Ramona Memories: Tourism and the Shaping of Southern California
Dydia DeLyser. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8166-4571-X and 0-8166-4571-8(pbk).
The influence of Helen Hunt Jackson's novel Ramona has long been a part of the folklore of California. The novel told the story of an ill-fated romance set in the mid-19th century when the Old California of Spanish heritage and ranchos had all but given way to a more commercial, American society. The novel was intended to publicise the plight of the Mission Indians; not their historical exploitation during the Spanish regime, but rather their treatment after the American Civil War. Mrs Jackson had established herself as an expert on Indian affairs and had been active in trying to correct the wrongs that had been done to Native Americans. She had published a Century of Dishonor, which had documented many of these wrongs, and sent copies to every member of Congress. When it was clear that work would not bring about any action on the part of the government, she was determined to write a novel that would ‘set forth some Indian experiences in a way to move people's hearts’. The novel did just that, but not in the way she had intended.
Readers were more taken with the romantic part of the story and with the romanticised history of the Mission Indians and rancho life during the Spanish era, than with the demise of the native peoples. Readers were so taken with the story that they sought out real world counterparts to the fictional places in which the novel was set. Ramona's marriage place, now Casa de Estudillo in San Diego, became the most commercialised of the sites, while her birth place, which in the novel was either in or near Mission San Gabriel, did not achieve the same success, and is accorded only three pages in DeLyser's book. Ramona's home seems to have drawn more attention, both historically and in this book, largely because there had been competing claims as to which was the real world counterpart – Rancho Camulos or Rancho Guajome.
DeLyser has done a thorough job of chronicling the history of each of the novel's sites, assessing the debates about which real world places were characterised in the novel, and documenting the legacy that was left by the novel and reaction to it. Movies were made of the novel; children, and even highways, were named after characters in the book; and various products, such as Ramona beer, Ramona brandy and Ramona brand lemons, used the name to sell the product. The book spawned a pageant that is still performed in the city of Hemet and has been designated by the state as the official ‘California State Outdoor Play’.
According to DeLyser, the novel also had an impact on the early development of tourism in the state, and thus on the growth and development of the state's economy. DeLyser identifies 1884 as a turning point in American tourism. Travel, which had been almost exclusively an upper-class pastime ‘became a nearly obligatory ritual of American citizenship’. And ‘the novel and Ramona-related landmarks became important parts of those tourists’ itineraries, (p. xx). In 1887 alone, 120,000 tourists visited Los Angeles, and they in turn promoted the region to those still living back home. The rest, as they say, is history.
Of course, not all this can be laid on the novel. California had other attractions, most notably the climate and some spectacular scenery in Yosemite. It was in the 1880s that the effect of the railroad was felt. The Southern Pacific Railroad had only reached Southern California in 1876, and when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad arrived in 1885, a fare war ensued and large numbers of travellers made their way west.
While there is much in DeLyser's book to be admired, some will wonder whether the novel Ramona made a difference. Would the history of California be different without it? Would California today be a different place? Not being from California, I am perhaps less aware of the Ramona myth and its impact, but there are parallels elsewhere. Kansas, where I live, was the setting for the Wizard of Oz and In Cold Blood, and one can visit Dodge City, made famous by the TV show Gunsmoke. While there are many memories of these and other fictional works, it is not clear that any of them altered the state's history. DeLyser, on the other hand, suggests strongly that the Ramona myth did make a difference. Among her claims is that Ramona was the most important woman in the history of Southern California. With that accolade, how could she and the novel not have made a difference? Moreover, according to DeLyser (and others) the novel shaped the state's identity, its social memory, and its culture. Also, although she does not state this explicitly, there is a strong implication that the novel drew many of those early tourists, who in turn fostered further development of the tourist industry and the state's economy in general.
Can the subsequent expansion of the state's population and economy be traced back to the Ramona craze? Perhaps so, but it is not enough to just talk about the possible effects. This, it seems to me, is a quantitative matter. Consider the 120,000 tourists who came to Los Angeles in 1887. How many were tourists and how many were migrants? Of the tourists, how many came because of the novel? Of course, some of them, perhaps many, might have sought out Ramona places once they were there, but the critical question is whether that was their motivation to go to California in the first place.
Whether the novel made a long term difference or not, DeLyser's book has much to offer. It will appeal most to those interested in the development of Southern California's identity and social memory, and the possible role of tourism in shaping those. There is also interesting and insightful discussion about how tourism helped to spread Californian culture nationwide; how tourists brought the Ramona sites into existence, visiting them before they became tourists sites; and how these sites had to look better than they might have really been in order to be accepted as the real world counterpart to the fictional locale. Of course the book is something that must be read by fans of Helen Hunt Jackson and her novel. DeLyser spent years tracking down every reference to Ramona, assessing every piece of memorabilia and exploiting fruitfully collections of materials about the myth, especially that of Phil Brigandi, who she describes as ‘Ramona Pageant historian and Ramonaphile extraordinaire’. DeLyser has brought all this together in what is a thorough history of the Ramona myth and a treasure trove of information for Ramona fans.