Delfina Cuero

Delfina Cuero was Kumeyaay born in 1900 in the Xamca (Jamacha) area of San Diego, California. The traditional lands of the Kumeyaay people extend from the Colorado River to the Pacific Ocean, into the northern limits of San Diego County and south into modern-day Baja California, Mexico. Delfina and her family traveled by foot throughout the region, following seasonal foods that were naturally found. Eventually forced into Mexico by western expansion, and after an extended stay on the Mexican side of the new border, Delfina was unable to return to the United States with no documentation of her American citizenship.

With the help of Florence Connolly Shipek, an anthropologist and professor, Delfina published a book titled “Delfina Cuero: Her Autobiography-An Account of Her Last Years and Her Ethnobotanic Contributions.” Delfina and Shipek gathered information from visits to Torrey Pines State Park and the Kendall-Frost Marsh. Using the descriptions Delfina provided of the land, native plants, and her own activities in California, Delfina's descriptions proved beyond a doubt that she belonged in California. Delfina was able to return to her birthplace in 1967.

In her autobiography, Delfina provided her thoughts and memories on old ways and described the name and uses of nearly 70 plants, giving voice to the original inhabitants of the area and tracing the slow erasure of their presence. This information was gathered on one single visit to two locations that Delfina made with Shipek. One of those two locations was the Kendall-Frost Marsh, a place of historic cultural-significance to the Kumeyaay community.

The following takes you on a journey with Delfina as she describes plants throughout Kendall-Frost Marsh, providing their Kumeyaay name (when known), and their traditional use. Some of the plants that Delfina identified and explained traditional uses for are non-native/were naturalized in Europe. Incorporating these plants into daily life showcases the resilience and adaptability of the Kumeyaay people during times of profound human-created ecological shifts.

Kendall-Frost Marsh lies nearby a large Kumeyaay village where inhabitants interacted with and subsided on the rich resources of the wetlands landscape and nearby fresh waterways. Traditional ecological knowledge, such as that provided by Delfina Cuero, has become a vital component to better understanding past landscapes and heralding in efforts for indigenous-focused restoration.