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

by Burns, Walter Noble

• ISBN13: 9780826321558
• ISBN10: 0826321550
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Richard Griswold del Castillo
Just Another Mexican	1	(18)
The Mark Of The Lariat	19	(21)
Robin Hood And His Merry Men	40	(22)
Desire Under The Digger Pines	62	(18)
The Hills Of Gold	80	(27)
A Sense Of Theater	107	(16)
The Pack In Full Cry	123	(22)
The Break Of The Luck	145	(20)
As In A Story Book	165	(22)
Harvard Man	187	(15)
Hang Tree	202	(12)
The Black Knight	214	(21)
The City Of The Angels	235	(21)
The Last Stand	256	(20)
Heading West	276	(12)
Strange Tales	288