Fascination with the story of Josefa predates the era of #MeToo and modern-day hostility toward anyone and anything Mexican. But in their own way, the residents of Downieville have long debated the role that Josefa’s gender and ethnicity played in her fate.
Her face betrayed no fear as she climbed the ladder to a scaffold on a bridge overlooking the Yuba River. The afternoon sun sparkled on the waterway as it wound through pine-shrouded mountains.
Downieville and the surrounding area’s fascination with the story of Josefa predates the era of #MeToo and modern-day hostility toward anyone and anything Mexican, before the El Paso mass shooting and a president conjuring up Mexican “rapists” and drug dealers to get elected. But in their own way, the town’s 200 residents have long debated the role Josefa’s gender and ethnicity played in her fate.
One of those celebrating was an Australian miner known in news articles and Downie’s book, “Hunting for Gold,” as Cannon. After the festivities, he stumbled down the street before reaching the home Josefa shared with a man named Jose, believed by some to be her husband.As an 1851 Marysville Daily Herald newspaper article recounts it, Cannon entered the house and “created a riot and disturbance.
noted in her report — which earned her an A — that racial tension may have been a factor in Josefa’s death. “The violent proceedings of an indignant and excited mob, led on by the enemies of the unfortunate woman, are a blot upon the history of the State,” one news article stated. Last year, the graduating class at the town’s K-12 school included just two students. Downieville’s only bank closed in September, and the gas pumps have been out of service for nearly a year. The local theater features about a dozen movies a year and cell service is almost nonexistent.
Jenine Beecher, a self-proclaimed psychic medium, says she met Josefa clairvoyantly and wants to tell her story. When Cannon entered the home, Beecher said, he made physical advances toward Josefa, prompting her to act in self-defense. Often, the disagreement among townspeople breaks down by gender lines — creating a “male version and a female version” of the story, as one resident described it. Years ago, Russell’s wife, Irene Frazier, penned an article that ran on the front page of the paper’s Fourth of July edition. She wrote from what she called the “correct perspective,” detailing a drunken man who had broken down a woman’s door.“He was apologizing and bringing her flowers? I don’t think so,” she said.
Years ago, she was asked to play Josefa in a Fourth of July parade. Ortiz immediately shut down the idea.Nearly two centuries have passed since the execution, but Ortiz can’t help but wonder about the legacy being created today. When she learned that a gunman had killed 22 people, nearly all Mexican nationals or Mexican Americans,“I feel like it’s in the air and I never saw it much in the air until Trump came on to be president,” Ortiz said.
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