Ramona Epic #40: It's Been Fun!

(GPS: N33 54.470 W118 18.585)

Here we are at the end of the series. Let me talk about todays location and then I will give you a few thoughts on how I thought this all turned out.

I wanted to lighten things up at the end so I went to a place that was another partial inspiration that began that series. I was out walking one day, and I noticed a truck that went by with a Ramona Mexican Food logo. I went home, did a quick google search, and saw that this place originates in the Gardena and Torrance area. Since I lived there when I was a very young kid I asked some family members about this: "Oh, that's been there forever!" Well, that was news to me. So, it was another place that started to make me think more about doing a whole series dedicated to how the Ramona name has influenced California.

I thought it would be a good place to visit and eat to end the series.

It's basically a take out place. I think there are places to sit outside of it. I ended up just eating my food in my truck.
Ramona Epic #40: It's Been Fun! (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #40: It's Been Fun! (Vimeo Version)

Let me give some closing thoughts on how I think this series turned out. Years ago I had considered doing a Ramona series, but I was never really enthusastic about the Ramona concept. I did have Delyser's Ramona Memories book in my hand at one point, but decided it was not for me. Then as I started to burn out of the things I was doing on this blog I knew I needed something to do that I did not know that much about. The further I examined Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona I realized it was a lot closer to what I normally do on here than I thought. In many ways the book is a traveling novel.

The thought of committing myself to a year long series was something I felt I needed to do. There were some down sides to it though. First, I knew it would drain me some in trying to keep it going over the year. There would be times where I would put up some things that I was not as eager to talk about than others that I had more enthusiasm to blog about. Second, for many people it is very difficult to follow something like this over a long period. I knew beforehand that putting it up as episodes would be problematic for some due to the patience one has to have to get through some of the parts. I did put this series up in a way that one can read the book and follow what I did on here at the same time since it did go in chronological order with the book. However, one could jump in at any time thoughout and just pick up the parts one cares about.

I really was doing this for the long term. Now the project is at the point where it is done so the whole series can been seen as a whole. The only thing I really regret for the series as a whole now that it is done is how I started the opening of the videos. That was important while I was making each video and putting them up during the year. Although, now that it is done, watching all 40 videos with that 10 second introduction to each video is something I wish was not there. I had thought of changing the intro about midway through the series to something else, but just decided to leave it. So, it was a necessary evil that I hope does not drive someone crazy if they watch all the series at one time.

At this point, I consider this project finished. However, I do have extra footage, and there are some places I could go to in the future that might show up on the blog or in video at some point. That will not be anytime soon, but if and when I do that it would be like adding an appendix to the end of a book. For all practical purposes, my "official canon" of blogs is done.

BTW, occasionally I get an e-mail mentioning the city of Ramona in San Diego Co. I guess if there was one place many people thought I was going to visit it was that place. While it is true that the city was named after the main character, it is relatively close to some of the places that Ramona lived in the novel, but I never encountered anything in my research that made me feel I had to go there. Maybe there is something connected to the novel? Will I ever visit there? I do not know. For those who care, there was a town of Alessandro that was located at where March Air Force Base is now. It never really grew into anything, and then the Air Force took that area over. However, if you do research the history of the base you will encounter the Alessandro name at some point.

So, I hope you have gotten something out of my epic journey through the world of Ramona. If you are just seeing this then hopefully you will go back and view the series at some point. If there is something that represents cultural history of California then the book does it.

That is all I have to say about my Ramona series, but I will have some thoughts on some of the individual places I visited for this series as I review the highlights of everything I did for the blog as a whole this year in the next blog.

FIN

Ramona Mexican Food Products

At some point I will eventually come back and add a link to every entry in this particular blog, but for the time being all the videos can be found on either one of these links:

Ramona Epic Playlist (Youtube)

Ramona Epic Album (Vimeo)

Ramona Epic #39: Applause

The players come out for a round of applause:

Ramona Epic #39: Applause (Vimeo Version)

As you see in the video, the posse "captured" Farrar. So, the play is not a total downer in that regard. As I mentioned back in the blogs at the end of October and November, both the fictional Jim Farrar and the real historical Sam Temple were never brought to justice like this. Even though a casual viewer of the play might think that this capture represents a step toward justice it really should not be thought of in that way.

Ramona Epic #38: "Let Silence Reign"

Juan Canito gives the final narration as the play ends.

Ramona Epic #38: "Let Silence Reign" (Vimeo Version)

This blog and the next two are the wrap up blogs of the series.

