How it got its name...

Alessandro, a fictional character in Helen Hunt Jackson’s Ramona, is the noble and resilient son of Pablo Assís, chief of his tribe, and the leader of the Native American sheep shearers. Described as tall, wise, honest, and devoutly Catholic, Alessandro quickly falls in love with Ramona and chooses to stay at the Rancho. The novel follows their journey as they elope, have a daughter, and struggle to find a safe place to call home. In the wake of war and the expanding wave of European-American settlement, Alessandro’s tribe is forcibly removed from their land. Time and again, settlers drive them from their homes, taking not only their land but also their tools and means of survival. Their hardships intensify until Alessandro meets a tragic end when he is murdered. His story, though fictional, mirrors the harsh realities faced by Indigenous people in California during that era, making Ramona a powerful and poignant historical narrative.