Horse riders honor a half-mythical California Robin Hood

MADERA, Calif. — Hoofbeats pound the dry dirt into fine powder. Though the sun has just arched over the surrounding orchards, sweat covers the horses and riders and forms muddy rivulets as it mixes with the dust.

In spite of the day's triple-digit heat, hundreds of Californians of Mexican descent are getting ready for a three-day ride over 70 miles of country roads, their yearly homage to Joaquin Murieta, central California's own Gold Rush-era Robin Hood.

"He's a hero to the poor, to the people of these ranches — and the first one around here who stood up for our rights," says Victor Valenzuela, a construction contractor who considers himself a descendant of one of the men who rode with Murieta.

The legend of Murieta began with newspaper accounts of the crimes he committed in the 1850s, when he roamed the vast San Joaquin Valley and the gold-bearing foothills of the Sierra Nevada with his band, the Five Joaquins.

Over time, his exploits took on mythic proportions as Mexican-Americans made him a hero of the downtrodden, someone who spoke to their identity and tied them to the landscape. Later versions of the story, adopting ancient themes from folklore, tell of a Mexican miner who turned avenging bandit after suffering violence at the hands of the ruling Anglos — and who robbed the rich and gave to the poor.

When the annual rides began in the early 1980s, the horsemen seized on Murieta's story to draw attention to the plight of farmworkers being forced from their homes by Fresno County officials who said the structures weren't up to code, says Tomas Nunez, a lawyer from Fresno who serves as the group's historian.

"He was a symbol of the fight against the injustice these people were suffering," he says.

That legacy is what inspired Valenzuela to leave behind his air-conditioned home near Sacramento and bring his three children along for last week's ride, his 15th.

"It's a real source of pride," he says in Spanish, tightening the straps on his horse Hosco's saddle.

On this first day of the ride, Valenzuela wears a broad-brimmed sombrero and suede chaps with buttons of bone. He's saving his charro outfit — the typical attire of the Mexican cowboy — for Sunday, when the riders attend Mass and a priest blesses their horses.

But some riders couldn't wait for the last day to dress up.