TEXT View source
       
       # 2025-04-26 - Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson
       
       I read this book to prepare prior to watching a video adaptation.
       Since i read this book for entertainment, i will try to keep this
       post short.
       
       I would classify this book as a melodramatic romance more than as a
       historical fiction.  The protagonists are exceptional examples of
       humanity and larger than life.  They are vexed by many invisible
       fiends: -isms such as colonialism, racism, and sexism.
       
       > Helen Hunt Jackson intended Ramona to be a protest novel against
       > the mistreatment of Native Americans in the United States. She
       > wrote the historical novel in a feverish three months...
       >
       > Like the Native American village in Yosemite, these tourist
       > attractions romanticized Native Americans and legitimized their
       > dispossession under the new American government. These myths--forms
       > of imperialist nostalgia--gave a way for tourists and settlers to
       > understand their history through the narrative conventions of drama.
       
  HTML From: Our Ramona https://boomcalifornia.org/2019/04/29/our-ramona/
       
       This book starts slow, and after the first six chapters it begins to
       pick up the pace.
       
       I appreciated clever gems scattered here and there, such as the
       reference to The Fates in the opening passage.  Indeed, in this book
       The Fates have much to shear.
       
       > It was sheep-shearing time in Southern California, but
       > sheep-shearing was late at the Senora Moreno's. The Fates had
       > seemed to combine to put it off.
       
       I loved the description of the Moreno household waking up and
       singing hymns together to start the day.
       
       > As the first ray reached the window, he would throw the casement
       > wide open, and standing there with bared head, strike up the melody
       > of the sunrise hymn sung in all devout Mexican families. It was a
       > beautiful custom, not yet wholly abandoned. At the first dawn of
       > light, the oldest member of the family arose, and began singing
       > some hymn familiar to the household. It was the duty of each person
       > hearing it to immediately rise, or at least sit up in bed, and join
       > in the singing. In a few moments the whole family would be singing,
       > and the joyous sounds pouring out from the house like the music of
       > the birds in the fields at dawn. The hymns were usually invocations
       > to the Virgin, or to the saint of the day, and the melodies were
       > sweet and simple.
       
       Below are illustrations by N.C. Wyeth.  Spoiler warning!
       
   IMG Ramona And Father Salvierderra
       
   IMG Ramona And Senora Moreno
       
   IMG Narrow Trail
       
   IMG Alessandro Shot
       
       The Internet Archive has the 1928 silent film with
       synchronized sound.
       
  HTML Ramona (1928), 80 minutes, starring Dolores Del Rio
       
       The Internet Archive also has many versions of the 1928 song Ramona
       because it was a global hit that year.
       
  HTML Ramona (1928), instrumental
       
  HTML Ramona (1928), sung by Dolores Del Rio
       
       author: Jackson, Helen Hunt, 1830-1885
  TEXT detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Ramona
       LOC:    PZ3.J143 R PS2107.R4
   DIR source: gopher://gopher.pglaf.org/1/2/8/0/2802/
       tags:   ebook,fiction,history,native-american,video
       title:  Ramona
       
       # Tags
       
   DIR ebook
   DIR fiction
   DIR history
   DIR native-american
   DIR video