Ramona Epic #37: Rancho Christmas (Festivities Cont.)

After thinking about it over the past few days, I decided to add a few more pictures of the rooms of the adobe in this blog as I wrap up my time at the Rancho Christmas. I am starting out with rooms near the main courtyard in the middle of the adobe structure, but then I get to the carriage courtyard.

The following picture is the horno. It is the oven that is connected to the bakery.
Now moving around to the other side you can see the bakery room and see how the horno connects to it.
The pantry is another room right next to the bakery. There are a series of other rooms that connect the kitchen to another pantry nearby. Some of those are shown in the previous R.E. #36 video.

Heading into the carriage courtyard one can find many people over here during this event. There were a few exhibits of different things on this side. Later during this day it started to get colder. There was a woman making tortillas. So, I waited in line to get mine. When she gave it to me it was hot, and at first I thought it would be a good thing to keep me warm. However, it was much hotter than my cold hands. So, I ended up playing "hot tortilla" with it until I ate it. It was very good!

In the carriage courtyard there is the blacksmith shop so I went into there. They have a museum of items in here.

On this day they had a few people actually show how a blacksmith would work here.

Overall, it was a fun and relaxing day going here. Very family oriented with lots of different activities going on. If you are ever around the San Diego area near the end of November then I would suggest going to Rancho Christmas at Rancho Guajome.

Ramona Epic #37: Rancho Christmas Festivities (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #37: Rancho Christmas Festivities (Vimeo Version)

If you would like to see the previous blog entries on Rancho Guajome from way back in R.E. #11 then go HERE. It goes along with what I did here because I show you more of the courtyards themselves rather than just the rooms like I did in the past few blog entries.

The previous part, R.E. #35, of the Rancho Christmas blogs covered some of the rooms if you did not see those then go HERE.

Feliz Navidad!

A little on the music for this video. The very end background song is called Laid Back Guitars by Incompetech and can be found HERE. The other thing I should mention is that all the other music you hear is nothing I added, but what was being played at the event. In fact, a lot of that I have no clue who or what the titles are for those.

Ramona Epic #37: Rancho Christmas (Festivities)

In the last two blog entries I noted that the adobe was decorated for this Christmas event. There was a Christmas tree and a person playing Christmas tunes inside. On the outsides of the adobe they had all sorts of things going on. I'll touch on a few of these in this blog and the next.

The first thing I did that morning is watch a local dancing studio have their kids dance to Christmas songs behind the chapel. When I say "kids" I am talking really young. Mostly elementary school level kids. I put a few snippets of this later in the video, but no need for pictures here about that.

Next a mother and son that are Luiseno Indians gave some traditional stories that came from their tribe. I took some video of that, but cut it out of the main video since it would have made this video way bigger than it is. If I am ever in the mood somewhere down the road after the series is over I might find a way to make a video that.

In the following picture you will notice a few things they were doing on this side of the rancho. If you look closely on the left side you will see a tractor getting ready to pull some people around. They were giving people rides in my direction and then behind me. I wanted to do this near the end of the day, but I ended up leaving before that. In the background right by the adobe, they had things like free popcorn being made and art for kids. Just to the left you can see how they fenced off the area for the horse riding.If I remember correctly this horse was in the process of being trained by this man.He was trying to motivate him to bow and other tricks. He ended up walking the horse around and then doing it in a faster pace. The video shows parts of this.This group of young ladies compete in competitions. They were riding back and forth by each other without touching.One of the horses a little closer.One of the other horses and rider close up.So, the horsemanship was enjoyable. This is probably the closest I would get to having vaquero culture in this series. One thing not seen here, but seen in the video is some of the guys do some rope tricks. They had one act as if she were a bull, and they roped her up.

I'll continue the festivities in the next blog going to the other side of the adobe to the carriage court where they had somethings going on over there. I'll also show a few more parts of the insides of the adobe from that side.

Ramona Epic #37: Rancho Christmas Festivities (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #37: Rancho Christmas Festivities (Vimeo Version)

Ramona Epic #36: Rancho Christmas (Inside the Adobe Cont.)

I'm continuing from last blog where I started to show some of the insides of the adobe during the Rancho Guajome Christmas event that takes place at the end of November. The purpose of this is not to show every single room they have because there are way too many, but to show a few of them.

