Delfina Cuero (ca 1900 – 1972) was a Native American writer of the

Kumeyaay The Kumeyaay, also known as 'Iipai-Tiipai or by the historical Spanish name Diegueño, is a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live at the northern border of Baja California in Mexico and the southern border of California in the Uni ...

people. The daughter of Vincente Cuero and Cidilda Quaha, she was born in Xamca (later known as

Jamacha Jamacha (pronounced: HAM-e-shaw) is a neighborhood in the District 4 area of San Diego, California. It is generally bounded by the city of Lemon Grove to the East, unincorporated La Presa to the South, Encanto to the North of Imperial Ave. ( ...

). The Kumeyaay people, whose traditional lands straddle the

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

border, were displaced from the

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

area by an influx of non-native settlers. Her family eventually moved to

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

in Mexico. After her father abandoned his family, Cuero married Sebastian Osam because her mother said the family needed a man to provide food for them. The couple had five children who survived. Her husband died when their oldest child was eleven and Cuero was forced to provide for her family. She worked as a domestic worker for non-native people. When she tried to return to California during the 1960s, the United States government denied her access because she had no documentation to prove her place of birth. With the help of anthropologist

Florence Connolly Shipek Florence C. Shipek (December 11, 1918 – January 9, 2003) professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, was an American anthropologist and ethnohistorian, a leading authority on Southern California Indians. Biography Floren ...

, she wrote an autobiography ''The Autobiography of Delfina Cuero'' that was published in 1968. The book helped document her California residency claim, and Cuero was allowed to return to southern California in 1967. She died there in 1972. Her autobiography provides an important record of the history of Native Americans in southern California and the impact of westward expansion in the United States on people whose traditional homeland straddles the United States' border with Mexico. Jeff Smith describes Cuero's autobiography as "one of the most important and moving documents ever written about San Diego. It gives voice to the original inhabitants of the area and traces the slow erasure of their presence." The San Diego Archaeological Center has offered a "lecture and tour series

hat A hat is a Headgear, head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorpor ...

allows you to walk in the footsteps of Delfina Cuero," including visiting sites that are mentioned in her autobiography. Phillip Round, a Professor of English and Native American and Indigenous Studies, writes about the significance of Cuero's autobiography: "the ''Autobiography of Delfina Cuero'' is particularly useful to American Indian literary studies for the way it enriches our understanding of narrated Indian texts by introducing borderlands theory and the discourse of immigration into the critical debate over the nation of these 'as-told-to' works" (p. 172).

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