Friday, November 03, 2023
Juan Flores
Juan Flores (c. 1834 – February 14, 1857) was a 19th-century Californio bandit who, with Pancho Daniel, led an outlaw gang known as "las Manillas" (the Handcuffs) and later as the Flores Daniel Gang, throughout Southern California during 1856-1857. Although regarded by historians as a thief and outlaw, Flores was considered among Mexican-Americans as a folk hero akin to Jesse James and who was thought of as a defender against vigilante movements in the years following the American settlement of California and its incorporation into the United States. However, the activities of Flores and other insurrectos such as Salomon Pico and Joaquín Murrieta against American and foreign-born settlers not only created long-lasting suspicion and hostility towards Mexican-Americans but also divided the traditional Spanish class structures of the Californios and the poorer peasants as well.
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Maybe the TV show 'Cicso Kid' was an homage to this caballero ?
ReplyDeleteCisco Kid, aka Pistol Paco.
ReplyDeleteThis wasn't the guy I was thinking it was. The guy I'm thinking of was another Bandito who had a hideaway that was much more inland and north of LA where I think he was finally captured. A guy never thinks of there being real badlands anywhere in California but I can't think of the place he was captured as being anything other than badlands.
ReplyDeleteI read stories like this and my imagination runs wild. A posse with 120 men? That would be an intimidating thing to have hunting you down.
I’d rather have 120 after me, than one or two professionals.
ReplyDelete