Delfina Cuero: Her Autobiography - An Account of Her Last Years and Her Ethnobotanic Contributions (Ballena Press Anthropological Papers, No. 38) (Ballena Press Anthropological Papers)

"My name is Delfina Cuero. I was born in xamaca [Jamacha] about sixty-five years ago [about 1900]. My father s name was Vincente Cuero, it means Charlie." "With simple elegance the story of a Kumeyaay woman from the San Diego region engulfs the reader, until we feel as though we are sitting at the feet of some great-aunt or grandmother as she tries to pass onto us something of worth from her life. As though her existence among us was not enough. Elders benefit us all. If we stop to listen we may be enriched beyond our wildest dreams. In this powerful and moving book, Florence Shipek makes available the memories and thoughts of a woman who remembered old ways and described the changing scene in terms which speak volumes in simple sentences. Though the autobiography is short, the information contained within can literally change one s entire perspective as to who belongs on which side of which border. How so much could have gone on with so few Americans being interested or aware becomes an ever-growing question as the narrative comes to a close." Paul Apodaca in News from Native California, Fall, 1989 This book contains not only the autobiography that Apodaca reviewed, but also Shipek s account of the rest of Delfina s life, and her ethnographic notes. Shipek has organized data gathered in two ethnobotanical field trips into the format of an ethnobotany. This book has become a classic, a favorite of teachers and their students, as well as of the general public. This volume chronicles the life of a Kumeyaay woman who lives between three cultures and across the boundary of the US and Mexico. She was raised in a small family, who only had a donkey to carry their few possessions. They survived by working small ranches and living in the canyons where they could. Their foraging territory included Mission Valley, the backcountry of SD, Eastside canyons of the US and Mexico and all the way to the Gulf of California. Having no papers, she lost her husband and was forced to make terrible compromises to survive with her children. All this cultural disintegration has a bit of a happy ending when she gets some papers and stays on a reservation near Campo. Cuero demonstrated an encyclopedic knowledge of useful plants and management of the Chaparral environment, making ethnobotanic contributions to Torrey Pines State Park and Mission Bay Salt Marsh Reserve until her death in 1972 Table of Contents i List of Illustrations ii Foreward to Delfina Cuero iii The Autography of Delfina Cuero, as told to Florence Shipek; interpreter, Rosalie Pinto Robertson 1 Preface by Lowell John Bean 1 Introduction, by Florence Connolly Shipek 7 Pronunciation Guide, by Margaret Langdon 19 The Autobiography 21 Epilogue An Account of the Rest of Her Life by Florence Connolly Shipek 67 Her Ethnobotanic Contributions as recorded by Florence Connolly Shipek 83