The Celebrated California Bandit
July 16, 2018
Ridge’s lively novel, originally published in 1854 and considered to be the first by a Native American, follows a real-life Californian bandit through a careening series of daring escapades. Mexican Joaquín Murieta lives a quiet life until greedy Americans, emboldened by victory in the 1848 Mexican-American War, run him off his land and rape his wife. Focused entirely on vengeance, Joaquín roams the countryside, amassing a huge herd of stolen horses, gaining followers among fellow downtrodden Mexicans, and robbing both white settlers and industrious Chinese miners. While his right-hand man, sociopathic Three-Fingered Jack, kills indiscriminately for pleasure, Joaquín hints at an abandoned nobility with capricious acts of mercy and revels in his infamy while visiting towns in disguise. He unconvincingly explains his banditry as a way of financing a prosperous and peaceful retirement in the Mexican state of Sonora, but his actions have little logic. Finally fed up with the outlaws, the Californian government raises a posse lead by Capt. Harry Love to try to put an end to the gang and its slippery leader. There is some casual racism in the novel toward the Chinese and Native characters, but the novel is also humorous and a blast to read. This melodramatic, almost mythic tale holds appeal as both a historical artifact and an exuberant Western story.