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Hi everyone. This is Carman and Christina and this is
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Estadias Unknown, a podcast where we talk about Latin American history.
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Is sometimes deterrible and deals with heavy topics like racism, corruption,
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and genocide. But more than that, it's also about resistance,
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power and community. And this is part two of a
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mini series I'm doing on the history of lynchings or
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mob violence on Mexicans in the US. In part one,
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I talked about the conditions in which Mexicans found themselves
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faced with mob violence in the name of frontier justice.
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Mexicans were often lynched for thefts, land disputes and racial
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prejudice or like xenophobic reasons. Yeah, and I share some
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examples of mob violence in California. In this episode, I
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want to talk about one specific case that made history,
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as she was the first and only Mexican women lynched
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in California. And throughout history she has gone unnamed, her
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name has been changed or only a first name is
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ever given to her. But her name was Josefa Loaisa,
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and for some reason, as time went on, she became Juanita.
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The lynching of Hosefa took place on July fifth, eighteen
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fifty one, in Downeyville, California, in Sierra County. It's located,
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it's still there. It's located on Highway forty nine across
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the Yuba River and Downey River. And for that reason,
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it was called the Forks at one point because it
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was like where the fork of these two rivers meet.
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And unlike many former mining towns, Downeyville is still there
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with a population of two hundred and ninety. It's like
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an unincorporated like you know those ones community. Yeah, like small,
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very small, like a lot of these former mining towns
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that are still there are like they're not big. Yeah.
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And as you can tell from the date of the lynching,
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the day before that was one of celebration aka Independence Day,
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but it also marked the one year anniversary of California
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joining the Union, and the festivities turned violent. After Governor
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John B. Weller gave a speech, the crowd erupted in
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a drunken celebration that turned into a riot that went
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on until the next morning. And maybe because of all
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that was already happening, on the night of July fourth,
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John Cannon felt inspired or moved or something to do
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whatever he did next. No, No, he was drinking with a
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group of men and then they were, like, I don't know,
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being drunk together and just loud and violent. And he
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decided that he was going to go to a shack,
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and these men followed him to this small shack. In
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the shack, Josefa was asleep in her house. She heard
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a loud bang. John Cannon had torn the door off
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a shack and he let himself in. He picked up
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her scarf that was on the floor, planning to use
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it to subdue her. Probably, oh my god, yeah, yeah.
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Her husband happened to be home that night, so jose
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and Josefa yelled at the man. They were like arguing,
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and he left. But it seems that this is something
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he might have done regularly, like break her door down
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and assault her. Really, yes, though this has never been confirmed,
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that's like the likely situation there. I think it makes
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sense because how did he like nowhere to go? Yeah,
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like why did that specific shot come to mind right
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away when he was drunk and rowdy and violent. The
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next morning, on the fifth, John Cannon returned to the
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house to apologize for what he had done the night before,
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but this didn't go well. Jose Josepha's partner was there,
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and he was demanding John Cannon pay for the damages
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to the door, as he should, right, And then jose
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and Josepha turned to each other to speak in Spanish
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to each other, and this just made John Cannon lose
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a shit? Is there right? Right? But he got angry
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red and angry with Red talking about me. Even if
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they were like he broke down their door. Yeah for real,
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they're probably like thinking about how much she should turn.
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Right.
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He called Uta a who and in response, with zero hesitation,
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she grabbed a knife and stabbed them in the chest.
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I stand, was she wrong? No? No? No? He died instantly.
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Jossein Josepha fled to a local saloon, where they were
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caught by a lynch mob. They were taken to the
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town plaza and this mob wanted to lynch both of
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them on the spot. And you know, the racism it
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was high that day. They had just been celebrating Marca
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the night before. Oh yeah, thirst for violence against anyone?
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Not why?
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It was off the charts. And I'm like, Okay, I
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understand stabbing someone is technically wrong, but where is the
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outrage for him breaking into some random shacks, supposedly random?
