the Greater Nomadic Council

Ramona

Well, I just finished putting together an annotated bibliography of some 15 critical pieces on Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona (not a great book, but enjoyable enough). Ramona was Jackson's attempt to persuade the populace and Congress to reform the laws regarding Native Americans. It has often been compared to Uncle Tom's Cabin though it was not nearly as successful. Despite that (and there's been a fair amount of criticism on precisely why it failed and how it undermines its own purposes), it was a best-seller from the time it was first published. In 1893 it was one of only three contemporary novels held by over 50% of all American libraries (it was in 68% of them). The story itself involves a half-Indian girl named Ramona, raised as an elite Spanish California (Californios were the elite Spanish/Mexican landowners living in California; they were displaced by American settlers after the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo which gave California to the U.S.) who falls in love with Alessandro, a Mission Indian. They run off from Senora Morena's rancho (the evil step-mother) and endure a series of tribulations, almost all of which were taken from real life. Jackson was an agent for the Indian Commission and spent a good amount of time in California studying the Mission Indians. She combined a number of their stories into Ramona and sugar-coated it with a sentimental romance plot. Probably the best thing about the novel is its description of natural landscapes. You get a great sense of Edenic lushness throughout the novel. Anyway, not even close to a masterpiece, but a quick read with a certain amount of charm. To be honest, I think the criticism it has inspired has often been more interesting than the novel itself.

Bit of trivia: I started this post intending to only briefly mention what I'd been working on today, then extol the virtues of wine and jazz—one of the greatest combinations of all time. Ah well...