Juana Briones and Midwifery.m4v

As with other midwives and healers of the time, the women in Juana's family probably had a great deal to do with the path she chose. Juana's paternal aunt, Guadalupe Briones de Olivera, served as a nurse at a Mission in Southern California, while at least two other relatives of hers were known to be curanderas with "impressive credentials" (Farr McDonnell 2008, p.127). One of her sisters, Agreda, is documented as having baptized a child who had died during childbirth at Mission San Diego in 1822 (Farr McDonnell 2008, p.127). Taking into account the circumstances of the birth, death and baptism of the infant, it can be surmised that Agreda probably served as the midwife. Another midwife, both documented and well-known during her time, was Juana's elder sister Guadalupe. Her abilities were celebrated and she is said to have been called upon by both natives and strangers alike to assist with childbirth. Guadalupe and her husband lived both in the Presidio's quadrangle and at El Polín, alongside Juana and the rest of the family. These women could have provided a reserve of knowledge, experience and assistance, which would have been a solid foundation for Juana to learn and hone her craft. It may be hard to imagine today that a woman such as Juana Briones, illiterate and without any formal medical training, could serve as a nurse and midwife to the new and growing community of San Francisco, but that is exactly what she did. And she did so with great success. Her knowledge and skills were highly respected and it is said that the new community of Yerba Buena (present day North Beach in San Francisco) was named after her famous mint tea.

Microhistory by Cheryl Guerrero for Anthro 136e, Digital Documentation and Representation of Cultural Heritage, a UC Berkeley course taught in partnership with the Presidio of San Francisco Archaeology Lab, Summer 2011.

References
Farr McDonnell, Jeanne 2008. Juana Briones of Nineteenth-Century California, Tucson: University of Arizona Press
Voss, Barbara L. (2008). The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis: Race and Sexuality in Colonial San Francisco, Berkeley: University of California Press.

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Education

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• archaeology