Aug 30 10
Touring through literature: the sites of Ramona
In Helen Maria Hunt Jackson’s novel Ramona, she dramatized the life of a Scottish-Native American girl growing up in Southern California. The book was designed to illustrate the prejudices Native Americans faced in America in the late 19th century, but it also brought many Americans their first vision of the Mexican colonial life of Old Town. Several sites from the town are featured in the book, all of which are now National Historic Landmarks. If you’re interested in seeing the same sights that inspired this early activist work, read on.Casa de Estudillo: Although never mentioned by name in the novel, the Estudillo House is known as the marriage-place of the main character, Ramona. Constructed in 1827 by the father-and-son team of Jose Maria Estudillo and Jose Antonio Estudillo, the house once epitomized the glamour of early San Diego life. The house was restored in 1968, and today visitors can see replicas of the luxurious beds and dining areas that the Estudillos themselves would have enjoyed. (more…)