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Although he probably was trying to and there, Yeah, there's
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a lot of speculation that he was used to doing
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this to her. Yeah, so like where is the outrage then,
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Like these people were only basically defending themselves exactly. And
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so two men tried to step up and defend Jossein Josefa.
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One was doctor Aiken, who was like, no, you can't
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lynch her because she's pregnant. Oh my. The mob beat
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him up and threatened the other man who tried to
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defend her, and they were like, we'll kill anyone who
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steps up to defend her, like that was your warning, thirsty,
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thirsty for blood. Yes, some of the mob created a
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committee to supposedly try Josepha dumb and I say supposedly
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because like people try to claim she was not lynched
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because she had a trial, but a trial farmed by
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a mob ready to kill you was hardly it's hardly.
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Just yeah, that was not a jury of her peters,
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because these were angry white men who wanted to attack
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her from the get Yes, so you know, they had
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a supposed trial. They brought four witnesses who were all
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friends with John Cannon. Again, not just no, jose was
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allowed to say some words. Josefa was allowed to say
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less words his friends. John Cannon's friends testified that from
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the moment John returned to their house, the women looked
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angry and determined, and she had the eyes of the devil.
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Of course, he shouldn't even gone back, even if he
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was trying to apologize. Just stay the fuck away from her,
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Get away from her, get a job. Yes, and jose testified.
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So I'm going to read his testimony as it was
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in the book that I read, the deceased. And so
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John Cannon, the diseased, in company with several others, broke
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down the door to my room. On meeting the disease
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in the morning and asking him for payment, he used
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insulting language, called me a liar and a son of
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a bitch. He then drew back his fist as if
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to strike me, when I stated to him that I
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did not wish to fight. He was large and I
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a small man. At this time, Josefa came forward and
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told him to strike her. She was also insulted. He
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called her deer and then after that a whore. She
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went into the house and my solicitation. When in she
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took a knife from the table and as a disease
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was about to enter, still calling her bad names both
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in English and Spanish. She stamped him. Only one hinge
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of the door was broken. The top one had been
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previously broken, alluding to previous incidents. Right. Yes, the door
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was fastened with two staples, one of which was pulled
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out when Forcibly entered. That's all he was allowed to say. Again,
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Hosefa was allowed to say less. So she said, I
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took the knife to defend myself. I had been told
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that some of the boys wanted to get into my
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room and sleep with me. A Mexican boy told me so,
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and it frightened me so that I used to fasten
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the door and take a knife with me to bed.
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I told the the seas that was no place to
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call me bad names. Come in and call me so,
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And as he was coming in, I stabbed him. That
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sounds like self defense. She's over here calling her put
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on her own fucking house. And she was like, well,
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come in and tell me, And he did come in,
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So I don't know. I don't know about this. Yeah,
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free her. I'm gonna side it no matter what. Yes.
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In the documentation of the court proceedings, all the witnesses
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and the supposed jury. They were all named fully like
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first and last name, except for Hossein Josefa. Oh my god,
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Moselle was just hose Of course, Josefa wasn't even named.
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She was just written down as the defendant. That's it.
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It didn't take long for this quote jury to make
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their decision. They declared her guilty in just a few minutes.
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Of course it didn't. Yeah, and one could argue that
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they already knew what they were going to do. Yeah,
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one could very much argue that. Yeah, they told Hosefha
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she would be lynched and took her to Jersey Bridge.
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By the time she was at the bridge, the crowd
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grew to three thousand. Josefa climbed onto the scaffold, moved
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her long black hair out of the way, placed the
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rope around her neck herself. When she was asked if
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she had any last words, she replied, nothing, but I
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would do the same if I was so provoked. Honestly,
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I'm a fan of her, I love her. I know
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she's so real for that. Yeah. Then before she walked
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out to the plank, she turned to the mob and
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said adios senores. Wow, queen. She stood there calmly until
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the plank was pulled out from under her. The crowd
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yelled and cheered as she felled, and they left her
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like just dangling there for thirty minutes. Then they removed
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her and buried her with John Cannon in the same grave.
