Juana Briones de Miranda was born in 1802 in Villa de Branciforte, which is now Santa Cruz, California. Her mother and father both settled in California, so she and all of her siblings were first generation Californios. Briones married a Calvaryman named Apolinario Miranda when she was 18 years old. With him Briones had 8 children who survived into adulthood and 3 that did not. In 1844, 24 years after her marriage, Briones decided to ask the church to seperate her from her husband. This was because he because an alcoholic who abused her and her family. During the times of her marriage when her husband was addicted to alcohol, Briones suffered to provide for her family, as Apolinario couldn't. Not only this, but he used some of the money she…show more content… One of these problems was the fact that she was illiterate. Juana was unable to read or write and these two skills would have been very useful to her. In fact, she couldn't even sign her name in legal documents and instead marked a cross on them. Briones was a very successful business owner, rancher, and Curandera, who even trained her own nephew. She did everything from being a midwife to treating small pox. She was able to defy the boundaries sexism posed at that time. She even owned 5 rancheros during her life, which were run by Indian slaves. In 1850 Juana's ownership of her land was put into question because California was admitted into the United States. The U.S. took away the land of many Californios, but Juana defended her land using friends such as Maximo Martinez to defend her in the U.S. Land Commission Hearings. One of Juana's properties, which she inherited after her former husband died was in San Fransisco. The case for claim to this land went all of the way to the United States Supreme Court who decided the land truly belonged to Juana. Juana Briones de Miranda faced many hardships though out her life but found a way to fight brought every single one of them. She had an abusing alcoholic husband, was illiterate, faced sexism, and had to battle the United States token her land after California was admitted into the U.S.
Juana died on December 3rd, 1889, living to be 87 years
