Ep. 34 - THE HEAD OF JOAQUÍN MURRIETA — How The West Was Lost
THE HEAD OF JOAQUÍN MURRIETA cast (L-R): Michael Wilson Morgan (Father Christopher Kelly), Alejandro Speitzer (Joaquín Carrillo), Juan Manuel Bernal (Joaquín Murrieta), Becky Zhu Wu (Adela Cheng), Yoshira Escárrega (Damace). Source: Amazon Prime
In episode 34 The Boston Sisters talk with documentary filmmaker JOHN VALADEZ about THE HEAD OF JOAQUÍN MURRIETA, the Amazon Prime western drama series that shares the same title as Valadez’s 2017 PBS documentary. In his film Valadez believes he has the actual head of Joaquín Murrieta, the legendary Mexican outlaw who blazed a trail of revenge across California until he was caught and decapitated in 1853. Valadez talks about the violent untold stories of the Gold Rush years after the U.S. Mexico war which serves as the backdrop for the 8-part drama featuring Juan Manuel Bernal as a mischievous Joaquín Murrieta.
Joaquín Murrieta, I think reminds us that we [Mexican Americans] do belong here. We're not interlopers, we're not foreigners, but we have a claim to this land as much as anybody else.
John Valadez, Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Professor of Film, Television, and Media at the University of Michigan
Guest: John Valadez
John Valadez is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, and has received two national Emmy nominations. His body of work explores race, power, and identity through the Latinx experience.
John grew up in Seattle, Washington, taught photography in India and is professor of Film, Television, and Media at the University of Michigan.
Over the past 25 years, John Valadez has directed documentary films for CNN and primetime national PBS series including Independent Lens, and POV documentary series, and also LATINO AMERICANS and LATIN MUSIC USA.
His most recent film, AMERICAN EXILE, which premiered on PBS in 2021, explores the deportation of US military veterans. The film played an important role in helping to change national policy, allowing deported veterans and their families to return home.
In his documentary, THE HEAD OF JOAQUÍN MURRIETA, John comes to the end of his long-time search and believes he has the head of the legendary Mexican outlaw, Joaquin Murrieta, who blazed a trail of revenge across California until he was caught and decapitated in 1853. John embarks on a cross-country road trip through history, myth and memory to bury the fabled head of Joaquín Murrieta and discovers chilling parallels with his own family history.
Connect with John Valadez: webpage
Watch John Valadez’s The Head of Joaquín Murrieta from this [Vimeo] link for a limited time.
THE HEAD OF JOAQUÍN MURRIETA
Trailer in Spanish with Spanish subtitles. Viewer advisory for language and violence.
The action-packed Western series, THE HEAD OF JOAQUÍN MURRIETA, takes place in the time of the Gold Rush and the end of the U.S. Mexican War. Juan Manuel Bernal plays a mischievous JoaquínMurrieta, a legendary figure also known as the “Mexican Robin Hood.” The paths of Murrieta and Joaquín Carrillo (Alejandro Speitzer), intersect in the middle of a violent misunderstanding. They end up joining forces to battle a common enemy, Harry Love (Steve Wilcox), head of the California Rangers. Rounding out the Joaquines cast is Yoshira Escárrega as Damace, Emiliano Zurita as Casey, Michael Wilson Morgan as Father Christopher Kelly, and Becky Zhu Wu as Adela Cheng. The series was created by Mauricio Leiva Cock and Diego Ramírez Schrempp and developed by Amazon Studios in Latin America, and Amazon Prime and Colombian production company Dynamo.
In Spanish with subtitles. Available on Amazon Prime (fees may apply)
Viewer Advisory: The series is rated 18+ on Amazon Prime for violence, language, and nudity.
Joaquín Murrieta (Juan Manuel Bernal), Joaquín Carrillo (Alejandro Speitzer), and Yoshira Escárrega (Damace). Source: Amazon Studios
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Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence Against Mexicans in the United States (2017)
William D. Carrigan (Author) Clive Webb (Author)
John Valadez says Forgotten Dead is a "remarkable book...a monumental work of scholarship." Mob violence in the United States is usually associated with the southern lynch mobs who terrorized African Americans during the Jim Crow era. In Forgotten Dead, William D. Carrigan and Clive Webb uncover a comparatively neglected chapter in the story of American racial violence, the lynching of persons of Mexican origin or descent.
The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta
John Rollin Ridge (Cherokee) writing as Yellow Bird
First published in 1854, and originally written under his Cherokee name Yellow Bird, Ridge's embellished story of real-life Mexican bandit Joaquín Murieta was instantly popular and soon translated into several languages. Ridge tells the story of Joaquín as a young and idealistic man who moves to California from Mexico with his family in search of gold and is quickly shown the cruel and violently racist side of American culture. With his wife attacked, his farm stolen, and his brother murdered, Joaquín vows revenge on the racist mob and becomes a violent outlaw with a large following of loyal bandits. Ridge's novel is notable for being the first by a Native American as well as one of the first novels set in California.