Here is a child's room decorated with Feliz Navidad signs and symbols.
Another room to sleep in.This is the school room the kids would have been taught. The teachers desk is by the chalkboard, Christmas stockings over the fireplace, and a students desk. BTW, one of the math problems on one of those chalkboards was wrong. lol!One of the living rooms.This is where the paperwork and business was done.I am going to stop here with the rooms because it would take me another week or two to present every room in the adobe, and I do not feel the need to do that. The video does cover some of the other parts of the adobe like the dining room, the rooms food was prepared, etc. In #37 I will show some of the festivities they have during this event.

Ramona Epic #36: Rancho Christmas (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #36: Rancho Christmas (Vimeo Version)

If you want to see the previous blogs on Rancho Gaujome (R.E. #11) go HERE.

The music used in the background is called Laid Back Guitars by Incompetech.com and can be found HERE.

Ramona Epic #36: Rancho Christmas (Inside the Adobe)

The next couple of blogs are about my return to Rancho Guajome during their Rancho Christmas event. What dictates what number I am on in this series is the video I am on. Since the video I had for this one would have been too big I decided to split it up into two parts. This means that this blog and the next one will be dedicated to video #36 which covers some of the insides of the rancho. The two blogs about some of the festivities at the adobe will be in #37.

During the last time I presented this adobe I dealt with what you can see on the outside. This time I want to show you just some of how the insides of what the adobe looks like. There are many rooms at this adobe. It would take too many pictures and video footage to show them all. So, I will just show a few rooms and let it go at that.

Rancho Guajome is a California Historical Landmark, and the following is the CHL marker for it. In the previous blogs on this place I mentioned how the Cout's family were the ones who built the adobe here. For our purposes this adobe has been the chief rival of Camulos as far as being thought of as the "Home of Ramona". There was some thought that Helen Hunt Jackson visited this place, that it was an influence on the novel, people came here as a tourist spot because of the novel, etc. No one really knows though. You can click the following picture, make it bigger, and read if you want to.

That up there is the sewing room that was added much later. It is fun to go up there since you get an overlook of the area.What they do here is at the end of November they have a special family event called Rancho Christmas. The place is decorated for Christmas and they have a bunch of festivities here. When the weekend is done then the rancho is closed to guests for the next few months. In the above picture you can see the door entrance, and you can see the Christmas Tree below as you enter.Continuing past the tree, taking a left, going down the corridor, then turning around will get you to the next picture. Most of the rooms are decorated in some way. This following picture location I have shown before. It is decorated, there are people down the way, and there was a man playing Christmas songs on a piano/organ behind me. There were lots of people moving back and forth through this way. It only took me two takes to get the necessary video footage here which was pretty good considering the amount of people that had the potential to get in my way. When I went upstairs I had to delay moving where I wanted to because of the family up there. No big deal. So, I ended up cutting there, then I got footage that I decided to use at the beginning of the video. The following is a quick stich of two pictures just to give you an idea of what was going on outside at the time I was upstairs.

In the next blog I will show you some of the rooms they lived, slept, and did business in.

Ramona Epic #36: Rancho Christmas (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #36: Rancho Christmas (Vimeo Version)

Ramona Epic #35: Return to Camulos (Part 3)

For this final part I just wanted to show some of the insides of the rancho. I really didn't do that during my first time I presented this rancho many months back. This is the south veranda. In the tradition of our fictional world of Ramona a lot of the story took place here. Ramona's room is on the other side, but the priest's quarters would have been behind me. I moved around rather quickly in the video because of the people near by, but you do get to see all of this.

If you were able to do down the stairs in front of the picture above and turn left, then you would be able to see this furnace as you open the door. This is not from that perspective because I came to this a different way, but it is what is down there.Turning around from the above I was in the living room.
This is further north of the adobe. The Cocina (kitchen) consisted of three rooms. My memory is a little weak here, but it seems to me they washed clothes in one of the rooms here. Looking at the walls. Again, my memory is weak here, but I think there was some oven connected that would have lead any smoke up this opening and then outside.The Northride quake of 1994 did serious damage to much of Rancho Camulos. I have seen pictures of how badly it was damaged here. There have been serious repairs to this place, but they did do the repairs with adobe materials to keep with how it was originally made.

The video shows a lot more of what is around these areas. I put it together a month or two ago and cut out a lot of things in the editing. As I watched it recently there were a couple of parts I think I could have fine-tuned a little better. In any case, it should give you an idea of a small part of what you might see at the Ramona Days.

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Vimeo Version)

A few links:

My original Rancho Camulos Blogs.

Ramona Days at the official Rancho Camulos site.

Santa Clarita Valley in Pictures. This links to some of the old pictures of the place.

