Juana Febres Ayuso

The limited account we have of Juana is that she is listed as, ‘Juana Febres Ayuso, mulata, 22, soltera, sirvienta familia particular, no lee ni escribe’. Something peculiar about this entry is that her employer Julian Ortiz Sainz, who is a Spanish citizen and immigrated in 1870, is not only an owner of an estate and is able to vote as he is listed as ‘Elector 351, 1898, 33’, but he is also a lingerie retailer. While we don’t have a lot of insight as to Juana’s life, we can infer that she may have had to help with child rearing roles as Julian has 7 children with Josefa living in the house. The stark difference between his children and Juana is evident as his children all either read and write and go to school or also know English.