The dime novel, intended for the general public, is an early example of "borderland literature". The genre is believed to express the struggles of a person of mixed race or ethnicity to find his or her place while stuck between two very different worlds.[6] These writings often include themes of transition, shifting identity, and allegiance. California, acquired by the United States in 1848 after the Mexican War, was an area where American, Native American, and Mexican cultures had been intermixing for hundreds of years. The novel expresses ethnic tensions in California after the Mexican War. Many Mexicans migrated to California after hearing about the Gold Rush there, hoping to be among those who struck it rich.
American discrimination against Mexicans and Spanish-speaking people was ever-present. United States settlers passed the foreign miner's tax law in 1850, which required foreign miners to pay twenty dollars a month to mine gold; it primarily was targeted against Mexicans. (Less than one year later the law was declared to be unconstitutional and repealed.) Ridge's novel The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta was the first English-language novel describing California's Mexican community after the Mexican War.[1]