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Now why would they do that? I don't know. I
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have no idea. What about jose Oh, they threatened him
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to if he was still in town in twenty four hours,
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they would lynch him and he had to flee for
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his safety. Wow. Did I really not write that down? Yeah,
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that's what happened to him. Wow. Also, I want to
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know that the governor was part of the mob and
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he was pandering for votes during all of it. Of course. Yeah.
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And Josefa and John Cannon were buried in the same
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grave until they were the coup years later. So that
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a theater. That's disgusting, it is It is so offensive.
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This is the man that like accosted her and forced
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her to stab him, and they're going to go bury
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them for supposedly in eternity in the same grave.
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That's disgusting. It reminds me of Hugh Hefner wanted to
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be buried in the same grave Marilyn Monroe. Yes, even
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though like he had no right, like nothing, yeah, to
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be able to do that. And then they were only
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removed from that grave so that a theater could be
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put there. Like, wow, that's insulton injury. Yeah. And although
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she basically disappeared from history after the lynching, at the time,
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it must have been well known because even Frederick Douglass
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commented on it. Really, yes, he wrote that if jose
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Loaisa had been white, she would not have faced the
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same fate, and that she was lynched because of her
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cast and her Mexican blood. Yeah, he's right, he is right.
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Her lynching is unique for a lot of reasons, including
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that it's one of the only ones that are marked
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with a historical marker, which you can still find today
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in Downeyville. Really, but the marker says Kwanita, doesn't say Josepha. Wow,
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Like I don't understand what her name changed. I feel
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like that also had to be racist. I don't know, right, like, oh,
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you know what, Juanita sounds more cute, and we want
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her to sound like taken away her agency almost. I
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feel maybe I don't know, there's something there that I'm
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not quite like, I don't know how to say it. Grasping. Yeah, yeah,
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like we don't know the reason, but it feels racism
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and sexist. Yes, right, thank you. Yeah. Another unique aspect
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of it all is that at the time and before
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the lynching, like basically no one knew of her except
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the people that were friends with her. But like she
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didn't matter to any one until she did this. That's
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saying something too h So much could be said about that.
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The first mayor of Downeyville, William Downey, has a chapter
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about her lynching and his memoir what and he titled
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it Lynching a Beauty. Oh, I've heard of this. Disgusting,
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absolutely disgusting. Yeah. In the chapter, he says that her
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name was Juanita, even though it wasn't. Maybe that's where
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it came from. Oh, you know what, maybe he was
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the first to change it. Of course he got her
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name wrong, right, Like, that doesn't matter, Juanita, they're the
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same thing. He's like, every Mexican guy knows na juan
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Therefore a Mexican woman would be Kuanita. Yeah, something I
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honestly can't figure out. But he wrote that her name
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was Juanita and her husband's name was unknown even though
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it was and if it weren't for the lynching, Juanita
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would also have been unknown. And again it's not confirmed
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if he was the first one to change her name,
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but that's what she became known as, Juanita of Downeyville. Wow.
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And whenever you see this in any books that are
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not by people that are directly speaking about this in
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a racial lens, authors never gave her a last name.
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They claimed she was an unmarried sex worker and that
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justified this. Oh my god, she had a whole husband. Yeah.
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And it wasn't until very recently that her last name
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was discovered to be Loaisa. And that is because in
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eighteen sixty eight, seventeen years after her lynching, her husband
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Jose Maria Luisa, attempted to file a claim with the
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US and Mexico Claims Commission. This commission came to be
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after the Treaty of Vidalgo to set up claims by
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citizens of the United States and Mexico for losses suffered
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due to the acts of one government against nationals, with
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the other oh basically to handle. It was a lot
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of land disputes, is what happened, and so he asked
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this commission. He was asking for three thousand dollars for