The Kumeyaay people, whose traditional lands straddle the Mexican border, were displaced from the San Diego area by an influx of non-native settlers.
When she tried to return to California during the 1960s, the United States government denied her access because she had no documentation to prove her place of birth.
[3] Jeff Smith describes Cuero's autobiography as "one of the most important and moving documents ever written about San Diego.
"[4] The San Diego Archaeological Center has offered a "lecture and tour series [that] allows you to walk in the footsteps of Delfina Cuero," including visiting sites that are mentioned in her autobiography.
[5] Phillip Round, a Professor of English and Native American and Indigenous Studies, writes about the significance of Cuero's autobiography: "the Autobiography of Delfina Cuero is particularly useful to American Indian literary studies for the way it enriches our understanding of narrated Indian texts by introducing borderlands theory and the discourse of immigration into the critical debate over the nation of these 'as-told-to' works" (p. 172).