DOWNIEVILLE, Calif. — The young Mexican woman walked to her death with a firm step.
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.
The night before, hundreds had celebrated the Fourth of July. Now, they watched, silent, as the woman pushed back two plaits of black hair from her shoulders. She placed the noose around her neck.
When they called for her last words, she declared, fearless, “I would do the same again if I was so provoked.”
Here in this small town in the northern reaches of the Sierra Nevada, the legend of Josefa lives on more than 160 years after her death. Her saga, cobbled together through historical news articles, books and history buffs, is largely unknown even among the state’s Mexican American population but has riveted young and old here in the middle of Trump country.
A neighboring town staged a play about Josefa’s trial; an opera in San Francisco gave her a spotlight. A psychic claims to converse with her. But much about her is unknown, including her last name. A plaque commemorating her death refers to her as “Juanita” — a slur people in this gold-mining community once used for any Mexican woman.
She was hanged in California 168 years ago — for murder or for being Mexican?
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.
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