Hagen 1
Emily Hagen
Professor Crispin-Peralta
California Experience
March 1, 2011
Ramona
To say that “the most important woman in the history of southern California never lived” (DeLyser, p.886) is no stretch considering the impact the character Ramona had on California. Published in 1884, Jackson had high hopes that her reform novel Ramona wouldincrease the public’s knowledge of the plight of California Natives and ultimately lead to legislationto help the Indian’s situation. While her scholarly intentions could have had fruitfulresults, Ramona did not leave the lasting impression Jackson dreamed it would. Ramona impacted California, specifically southern California, by creating resounding waves of growth in the tourism industry and beginning an era thatrecreated the Spanish influence and architecture in California.
Jackson’s overall intention was to highlight the relationships between different racial groups in Ramona and show readers that all ethnicities can get along.While talking about Alessandro and his crew of Indians, Felipe noted, “the Indians are the most generous people in the world” (Jackson, pg. 78). Felipe and Ramona both respect and admire Alessandro very much; “how the boy makes one forget he is an Indian” (Jackson, pg. 101). Alessandro challenged Ramona’s preconceived notions so much that she fell in love with him.Through this friendship with Alessandro, Ramona becomes an Indian woman herself, living in the villages with them. Antagonistically, the Senora saw Indians as, “naked savages they themselves too, today, if we had not come here to teach and civilize them” (Jackson, pg. 88) and thought that that she was better than any and all Natives. Jackson showed the world two sides to the same coin by including both of these relationships.Other relationships in Ramonainclude the negative sentiment of Indians and Mexicans towards Americans withAlessandro calling Americans“a pack of thieves and liars” (Jackson, pg. 177) and “a synonym for fraud and cruelty” (Jackson, pg. 239). Jackson continually mentions the memories of the Natives and Senora both losing landto the Americans throughout the novel; “Americans owned it now; and everything was done by the American law now” (Jackson, pg. 257). Readerscould have soaked in the secondhand criticism without feeling attacked since they readRamona from a different point of view. In creating these complex relationships, Jackson addspurpose for Ramona to catalyze conversations about relationships and how Americans treat other people.
Jackson also illustrates her point through the metaphorical representation of people groups through the characters ofRamona. The Senora’s more hostile reaction towards Natives corresponds to the stereotypic feelings most Mexican and American people felt; no one thought Indians were their equals. Just like Senora “could, by a single phrase or question, plant in a person’s mind the precise idea she wished him to think he had originated himself” (Jackson, pg. 168), she metaphorically represent the American government that was cementing stereotypes about Indians into the minds of Americans. Through the “good natured, affectionate, humorous” (Jackson, pg. 284) personality of the Hyder family, Alessandro and Ramona are able to find Americans that they can actually trust.Readers also see Aunt Ri’s perspective change sinceshe didn’t think of Alessandro and Majella as Indians; “Yer ain’t ever seemed to me one mite like an Injun” (Jackson, pg. 291). While reading Ramona, I wondered if Aunt Ri might represent Helen Hunt Jackson herself. Jackson came across the Indian cause quite suddenly and overnight became “a woman with a hobby” (Crispin-Peralta). For Aunt Ri, “a seed had been sown in [her] mind which was not destined to die for want of soil” (Jackson, pg. 292), Aunt Ri’s mind was totally transformed through her relationship with Alessandro and Majella. Had Ramona’s readers contemplated these different relationships, Jackson’s true purpose for the book might havecome to the surface. Through Aunt Ri, Alessandro, Majella, and Felipe all trusting each other, Jackson shows Americans that peaceful relations between Americans, Indians, and Mexicans are possible and beneficial.
Sadly, Jackson’s audience didn’t want to hear what she had to say about the treatment of Indians and the possibility of equal relationship with them. Reading Ramona didn’t make thousands of Americans rush politics to help the Native cause; the nation continued to ignore the mess that had been made. The country knew that Jackson’spassion was Indian rights;her readers must have put two and two together to realize that Jackson didn’t just write a nice love story. But, they chose to ignore the deeper significance of the book and simply enjoy the love story and the beautiful, romantic California scenery. Tourists chose to visit these made-up places on vacation and forget the real motivations at the heart of this reform novel.
Stepping back and looking at the situation as a whole, Jackson was in a tough spot. If she hadn’t coated Ramona in love, it wouldn’t have drawn in the masses and been so popular. But because she did, people only took it for face value; the public didn’t bite. Even through the wise words of Aunt Ri, America chose to buy into the tourism aspect of Ramona rather than getting on board with reform efforts. Jackson was attempting to balance on a very rickety teeter-totter. I’m not sure if she would have ever been able to keep that perfect, horizontal balance between love story and the nitty gritty reform message that needed to be portrayed. Americans knew that they could go deeper and pick more out of this book than just the beautiful landscape and love story, but they chose not to. America was acting like a teenager with selective hearing, and Jackson was the parent failing to reach them.
Even though it didn’t leave the impact on America Jackson had hoped for, Ramonahad an incredible influence on the state, still evident today, through the Ramona industry it created and the quintessential Spanish heritage it brought to California. “The fictionalization of southern California’s past” (DeLyser, pg. 886) took place thanks to this novel. Reading about the Home of Ramona, the Ramona Pageant, and even Ramona Beer clearly illustrates that the most important legacy of Jackson’s book for California was its impact on tourism. Businesses even went so far as to “invent commemorative products such as Ramona Face Cream, Ramona Candy, and Ramona Perfume” (DeLyser, pg. 889). While Jackson’s aim wasn’t to reform the architecture and style of southern California, that’s another thing the novel did. Sadly, Ramona failedto aid the reforms to help Indians; “when Jackson died of cancer the following year [Ramona was published], her dreams for her novel’s liberatory power largely died with her” (DeLyser, pg. 888). California embraced Ramona to every extent it wanted to by latching onto the tourist legacy because “anglicizing and immense social change and urban growth” (DeLyser, pg. 888) was going on at this point. California was changing and vulnerable at this time, so its leaders and citizens decided to recreate the California Jackson created in Ramona. Different areas of southern California were able to create a Spanish past through different community associations that, sometimes forcefully, recreated buildings in Spanish architecture. Ramona catalyzed the tourist industry and gave California a face-lift portraying a beautiful, but not necessarily historically accurate, Spanish past (Crispin-Peralta).
While Ramona significantly impacted California, I’m sure Jackson never thought that things would turn out the way they did. Perhaps the reason her novel was so influential for the tourism industry andSpanish architecture was the fact that Jackson passed away a year after the book was published (DeLyser). If she had lived longer, I wonder if she would have allowed this sort of idealization to happen. Jackson was an adamant advocate for Indian rights, so she wouldn’t have reacted well knowing that tourists were visiting Ramona’s wedding site, yet still not aiding in the Indian rights reforms. The soberingidea of the treatment of Indians doesn’t exactly fit in withromantic, Spanish architecture andbeautiful southern California sunsets.Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona, just like many other things in life, just didn’t quite go according to plan.
Works Cited
Crispin-Peralta, Vanessa. "Revisiting Our Spanish Past." California Experience. Westmont College. Voskuyl Library Classroom, Santa Barbara, CA. 28 Feb 2011. Lecture.
DeLyser, Dydia. "Ramona Memories: Fiction, Tourist Practices, and Placing the Past in Southern California." Annals of the Association of American Geographers. (2003): Print.
Jackson, Helen Hunt. Ramona. New York: New American Library, 2002. Print.