Dates

• Existence: 1958 -

Biography

Maria Blasa Cano Bribriesco was born in Mercedes, Texas, 5 miles from the Mexican border. Throughout her life she identified as a Tejana, a Mexican-American, and as a Chicana. Her parents were fieldworkers, and their children would work with them when school was not in session. In a later interview with the Quad City Times, Bribriesco would say that her mother had the biggest impact on her life. “While both my parents worked hard, my mother worked harder… Whatever challenges I faced, I knew I could overcome them because of my mother.” Her parents also valued educational achievement. Bribriesco earned a BA from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, and a JD from the University of Iowa College of Law. At 22, Maria Cano married fellow law student William Bribriesco. The pair raised three sons in the Quad Cities, where Maria Bribriesco worked as a civilian attorney at the Rock Island Arsenal for nearly 28 years. After retiring in 2011, Bribriesco threw herself into community activism. She ran for the Iowa House and the Iowa Senate as a Democrat in the early 2010s and for the Scott County Board of Supervisors in 2024.

Languages Used

• Language: English. Script: Latin
• Language: Spanish; Castilian. Script: Latin

Found in 4 Collections and/or Records: