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Josefa Segovia, also more commonly known as "Juanita", was a Mexican-American woman who was lynched in Downieville, California on July 5, 1851. She was found guilty of murdering a man, Frederick Cannon, who attempted to assault her. She is known to be the first and only woman to be lynched in California. Many discrepancies exist regarding the circumstances of her death. Josefa’s death has many connections and relevancy to the larger history of Latina/os in the United States because it shows how her racial status affected perception of her and how devalued the life of a Mexican American woman was. Josefa’s death highlights the discrimination and violence against Latinos in the latter half of the nineteenth century… She was known as “Juanita” when stories came out about her death. This shows a complete disregard for the importance of who she was so much as to give her a stereotypical name for a Mexican woman rather than using her real name.

Early Life
Not much is known about the early life of Josefa Segovia. The birth of Josefa Segovia is unknown. She only became an important figure in history after she was lynched. If it had not been for her lynching, she would have no importance in history.

Origins
Irene I. Blea’s book U.S. Chicanas and Latinas in a Historical Context claims that Josefa was a Sonoran and of good character. She was about 26 years old at the time of her death. . Some male scholars believe that Josefa has no recorded last name. This would mean that she has no known family origin that can be traced. However, Martha Cotera informed the world in 1976 that Josefa’s last name was Segovia

Family
Josefa Segovia lived in Downieville, California, also known as "The Forks" for its location at the north fork of the Yuba River. She lived with a Mexican gambler, Jose, in a small house on the main street of town. It is not completely clear if they were married or not.

Reputation in Downieville
Josefa was probably not married to Jose, but she did live with him. Therefore, she received a bad reputation. According to one account, Juanita was slender and barely five feet tall. The same account states that Josefa was beautiful, vivacious and intelligent.

California
In 1848 when the gold rush began in California, the population of the state was a Mexican majority. However, this Mexican population fell to 15% by 1850 and to 4% by 1870. Northern California, where Downieville is located, received the majority of the Anglo migration during the beginning of the Gold Rush. The Mexican majority in 1848 allowed for many successes for early racial relations. For example, all state laws and regulations were to be translated into Spanish. This continued until the rapid establishment of a statewide Anglo majority, which left the Mexican-Americans politically powerless. Lynching of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans was common in the second half of the nineteenth century. In California, Mexicans only constituted a small portion of the population at this time which was not more than 15%. However, Latinos make up over one third of lynch mob victims between 1850 and 1895. Lynching was common when Mexicans were accused of stealing gold or horses, and of killing or raping Anglo women. The last recorded instance of lynching in California is the 1892 murder of Francisco Torres, but lynching continued in Texas. The fact that Josefa may have been pregnant when she was lynched shows that the defense of pregnancy would not have been respected. This is a small example of how Mexicans were viewed because the town of Downieville would not have seen any reason to have any more Mexicans in their community or their state. Mexican women were classified as an inferior race, not just in California, and this therefore legitimized their execution by lynch mobs, and Josefa is just the first example of this. It is possible that had Josefa been an Anglo woman, she might have been praised for defending her honor against Cannon, but her racial status confirmed that she was the aggressor in the situation

The Gold Rush
During the 1840s, a lot of Americans started moving west into Texas, Oregon, and California. The Americans thought California was a great place for opportunity. Mexicans were considered lazy because they failed to take advantage of the natural resources of the Southwest. In 1835, Andrew Jackson tried to buy California for $3.5 million, but Mexico refused the offer. Ten years later, James K. Polk suggested annexing Texas, but also put California as a high priority on his list of territory to acquire. The US and Mexico went to war on May 13, 1846. Two years later on February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed. What neither the US or Mexico realized was the 9 days earlier, gold had been found in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. It is estimated that between 1848 and 1852, as many as 25,000 Mexicans migrated to California to mine. In the fall of 1848, as many as 3000 Mexicans migrated to the mining regions. Often, they traveled as entire families.

Mining
Racism was an important factor is determining violence against Mexicans, but another determining factor was economic competition. In the industries of the Southwest United States, Mexicans were viewed by Anglos as a lazy people who had failed to capitalize on the rich resources of the Southwest. It was the manifest destiny of the white man to develop this economic potential of the region. Therefore, any Mexican challenge to this was considered unacceptable due to the proprietary rights of the Anglo pioneers. The Foreign Miners’ Tax was introduced in California in 1850 with the goal of elimination foreign competition, mainly Mexican but also Chinese migrants, in the mining industry. The tax was designed to discourage immigration to the United States by removing the prospect of economic prosperity. The law required that all persons who were not native born or who had not become American citizens under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to pay twenty dollars for licenses allowing them to mine. The law provided an exception for California’s Native Americans. The law was successful in getting Mexican miners to leave the many mines. The next foreign miner tax of 1852 would target Asian miners. Lifestyle options in the mining industry were limited, especially for Latinos. For women, the options were wife or prostitute, which made them a “good woman” or a “bad woman”. Basically, a woman’s reputation was determined by whether her sexual activities were sanctioned or not, which is how Josefa might have had a bad reputation.

