Murrieta had no choice but to return to his
hometown empty-handed. He had expected to return to his family triumphant
in the riches he had found, but now, he had nothing left to his name. When he arrived, he saw that the village had
been transformed in a short period of time. American men were now living there, and the
native Mexican people had to be subservient in order to avoid confrontation. He soon learned that he was not alone in the
abuse that he had endured. After all, this was the “Wild West”, and
there were few options for Mexican people to receive any kind of help from law enforcement. In the minds of the Americans, they were the
victors of the war, and that gave them the right to that land, even if Mexican families
had 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 to
survive, he would need to integrate into the new society that was being put in front of
him. He began working as a card dealer at a local
saloon for the cowboys who were looking to play blackjack and poker. But even though he tried to keep his head
down, he was still constantly harassed by the white men. Over the next two years, the situation only
grew worse for Mexican-Americans living in California. After the Compromise of 1850, California was
bringing a lot of new money into the US economy, and its population was large enough to officially
declare it a state. That same year, California legislation passed
The Foreign Miners Act, which charged men $20 a month in taxes to anyone who wanted
to mine gold. With modern inflation, this was more like
roughly $1,000 a month, and it made it far too expensive for your average worker to actually
make a living. This caused gold miners to revolt, and many
men became desperate for money, and there was a lot of tension in local communities. More and more white men began resorting to
stealing from the Mexicans in order to make ends meet. Eventually, the government could see that
their tax laws were only causing chaos. So they exempt “all free white men” from
being considered “foreigners”, even if they were European immigrants. They also reduced the tax from $20 down to
a more reasonable $3 a month. There were far more entrepreneurs who were
able to make a fortune from selling products to gold prospectors, instead of having the
“get rich quick” mindset. For example, Levi Denim company began because
the founder, Levi Strauss, was able to sell pants to the prospectors who kept getting
holes 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 Gold
Rush died from disease, or left penniless. Just like Levi Strauss and his trousers, entrepreneurs
were making much more money than gold prospectors. Mexican business owners were able to make
loads 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 was
like driving a luxury sports car. It was a sign of wealth and status. So when the Americans noticed a Mexican riding
one, they were incredibly jealous, especially since they were struggling to make it rich
in the Gold Rush. They couldn’t believe that a Mexican man
could actually afford it. So they accused Joaquin’s brother of being
a horse thief. Back then, being a horse thief was an extremely
serious 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 speaking
up and telling the truth. They tied Murrietta up, and whipped him bloody. Then, the American men lynched Murrietta’s
brother in the town square, even though he was completely innocent of any crime. Now, for the second time, the white men had
killed someone that Joaquin loved dearly. At this point, the two closest people in his
life had been taken from him. And it was clear that even if he tried to
work hard and make a living through honest means, the extreme racism that now ruled over
California would continue to keep him down, no matter how hard her tried to better himself. The young, ambitious part of Joaquin Murrietta
was now dead. He had now transformed into someone who would
devote his life to revenge. If You Wrong Us, Shall We Not Revenge? The day after his brother’s lynching, Joaquin
Murrieta 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, and
chopped up the body. He left pieces lying around the camp, so that
the American men would find their friend in the morning. One of the men could hear something going
on, so he walked outside to see their friend’s body parts scattered around the camp, they
ran to catch the killer. The only light came from the flames of the
campfire, and they spotted Joaquin Murietta. They recognized him as the young man they
had whipped earlier that day, and brother of the man who was killed. He was dressed all in black, which made it
difficult for them to see him in the darkness, besides the whites of his eyes, which were
filled with rage. Before the men could react, Joaquin Murrietta
was already riding away on a horse. The men shot after him, but none of the bullets
came 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 it
out unscathed. The men were terrified, and they had good
reason to be. Every night, another one of them would be
found 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-like
bandit coming for revenge on behalf of the Mexican people. At first, Joaquin Murrieta was only killing
the white men who were responsible for killing his family, but that was not enough for him. He moved on to hearing the stories from other
Mexican people who had been abused, and decided to go after the men who were the most violent
rapists and murderers. He was passing judgement on them like the
Grim Reaper, deciding when it was time to die. Murrietta was serving vigilante justice as
he saw fit, and he had no guilt or remorse for doing so. At this point, Joaquin Murrieta was technically
a cold-blooded serial killer. But the Mexican people had been beaten down
for so long, everyone saw him as a hero. Finally, the white men were afraid to be too
cruel to the Mexicans, for fear of getting on Murrietta’s hit list. It did not take long for other young people
seeking revenge to step up to offer to help Joaquin Murrieta. A gang of men and women began to look up to
him 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 lost
their families, they decided to call themselves “The Murrietas”. One of the most memorable members of the gang
was 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 Reyez
Feliz, and his older sister. Their parents had been killed, and they had
nothing 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 had
lost. After a while, the gang had killed all of
