Ramona - Cultural Influence

Cultural Influence

The runaway popularity of the novel inspired jurisdictions to name schools (Ramona High School in Riverside), streets, freeways (the San Bernardino Freeway was originally named the Ramona Freeway) and towns (Ramona, California) after the novel's heroine. The novel contributed to making southern California a tourist destination, as many people wanted to see the locations featured in the book. Its publication coincided with the opening of Southern Pacific Railroad's Southern California rail lines and fed a tourism boom.

As a result, locations all over Southern California tried to emphasize their Ramona connections. Jackson died without specifying the locations on which her story was based. Two places claimed to have inspired her work: Rancho Camulos, near Piru, and Rancho Guajome in Vista, as she had visited both before writing her novel.

Camulos became the most accepted "Home of Ramona" due to several factors. Moreno Ranch is described in a way that is similar to the location of Camulos. Influential writers, such as George Wharton James and Charles Fletcher Lummis, avowed that it was so. When the Southern Pacific Railroad's opened its main Ventura County line in 1887, it stopped at Camulos. With the company engaged in a rate war, it made the trip to Camulos relatively easy and affordable. 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.

In contrast, Guajome did not publicly become associated with Ramona until an 1894 article in Rural Californian made the claim. However, as the house was nearly four miles (6 km) away from the nearest Santa Fe Railroad station, getting there was not so easy. Additionally, the Couts family, who owned the property, were not eager to have flocks of tourists on the grounds, possibly due to a falling out between Jackson and Sra. Couts.

The Estudillo House in Old Town San Diego identified itself as "Ramona's Marriage Place" due to brief descriptions of Ramona's having been married in San Diego. Although no record existed of Jackson's having visited there, it too became a popular tourist destination, a status continuing for years after the novel's publication. The Estudillo House was unique in marketing solely in terms of Ramona-related tourism. The caretaker sold pieces of the house to tourists, which hastened its deterioration. In 1907, the new owner John D. Spreckels remodeled the house to more closely match descriptions in the novel. When the reconstruction was completed in 1910, the building reopened as a full-fledged Ramona tourist attraction. Estudillo House's application for National Historic Landmark status was entitled "Casa Estudillo/Ramona's Marriage Place".

Other notable Ramona landmarks included "Ramona's Birthplace", a small adobe near Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, and the grave of Ramona Lubo on the Cahuilla Indian reservation. Lubo called herself the "real Ramona." Her life bore some resemblance to that of the fictional Ramona. Sixteen years after Lubo's death, local people erected a "Ramona monument" at her gravesite in 1938. The Ramona Pageant, an outdoor staging of the novel, started in 1923 in Hemet and has been held annually since.

Most historians believe that the fictional Moreno Ranch is an amalgamation of various locations and was not intended to represent a single place. As Carey McWilliams described in his book Southern California Country:

Picture postcards, by the tens of thousands, were published showing "the schools attended by Ramona," "the original of Ramona," "the place where Ramona was married," and various shots of the "Ramona Country." It was not long before the scenic postcards depicting the Ramona Country had come to embrace all of Southern California.

Because of the novel's extraordinary popularity, the public perception merged fact and fiction. California historian Walton Bean wrote:

These legends became so ingrained in the culture of Southern California that they were often mistaken for realities. In later years many who visited "Ramona's birthplace" in San Diego or the annual "Ramona Pageant" at Hemet (eighty miles north of San Diego) were surprised and disappointed if they chanced to learn that Ramona was a (fictional) novel rather than a biography.

The novel contributed to the unique cultural identity of Southern California and the whole of the Southwest. 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. The Mission Revival Style architecture became popular from about 1890 to 1915, with many examples standing throughout California and other southwest areas.