Ramona

The Mariache Band Preformers

The Indians On The Mountain (click to enlarge)
The setting of the Ramona Bowl Amphitheatre Another photo of the setting The Pagentry with beautiful costumes Playing the roles of Ramona and Alessandro

The Ramona Bowl today

Pochea Indian Village Marker

Ramona Marker

The song "Ramona" as sung by Alessandro

Ramona

The longest running outdoor drama is held annually in Hemet California. This marks the 86Th year of continuous staging. The story described as the first novel about Southern California is taken from the writing of Helen Hunt Jackson born in 1830 in Amherst Massachusetts. It was written to call attention to the plight of the Mission Indians at the hands of the United States government. Instead of sparking indignation, the novel inspired a myth that has indelibly marked the California landscape.

***

In 1883 Helen was appointed Commissioner of Indian affairs by President Chester Cleveland. In this capacity she was to report formally on the condition of California's Mission Indians. She traveled to Indian Reservations in the Riverside and San Diego back country. All of the traveling, note taking, and conversation became the background of the novel she wrote. Published in 1884, the author died in San Francisco ten months later. The publication is still in print today. It has inspired an opera, three motion pictures, as well as The Ramona Pageant begun in 1923 in the town of Hemet.

***

Ramona is the story of an orphan, the child of a white father and an Indian mother, who is raised by a foster mother but kept ignorant of her fact of parentage. She falls in love with an Indian. Her foster mother hates Alessandro due to her dislike of the Indians. The drama was a wonderful. I hope someday you have the opportunity to see the struggle in the story of the love and life of Alessandro and Ramona projecting the maltreatment by the White Americanas stealing their land.