'The head of Joaquín Murrieta', a vigilante and outlaw for a 'western' made in Mexico

The actors Juan Manuel Bernal and Becky Zhu Wu in a scene from 'The Head of Joaquín Murrieta'.Amazon Studios

Who was Joaquín Murrieta and what was said about his legend?

"He is wanted dead or alive."

“He was the Robin Hood of

.”

"The most dangerous thing is not him, but the fear and respect they have for him."

"A villain for the United States and a hero for Mexico."

The year was 1851. A few years earlier, Mexico had lost the war to the United States, which led to the ceding of more than half of its territory to its northern neighbor.

At this juncture, during a period fueled by greed, anger, and xenophobia—in the midst of all-out war thanks to the California Gold Rush—an outlaw emerged, Murrieta, “Mexico's best gunslinger,” and along with him

, "the coolest band in all of California."

That if he was born in Trincheras or in Álamos, in Sonora;

or if he was actually Chilean, depending on who tells it, if the American Cherokee writer John Rollin Ridge or the Spanish Carlos Morla, respectively.

He was first a gold digger, then a bandit, and finally a hero who stole from the rich to give to the poor.

Murrieta's history and legend roams through reality and fiction and has no consensus.

This tangle of origins, more than being a difficulty in the creative process, was an opportunity for Mauricio Leiva-Cock and Diego Ramírez Schrempp, according to what they told EL PAÍS.

Both are the creators of

, the most recent adaptation of this character for the

platform Prime Video, which presents a vigilante and outlaw with different nuances for a

made in Mexico.

“When we began to find all these different versions and characters that have inhabited the universe of Joaquín Murrieta, we decided to approach the myth from different perspectives, more diverse, including more women, the perspective of the natives of the place, so that the series could touch the hearts of many people”, explains Leiva-Cock.

In this serialized version of eight chapters, available from February 17 on the Amazon platform, in the mid-19th century, on the border between Mexico and the United States, Murrieta (Juan Manuel Bernal) is a former Mexican deserter general, whom the death of his soldiers has left him the task of amending his mistakes.

That is why he travels the new frontier, "cannon in hand", recovering the gold that was stolen from his people to distribute it to whoever accepts it.

On this journey he unexpectedly joins Joaquín Carrillo (Alejandro Speitzer) —a man who lost everything—, when he discovers that they have a common enemy: the captain of the US Rangers, Harry Love (Steve Wilcox

)

).

Yoshira Escárrega plays Damace in 'The Head of Joaquín Murrieta'. Amazon Studios

The cast of this

, filmed mainly in the State of Durango, also includes the participation of actress Becky Zhu Wu, who plays Adela Wong, a young Chinese woman, murderer and ally of Murrieta;

as well as the performance of Yoshira Escárrega, who embodies Damace, a

warrior woman , a native people of Mexico.

The series, with elements of action and adventure, with "incredible female characters", draws on the classics and American references that have modernized and brought the western

a new language, such as Quentin Tarantino or the Coen brothers, says Ramírez.

They decided to take inspiration from many sources, but always looking for their own identity, very Latin American, according to one of the co-creators, since they did not want to repeat what was done in similar productions by the Americans.

“It was also important how we brought this genre to new audiences, younger or more current.

With the accompaniment that we had with the directors David Pablos and Humberto Hinojosa, we were also able to give this new language to the series, as if paying tribute to what existed, with a new perspective, but without falling into heroism”, Ramírez specifies.

The series highlights, especially about two of its protagonists —Murrieta and Carrillo—, the consequences of their actions in a new world and in a social, historical, and political context that contributes to the conflict that builds the path of each of these characters. .

On the one hand, there is the conflicting profile of Murrieta with himself, branded as a deserter and traitor to his country after abandoning his men on the battlefield.

“The character creation work was one of the most fun things.

From the beginning we decided that the character should be very gray, that he was not a hero or a villain, that he even generated that doubt among his colleagues.

He is conflicted with his past, with what happened to Mexico and his dignity.

He tries at any cost to recover that dignity, even for himself”, Leiva-Cock expands.

Carrillo's conflict stems from the dispossession of the violation of his human rights as a californio, a demonym with which people born in California were called when this territory was still part of Mexico.

After the war they were promised US citizenship, explains one of the co-creators, but they were never given it because they were Mexican.

Mexico no longer received them afterward because the new border already defined that they were Americans.

“Joaquín Carrillo's conflict is very deep in terms of identity: where am I from?

Where do I come from?

In addition, his marital relationship with a

woman also adds complexity to the character”, says Leiva-Cock.

Ramírez says that the historical context is very important to understand the characters and their motivations, decisions and actions, since they cannot be valued with the same moral judgments of today.

"That also gave us the freedom to enter a much wilder, more primitive, lawless world, where the decisions that were made or the actions are very different from what we would have taken," he concludes.

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