 1884 first edition | |
| Author | Helen Hunt Jackson |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Little, Brown |
Publication date | 1884 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardback &Paperback) |
| Pages | 335 (2007 ed.) |
| ISBN | 0812973518 (modern) |
| OCLC | 56686628 |
Ramona is an1884 American novel written byHelen Hunt Jackson. Set inSouthern California after theMexican–American War and annexation of the territory by the United States,Ramona explores the life of a mixed-raceScottish–Native American orphan girl. The story was inspired by the marriage ofHugo Reid andVictoria Reid.[1]
Originallyserialized weekly in theChristian Union,[2] the novel became immensely popular. It has had more than 300 printings,[3] and has been adapted five times[4] as afilm. A play adaptation has been performed annuallyoutdoors since 1923.[4]
The novel's influence on the culture and image of Southern California was considerable. Its sentimental portrayal of Mexican elite colonial life contributed to establishing a unique cultural identity for the region. As its publication coincided with the arrival of railroad lines in the region, tourists used trains to visit sites thought to be associated with the novel.
InSouthern California, shortly after theMexican–American War, a Scottish-Native American orphan girl, Ramona, is raised by Señora Gonzaga Moreno, the sister of Ramona's deceased foster mother. Ramona is referred to as illegitimate in some summaries of the novel, but chapter 3 of the novel says that Ramona's parents were married by a priest in theSan Gabriel Mission. Señora Moreno has raised Ramona as part of the family, giving her every luxury. Ramona's foster mother had requested this as her dying wish. Because Ramona has partial Native American heritage, Moreno reserves her love for her only child, Felipe Moreno, whom she adores. Señora Moreno identifies as Mexican of pure Spanish ancestry. She hates Americans since the United States' annexation of California following its victory in the war. They have disputed her claim to her lands, and have divided her hugerancho.
Señora Moreno delays the sheep shearing, a major event on the rancho, awaiting the arrival of a group of Native Americans fromTemecula, whom she always hires for that work. The head of the Native American sheep shearers is Alessandro, son of Pablo Assís, chief of the tribe. Alessandro is portrayed as tall, wise, honest, and piously Catholic. Señora Moreno also awaits a priest, Father Salvierderra, fromSanta Barbara. He will hear confessions of the workers and celebrate mass with them in her chapel after the shearing, before they return to Temecula.
Alessandro quickly falls in love with Ramona and agrees to stay on at the Rancho. In time, Ramona also falls in love with Alessandro. Señora Moreno opposes the marriage, as she does not want Ramona to marry a Native American. Realizing that Señora Moreno has never loved her, Ramona elopes with Alessandro.
The rest of the novel charts the two lovers' troubles. They have a daughter, and travel around Southern California trying to find a place to settle. In the aftermath of war, Alessandro's tribe is driven off their land, marking a new wave of European-American settlement in California from the United States. They endure misery and hardship, for the Americans who buy their land also demand their houses and their farm tools. Greedy Americans drive them off several homesteads, and they cannot find a permanent community that is not threatened by encroachment of American settlers. They finally move into theSan Bernardino Mountains.
Alessandro slowly loses his mind, due to the forced relocations. He loves Ramona fiercely, and regrets having taken her away from relative comfort with Moreno. Their daughter, whose Native American name means "Eyes of the Sky", dies because an American doctor would not go to their homestead to treat her. They have another daughter, whom they name Ramona, but Alessandro still suffers. One day he rides off with the horse of an American, who follows him and shoots him, although he knew that Alessandro was mentally unbalanced.
After being away from the Moreno ranch for two years, the young widow is found by Felipe Moreno, whose mother has died. He brings her and her daughter Ramona back to his mother's estate. Felipe has always loved the elder Ramona and finds her more beautiful than ever. Although Ramona still loves the late Alessandro, she agrees to marry Felipe. They have several children together, but their favorite is Ramona, daughter of Alessandro.
Jackson wroteRamona three years afterA Century of Dishonor, her non-fiction study of the mistreatment ofNative Americans in the United States. By following that history with a novel, she sought to portray the Indian experience "in a way to move people's hearts."[5] She wanted to arouse public opinion and concern for the betterment of their plight, much asHarriet Beecher Stowe's novelUncle Tom's Cabin had done for enslaved African Americans.[6] Her success in this effort was limited.
Jackson intendedRamona to appeal directly to the reader's emotions. The novel's political criticism was clear, but most readers were moved by its romantic vision of colonial California under Mexican rule. Jackson had become enamored of theSpanish missions in California, which she romanticized. The story's fictional vision ofFranciscan churchmen,señoritas andcaballeros permeated the novel and captured the imaginations of readers. Her novel characterized the Americans as villains and the Native Americans as "noble savages".[7]
Many American migrants to California were biased against the Mexicans who lived there. The new settlers from northern and midwestern states disparaged what they considered a decadentculture ofleisure andrecreation among the elite Mexicans, who held huge tracts of land, lived in a region with prevailing mild weather and unusually fertile soil, and relied heavily on Native American laborers. The new settlers favored theProtestant work ethic. This view was not universal, however.
