Author Description

Here, in its original English translation, is the dime novel-esque biography of one of the most infamous bandits in the history of the Old West, for decades a source of fear and legend in the state of California. To Mexicans and Indians, however, Joaquin Murrieta became a symbol of resistance to the displacement and oppression visited on them in the wake of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), particularly by the "Forty-Niners" who flooded into California from all over the world during the Gold Rush. In his introduction, literary critic Luis Leal has researched and written the first definitive history of the Murrieta legend in its various incarnations. Ireneo Paz's Spanish-language biography was first published in Mexico City in 1904; it was translated into English by Frances P. Belle in 1925. This edition includes several line-drawings that appeared in the original volume, heightening the strong sense evoked here of this turbulent period in U. S. history.