July 4, 1851
Joe Cannon, also possibly Frank or Frederick, was a successful American miner in Downieville in the summer of 1851. On the night of July 4, 1851, Josefa's "husband" Jose was gambling as usual in the local gambling and drinking house. That night, Cannon and his companions tried to enter Josefa and Jose's home. Many accounts say that Cannon actually broke the front door to the house. However, they failed and left to gather more people. It is assumed by many that they were going to rape Josefa, who might have already been pregnant. The crowd returned and forced its way inside the house. Josefa stabbed Cannon and killed him in the early morning hours of July 5.

Trial
The American mining population in Downieville was enraged by Cannon's death. Josefa was put on trial the next day, and the jury consisted of Cannon's friends and companions while the rest of Downieville waited for the results (cite). Supposedly, a physician, Dr. Cyrus D. Aiken, testified that Josefa was not in a fit condition to be hanged Protests immediately followed to doctor’s testimony and he was forced from the stand and from the town. Moments later, Josefa was found guilty of the murder of Cannon. Also, Mr. Thayer, a lawyer from Nevada attempted to testify against the execution of Juanita but was beaten off the stand.

Death: July 5, 1851
For the lynching, a scaffold was constructed on the bridge over the Yuba River (cite). The town came to stand on the banks of the river and watch her execution. It was an important event to lessen the anger of the townspeople over Cannon’s death. Josefa was lynched immediately following the trial, and some accounts say that her last words before she was lynched were "Adiós Señores". She is widely known to be the first and only woman lynched in California (cite).

Media Coverage of "Juanita"
There are many conflicting stories and sources regarding Josefa’s death. Eyewitnesses produce differing accounts of the assault, the trial, the lynching, and of Josefa herself. At the time, media referred to Josefa simply as “Juanita”.

Statistics of Mexican-Americans lynched during “Gold Rush”
The treatment of Mexican-Americans during the “Gold Rush” is a shameful part of US history, but nonetheless, it happened. Most of these lynchings occurred in Texas and parts of California, and were carried out by impromptu vigilance committees (and the Texas Rangers served “justice” in Texas). Lynchings were frequent and most of them were of innocent Mexicans. Many lynchings were prompted by Mexicans falsely being accused of stealing gold or horses or of killing or raping Anglos. In California, the Mexicans represented over one third of the lynch mob victims between 1850 and 1895, when they were of less than 15 percent of the population. Between 1848 and 1928, at least 597 Mexicans were lynched in the United States.

Thoughts About her Death Today
Today, we think about Josefa’s death in an opposite way from how it was viewed in 1851. By giving her the name “Juanita”, it devalued her being and the horrible events that occurred in Downieville, California. During the time of the lynchings, many whites stood as bystanders or were part of the vigilance committee. At “Juanita’s” lynching, there was only one person that protested against her wrongful persecution (Mora- can we cite him?). As a result of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, the decades after the gold rush changed the way that Mexicans and Latinos were viewed in the United States. Scholars have given a name to “Juanita” and shown the importance of her lynching. Although people today recognize “Juanita” as a name and not a number, there is still debate about the circumstances regarding her death. According to psychic, Lisa Steele, “The story I was told about the woman that was hung in Downieville was that she was a servant that allegedly killed a man by putting shards of glass in his food because she wanted to steal his gold. The town pinned the crime on her and told her that her punishment would be death by hanging. She was told to dress in her best attire and was hung on the bridge. Juanita before she died says: ‘I would do the same again if I was so provoked.’” Another interpretation of her death that recognized racial distinctions in the thoughts of her death was made by Preston Dillard, “So Miss Segovia MAY have been a saloon girl who was accused (but never convicted; important distinction) of a past crime, carried a knife and had a temper....these reasons sufficiently justify being lynched by a mob? If so, then half the women in Georgetown today would swing tomorrow. Miss Segovia deserved the fair trial she was deprived of never being able to not receive. (Think about that) Would you have left those comments justifying her murder if she had been a white woman? Some people in the United States believe that Downieville, California is haunted by Josefa Segovia and her unborn childs’ spirit. According to Turlock Phantom League, it was the “‘The Worst Crime In Downieville’. They captured many orb photos that look like a big orb and attached with it, is a smaller orb. Note: This kind of orb is called a Mother/Baby Orb. How funny that Josefa was pregnant. Could this Mother/Baby Orb be the actual S.C.F. (Spiritual Containment Field) of Josefa and her unborn fetus? GHOST IDENTIFIED: JOSEFA ‘JUANITA’ SEGOVIA.”

Controversy about her name
Josefa Segovia’s true name has been a topic of great debate among historians and scholars. Before the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, most male scholars contended that Josefa had no recorded last name. For example, in Gordon Young’s Days of 49, he says that her name was “Juanita”. It wasn’t until Martha Cotera, an influential activist of both the Chicano Movement and Chicana Feminist Movement, informed Chicano scholars in 1976 that her last name was Segovia. By giving “Juanita” a name, her story became more real and more important because the respect that was due to her was finally given by at least knowing her real name.