page_title: Ramona
section_title: Cultural influence
hierarchical_section_title: Ramona / Cultural influence
caption_attribution_description: English: Ramona Lubo, a Coahuilla Indian woman, Cahuilla, California, April 5, 1899 Photographic portrait of Ramona Lubo, a Coahuilla Indian woman, in Cahuilla, Riverside County, California, on April 5, 1899. Said to be the Ramona upon which the novel of the same name by Helen Hunt Jackson was based, she was the wife of Allesandro. She is wearing a light-colored dress and is visible from the waist up. Her dark hair is parted in the middle. She can be seen outside sitting in front of an adobe brick wall. Call number: CHS-4752 Legacy record ID: chs-m17138; USC-1-1-1-13920 Photographer: James, George Wharton Filename: CHS-4752 Coverage date: 1899-04-05 Part of collection: California Historical Society Collection, 1860-1960 Type: images Geographic subject (city or populated place): Cahuilla Repository name: USC Libraries Special Collections Accession number: 4752 Microfiche number: 1-172- Archival file: chs_Volume98/CHS-4752.tiff Part of subcollection: Title Insurance and Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960 Repository address: Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 Geographic subject (country): USA Format (aacr2): 3 photographs&#160;: glass photonegative, photoprints, b&amp;w&#160;; 22 x 17 cm., 21 x 26 cm. Rights: Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California Subject (adlf): tribal areas Project: USC Repository email: specol@usc.edu Identifying number: unidentified no: James-2019; unidentified no: James-2020 Contributing entity: California Historical Society Date created: 1899-04-05 Publisher (of the digital version): University of Southern California. Libraries Format (aat): photographic prints; photographs Geographic subject (state): California Subject (file heading): Indians -- Mission -- Cahuilla Geographic coordinates: -116.743057,33.540829 Format: glass plate negatives Access conditions: Send requests to address or e-mail given. Phone (213) 821-2366; fax (213) 740-2343. Geographic subject (county): Riverside Subject (lcsh): Indians of North America; Cahuilla Indians Subject: Mission Indians; Cahuilla Indians; Ramona
context_page_description: Ramona is an 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican–American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scottish–Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and hardship. Originally serialized in the Christian Union on a weekly basis, the novel became immensely popular. It has had more than 300 printings, and been adapted five times as a film. A play adaptation has been performed annually outdoors since 1923.
  The novel's influence on the culture and image of Southern California was considerable. Its sentimental portrayal of Mexican 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, countless tourists visited who wanted to see the locations of the novel.
context_section_description: 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 hired architect Hazel 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-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 Ramona Band of Cahuilla Indians 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
caption: Ramona Lubo, after whom many claimed the novel was named
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