the men responsible for ruining their lives, but they did not stop at their life of crime. They became like a troupe of Robin Hood’s
merry men. The gang members would travel throughout the
San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys lassoing white men. They would steal his gold, and take their
horses before riding off with their treasure. In their minds, they were really just taking
back the gold that had been stolen from them in the first place, and rebelling against
their oppressors. Upon returning home to their villages, the
gang was met with cheers, and people were finally able to rebuild their lives after
having everything taken from them. However, since they were only killing when
it was absolutely necessary, and left many of these men alive, it left plenty of witnesses
who were able to report the theft to the authorities. Eventually, they demanded help from the California
Rangers. The California Rangers
The name “Wild West” is very fitting, for good reason. In the new American territories, there were
plenty of areas that were totally lawless. The California Rangers were asked with being
the state’s law enforcement, but they would only be sent out on-location for the most
serious cases. Once word spread that a Mexican serial killer
and his gang of bandits were murdering white men around the gold rush, the governor of
California offered a $6,000 cash reward for Joaquin Murrietta. He was wanted dead or alive. Now, $6,000 doesn’t sound like a lot of
money 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 the
Rangers to assemble and try to find him. A man named Harry Love was the head of the
California Rangers. For several weeks, they tried and failed to
find Joaquin Murrieta. This was especially difficult, considering
that several other desperados were also named “Joaquin”. Finally, they kidnapped Joaquin Murrieta’s
brother-in-law, and tortured him until he gave up the location of where the gang was
hiding. In 1853, the California Rangers rode out to
the 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 actually
knew what Joaquin Murrieta actually looked like. There were plenty of illustrations of him
circulating around, but they were all artistic renderings of a maniacal-looking Mexican man
with crazy eyes. However, Harry Love claims that he was confident
that he could identify the leader, Joaquin Murrietta. So he cut off his head, preserved it in a
large jar of liquor, and carried back home with him. Then, he put the head on display, and charged
people $1 per ticket to come see it. As morbid as it sounds, people came from all
around to stare at the head of the dead bandit who had been terrorizing California. Just one year later, in 1854, a writer named
John Rollin Ridge published a book called The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta,
the Celebrated California Bandit. The author, John Rollin Ridge, also went by
the named “Yellow Bird” because of his Cherokee heritage. It was important to him to document the story
of Joaquin Murrieta from the perspective of the Mexican-American people, because it was
an example of the atrocities native people had to endure after the United States occupied
the California territory. Without this book, the true backstory may
have never been told, and he would have gone down in history as nothing but a cold-blooded
killer. The story of Joaquin Murrietta has been retold
multiple times since then, but Yellow Bird’s version is considered to be the most accurate
portrayal. Unfortunately, this was not the end of the
oppression against Mexican people in America. In 1855, The Greaser Act became law. Back then, Americans called the Native American
Indians and Mexican people “Greasers”, because of the perception that they were dirty. It gave Americans the right to arrest native
people for being “vagrants”. The definition of a “vagrant” was very
vague, and it could just mean someone who was considered loitering, or traveling from
place to place. This was meant to cut down on gang activity
by the Mexican Desperados, but it was also targeted at forcing Native Americans to stay
in their reservations, limiting their ability to travel. Because of the Greaser Law, any Mexican or
Native 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 except
white men to search for gold in California, and it limited their opportunities for growth
in the local communities. As the years went on, it only gave more and
more power to the Anglo-American economy. Legacy
The story of Murrietta’s vigilante justice was so compelling, people began to tell it
over and over again throughout the west. In 1919, a writer named John McCulley wrote
a short story called “The Curse of Capistrano”. This was based on the true story of Joaquin
Murrietta, only he changed the name of the main character to Don Diego Vega. The story was so popular, it was turned into
a movie in 1920. John McCulley decided to published a full-length
novel starring Don Diego Vega. This was The Mask of Zorro in 1924. As time went on, the Legend of Zorro transformed
whenever people needed that spark of inspiration. In the 1930s, people were suffering through
the Great Depression, and they blamed the 1% for ruining their livelihoods. People of all races began to feel that they
resonated with the character of Zorro, because they wanted to believe that there could be
justice in the world. Through Zorro, they could live vicariously
and see someone who took from the rich and gave to the poor. By the 1950’s, the character was still just
as popular as ever, and from 1957 to 1959, Walt Disney Pictures aired the show Zorro
on 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 Zorro
for inspiration for the Batman comics, and Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride shares
some 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. Valadez
went on a quest to find the head of Joaquin Murrietta that Harry Love kept on display. After ten years of searching, Valadez believes
that he truly did find the head of Joaquin Murrietta, and he filmed a documentary about
his entire journey on how he tracked it down. In 2015, he finally gave the man a proper
burial 162 years after his death. Even though Joaquin Murrieta has inspired
so many people, there are still many American historians who refused to see him as a good
guy. They say that he was nothing but a criminal
and a bandit who terrorized unsuspecting Americans. But in Mexican history, it is clear that Jooquin
Murrietta is, and always will be a hero.
