Ramona

Ramona is an epic love story. But it’s also a tale of prejudice, treachery, and the systemic effort to vanquish California’s Native American population and their way of life. Ramona Ortegna, the foster child of Señora Moreno, is much loved by all who live and work at the Moreno ranch, except Señora herself, who cannot bring herself to think of the girl as anything but a mixed-blood child. Half white, half Indian, Ramona had been adopted by the Senora’s sister who then entrusted the child to her upon her death. Already embittered by the loss to the Americans of much of her southern California land as the result of the 1846 Mexican-American War, the pious old woman is also distraught by the near destruction of California’s Catholic missions. When a visiting Indian sheep shearer, Alessandro Assis, falls in love with Ramona and she with him, the two are forbidden to marry; the Senora’s plan is to give Ramona to the Church. The lovers have no choice but to flee and find a safe place to shel