The background music used in the video is called Modern Jazz Samba taken from Incompetech.com and can be found HERE.

Ramona Epic #35: Return to Camulos (Part 2)

In the previous post I showed how they reenact parts of the play. This is a continuation of that, but do you see the window on the far right?This window became part of the Ramona tradition in that it is now considered where her room was.Peeking into the window.Where she would have slept in the fictional world. There is an old anecdote that says that some uninvited tourist came into the house and laid down on the bed claiming something like, "I am at where Ramona slept." Some of the dancers that perform at the play showed up to do a few dances.I have one more blog on this place that shows some more of the insides of the adobe.

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Vimeo Version)

Ramona Epic #35: Return to Camulos (Part 1)

Earlier in the series I presented my original trip to Rancho Camulos. After that original trip I came back during their annual Ramona Days event that takes place at the beginning of November. They celebrate the rancho as the "Home of Ramona". Everything from people portraying characters fictional and real, vignettes of the play, viewings of the 1910 film, tours of the rancho, Ramona experts give talks, dancing, food, venders, etc. Since I think I did an okay job of covering the rancho last time I just want to give you an idea of what it is like being there during this celebration.

The day I went the weather conditions were not as good as I would have liked. The sun was out, but there was some wind and clouds in the air. It was just a time of the year that I did not like the lighting I was getting from the sun. The following picture is actually later in the day right before I left.I came in and parked. At that moment there was a tracktor set up to take people from the parking lot in to where you can get tickets to go in. It was a nice ride in and I got to see other parts of the rancho that I had not seen before.

The interesting thing is I heard a man talking about the filming locations of the 1910 film with other people I was riding in with. I was actually kind of shocked to hear someone talking about that. I was thinking, "There are people here that are really into that?"The guy that is cut off to the left is the one who talking about that. I did not know it at the time, but that is Hugh Munro Neely. He is a filmmaker and is on staff at The Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education. He gave a great introduction to the screening(s) of the 1910 film. When I finally heard him speak I then realized, "Okay, that makes sense". See, even though I talk about film locations all the time, I realize that this is something that most people in the everyday world have very little interest in.
This is the restored carriage from the Del Valle family. There was a "Mr. and Mrs. Del Valle" around talking about the past. I talked to "Mr. Del Valle" briefly.
Of course, the water fountain and the chapel. You will notice the venders were all out there selling a variety of things.
Another look at the fountain and chapel.
As I mentioned, parts of the play are shown. This is a scene with Felipe and the Senora. The guy playing Felipe is Dennis Anderson who actually played this role in the 1970's. He is the artistic director for the play these days. In the real world, he is married to the woman you see, Kathi Anderson, who does play the Senora in the play. I'll continue this in the next blog.

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #35: Ramona Days at Rancho Camulos (Vimeo Version)

Ramona Epic #34: Exodus From the Rancho

As we wind this series down I have a few parts on how the play ends and a few events I want to cover that I will list below. If all goes right then I should be done with the "essential canon" of the series by the very end of the month.

When we left off of the play Alessandro had just been murdered. Right after that scene the play shifts back to the Rancho when sometime later Felipe reveals that he has received a letter from Ramona.

Ramona Epic #34: Exodus From the Rancho (Vimeo Version)

In the book Felipe has a much more heroic role. The book spends a lot more time showing how he spent much of time, since Ramona and Alessandro left the rancho, trying to figure out where they were to help them. At one point he is misled by someone who knows where they are at because of the fear he will do the wrong thing. When he attempts to find them again he does finally find Ramona after Alessandro is murdered. He takes her home with him. Realizing they can no longer live in California with the political situation the way it is for Californos, they head to Mexico. They are married and have other kids, but the book ends by noting that Ramona's (and Alessandro's) child that is still living at the end of the book was the most beautiful and most loved. The name of Ramona daughter...Ramona.

I split the ending up here, and that might seem a little silly. There is a final narration coming that sums it all up. The reason I did that is I want to take this time to go back and explore the two ranchos that I covered earlier on in this series. Each has a special weekend each year that I went back and visited on. So, the following blogs will cover both those events.

Ramona Epic #33: R.I.P. Ramona and Juan "Alessandro" Diego

This is the conclusion of this little "mini-series within the series" of blogs dealing with my time near Cahuilla Mt.

Let me preface this one by saying that I am going to be a little more sensative in how I present this than normal. I am not posting any GPS coords, nor any directions how to get to where I was. Although one could probably figure things out just by what I have said previously and what I will say now.

