Ramona

"If I could write a story that would do for the Indian a thousandth part of whatUncle Tom's Cabindid for the Negro," wrote Helen Hunt Jackson, "I would be thankful the rest of my life." Jackson surpassed this ambition with the publication ofRamona, her popular 1884 romantic bestseller. A beautiful half Native American, half-Scottish orphan raised by a harsh Mexicanranchera, Ramona enters into a forbidden love affair with a heroic Mission Indian named Alessandro. The pair's adventures after they elope paint a vivid portrait of California history and the woeful fate of Native Americans and Mexicans whose lands and rights were stripped as Anglo-Americans overran southern California. Set from the first American edition of 1884, this Modern Library Paperback Classic includes Jose Marti's 1888 prologue (translated from the Spanish by Esther Allen).

Denise Chávez, a prolific playwright, poet, and novelist, is the author of Loving Pedro Infante, Face of an Angel, and The Last of the Menu Girls. She lives in New Mexico.