I, Joaquin: A Fictional Memoir

One hundred and fifty years ago this summer, on July 25, 1853, a troop of California Rangers killed and beheaded a young bandit, Joaquín Murrieta, who had terrorized the Anglo populations for many months. It was believed that his army numbered in the hundreds and that he planned to sweep the country south to Sonora. Thinking the matter ended, the Rangers preserved his head in a bucket of whiskey and rode to Sacramento to collect their reward. But with his death the rumors only grew, along with his fame – his myth and significance debated even to this day. Now, after a century and a half, Joaquín speaks for himself in a fictional memoir by Melvin Litton. Creative Arts Book Company is proud to present I, Joaquín, a fresh account of the outlaw Joaquín Murrieta and his fight for justice during the California Gold Rush. Not quite twenty-one at the time of his death, Joaquin left a legacy and mystic force that has carried on for generations. Before Jesse James or Billy the Kid, before Villa, Zapata, or Che Guevara, there was Joaquin – lover, bandit, revolutionary – not only a Hispanic hero, but an American hero, a character born of the fervent mix of peoples and cultures that both sets us apart and holds a promise to the world. At once a breath and echo of the legend, a soul’s jornada, I, Joaquín reveals the bandit’s voice, Joaquín’s reflections on his life and death, his love and vengeance, and the lone purgatory from which he speaks.