Many American settlers and readers in other regions were taken by Jackson's portrayal of the California-Mexican society. Readers accepted theCalifornio aristocracy as portrayed and theRamonamyth was born.[8]
Ramona was immensely popular almost immediately upon its publication in 1884, with more than 15,000 copies sold in the ten months before Jackson's death in 1885.[9] One year after her death, theNorth American Review called it "unquestionably the best novel yet produced by an American woman" and named it, along withUncle Tom's Cabin, as one of two mostethical novels of the 19th century.[10] By sixty years after its publication, 600,000 copies had been sold. There have been more than 300 reissues to date and the book has never been out of print.[9]
Subtleracism may have contributed to the popularity of the character of Ramona and the novel. Of mixed race, she was described as beautiful, with black hair and blue eyes. Errol Wayne Stevens, of theCalifornia Historical Society, notes several contemporary reviews of the novel in which writers dismissed the idea that Ramona could have been part Native American, a race which they characterized as "dull, heavy and unimpressionable," and "lazy, cruel, cowardly, and covetous."[11]
Carobeth Laird, in her 1975 autobiography,Encounter with an Angry God (p. 176), describes the reaction of her Chemehuevi Indian husband to the novel: "... when I tried to read him Helen Hunt Jackson'sRamona, he grew restless, walked up and down, and finally said that the white woman knew nothing about Indians."[12]
Jackson was disappointed that she was unable to raise public concerns about the struggles of Indians in California, as readers were attracted to the romantic vision of Californio society. Historian Antoinette May argues in her bookThe Annotated Ramona (1989) that the popularity of the novel contributed to Congress passing theDawes Act in 1887. This was the first American law to address Indian land rights, but it was aimed at the assimilation of Indian families. It forced the breakup of communal lands and the redistribution of allotted acres to individual households. The government defined as "surplus land" any reservation territory remaining, and allowed its sale to non-Native persons.[10]
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The widespread popularity of the novel resulted in jurisdictions naming schools (Ramona High School inRiverside), streets, freeways (theSan Bernardino Freeway was originally named the Ramona Freeway) and towns (unincorporated communities called Ramona in bothLos Angeles andSan Diego Counties) after the novel's heroine. Southern California became a tourist destination, as many people wanted to see the locations featured in the book. Its publication coincided with the opening ofSouthern Pacific Railroad's Southern California rail lines, which fed a tourism boom.[2]
As a result, many sites across Southern California tried to emphasize theirRamona connections. Jackson died without having specified locations for her novel. Two places claimed to have inspired her work:Rancho Camulos, nearPiru, andRancho Guajome inVista, as she had visited both before writing her novel.[2]
Camulos became the most accepted "Home of Ramona" due to several factors. The description of Moreno Ranch is similar to the historic Rancho Camulos. Influential writers, such asGeorge Wharton James andCharles Fletcher Lummis, avowed that it was so. When theSouthern Pacific Railroad opened its mainVentura County line in 1887, it had a stop at Camulos. With the company engaged in a rate war,[13] the trip to Camulos became relatively easy and affordable for visitors. Finally, the Del Valle family of Camulos welcomed tourists: they exploited the association in marketing their products, labeling their oranges and wine as "The Home of Ramona"brand.[citation needed]
In contrast, Guajome did not publicly become associated withRamona until a 1894 article inRural Californian made the claim. However, as the house was nearly four miles (6 km) from the nearestSanta Fe Railroad station, getting there was not so easy. Additionally, the Couts family, who owned the property, was not eager to have flocks of tourists on the grounds, possibly due to a falling out between author Jackson and Senora Couts.[2]
Estudillo House inOld Town San Diego is identified as "Ramona's Marriage Place"; the novel said briefly that Ramona was married in San Diego. Although no record existed of Jackson's having visited there, this house became a popular tourist destination. This status continued for years. Estudillo House was unique in marketing solely in terms ofRamona-related tourism. The caretaker sold pieces of the house to tourists, which hastened its deterioration. In 1907, the new ownerJohn D. Spreckels hired architectHazel Wood Waterman to remodel the house to more closely match descriptions in the novel. When the reconstruction was completed in 1910, the building reopened as a full-fledgedRamona tourist attraction.[2] Estudillo House's application forNational Historic Landmark status was entitled "Casa Estudillo/Ramona's Marriage Place".[3]
Other notableRamona landmarks included "Ramona's Birthplace", a small adobe nearMission San Gabriel Arcángel, and the grave ofRamona Lubo on theRamona Band of Cahuilla Indians reservation. Writer George Wharton James called Lubo the "real Ramona".[14] Her life bore some resemblance to that of the fictional Ramona. Sixteen years after Lubo's death, in 1938, local people erected a "Ramona monument" at her gravesite.[2]
The Ramona Pageant was a play adapted from the novel. It was staged outdoors, beginning in 1923 inHemet. The pageant has been held there annually since.[citation needed]
Most historians believe that the fictional Moreno Ranch is an amalgamation of various locations and was not intended to represent a single place.[2] As Carey McWilliams said in his bookSouthern California Country (1946):
Because of the novel's extraordinary popularity, public perception merged fact and fiction. California historian Walton Bean wrote:
The novel contributed to the unique cultural identity of Southern California and the whole of theSouthwest. The architecture of the missions had recently gained national exposure, and local restoration projects were just beginning. Railroad lines to Southern California were just opening and, combined with the emotions stirred by the novel, the region suddenly gained national attention.[2]Mission Revival Style architecture became popular from about 1890 to 1915. Many examples still stand throughout California and other southwest areas.[citation needed]
Ramona has been adapted several times for other media. The first was a silent film by the same name, released in 1910. It was directed byD. W. Griffith and starredMary Pickford. Other versions were made in 1928, 1936 and 1946.
Ramona public domain audiobook atLibriVox