I could probably do everything as normal, but I want to be a little more respectful on this one...I hope anyone reading this blog realizes I try to be respectful everywhere I go. Technically speaking, the graves I visited are on reservation land which can be considered trespassing. On the other hand, the cemetery is literally right next to a casino that anyone can visit (yes, they want you to!) even though it too is on reservation land.

In doing my homework for this one I read a few books and articles. I then corresponded and talked to a few people about this. The main rule I found out is no drugs or alcohol in the cemetery. Other than that, I just used common sense and did not do anything stupid.

Let me also add there are other pictures I have seen of these gravesites on the web. In fact, some are better than mine because I went during the time of the year when the weeds were really growing. Also, I have been told, and read, that in the past Ramona Pageant people have come here and have acted out parts for groups of people. So, it is not like I am the first one to discover these gravesites, or done anything online about them since others have.

Without that out of the way...

The two grave markers in front of me are the gravesites for Ramona Lubo and Juan Diego. Of course, Juan's history was mentioned in Ramona Epic #31.In the above picture is the marker for Ramona Lubo. She was the wife of Juan, witnessed his murder, lived in that same area I was at for #31, then came down here, and lived out her life not too far from the cemetery.

Now below is the grave marker for Juan Diego. These markers were put in long after their deaths by people obviously influenced by the Ramona book or pageant.

Most pictures I have seen of these graves are always clean with no weeds, but forgetting about all the weeds growing nearby you can tell these graves are visited often by the items that are left for them.The woman we know as Ramona Lubo was probably not born with the name of Ramona. Helen Hunt Jackson commented as if it were a major coincidence, but more than likely the woman was given the Ramona name after the popularity of the novel.

The sad truth of the matter is she lived in poverty, and reporters would come to visit her thinking of the images they got from reading the romanticed story of Ms. Jackson's book only to be shocked by this woman's appearance. She was old and not the most attractive woman in their eyes to say the list.

Ramona Lubo was able to take advantage of her fame based on the novel by making some money from the people that would visit her. For example, some postcards were made with her. There is one I have seen that has her look as if she is crying near her husbands gravesite. The Ramona Memories book by Dydia DeLyser covers some more about her in her chapter on who the "real" Ramonas.

So is this the real Ramona? Well, Helen Hunt Jackson knew about this woman since she used the murder event of Juan Diego as the basis for her fictional murder of Alessandro. Other than that, there really isn't anything else known about Ramona Lubo that would connect her to the main character of the novel. However, with that said, she can probably be identified with the main character more than anyone else just based on that historical incident.

There are a bunch of women that have been considered candidates that came from a lot of the places I have been to in this series. More than likely, the main character is a composite of many people Ms. Jackson met, or just an ideal she came up with. At the end of the day it does not matter.

As for me, this was a fun one to come to. Ironically, it was almost one of the first things I did for the series. This one goes way back before I started really thinking about putting something like this series together. At the time I was just thinking of doing this and hiking to the areas I mentioned in the parts #31 and #32. That was all I intended to present. So, I guess you could say this was really what triggered the series. Had I not been here I probably would not have done this whole series.

As I remember from that day, I was only there for about five minutes. I got there, found the graves, took a few pictures, and I was off again. We drove by the cemetery again on the way to the hikes near Mt. Cahuilla.

When I come back to this series in December I will be putting the final touches on my official canon for the series. We are coming to the end, but I still have a bunch of things I need to cover on this one before the year ends.

Ramona Epic #33: R.I.P. Ramona and Juan "Alessandro" Diego (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #33: R.I.P. Ramona and Juan "Alessanero" Diego (Vimeo Version)

The short section at the end samples Wounded by Incompetech.

Ramona Epic #32: Cahuilla Mountain (Part 3)

(GPS: N33 34.425 W116 46.970)

Continuing along the trail, it got easy at this point.After a split in the trail that is supposed to take you to a spring which I did not go far enough to see, I continued up the final part of the trail as it started to elevate.The summit box to write my signature.The views were blocked by trees in some of the directions. Another reason this did not feel like a mountain climb, but I did get to see some of the main areas I was after.
looking down to the southeast.
Zooming in. We drove by this earlier in the morning to get to the trailhead.We shall be near there in #33 of this series.

This ends the mountain hike. While not a major one, it was a good relaxing one that I enjoyed doing.

Ramona Epic #32: Cahuilla Mountain (Youtube Version)

Ramona Epic #33: Cahuilla Mountain (Vimeo Version)

The background music for this one is called Lightless Dawn from Incompetech.com.