I got kicked out of the house in High School in Ramona, California and got sent to live with my white uncle Billy Bob in Dallas, Texas, a culture shock of Anglo-Texanism. There I dreamed about going back to SoCal and my Chicano family. My grandmother's last words to me were about staying Mexican American, our indigenous Soboba Luiseño heritage nearly a secret. She would take me to the California Missions where our ancestors lived and died and tell me to never let the gringos call you a foreigner; they are. Our family history is about the invasion and our dregs of lost ranch land and disavowal of our native blood. California's story was taken away, whitewashed as Spanish and told as hype around the novel Ramona.
The Ramona Diary of SRD is about reclaiming this story.
This novel is a modern Ramona Diary, the record tourists kept of the sites of Old California and the book Ramona and Hollywood movies that renamed and transformed them. A mix of fantasy and memoir, the author SRD’s Ramona Diary tour turns surreal as he enters the myth of the Californios with the talking head of the Chicano folk hero Joaquin Murrieta. They race a self-styled Zorro to get the spurious “Jewels of Ramona” while the media is convinced SRD and Joaquin are the serial killer dubbed Two Heads. Ultimately, SRD records his truth and recreates a mental America, a dream where he may exist.
The Ramona Diary of SRD is about reclaiming this story.
This novel is a modern Ramona Diary, the record tourists kept of the sites of Old California and the book Ramona and Hollywood movies that renamed and transformed them. A mix of fantasy and memoir, the author SRD’s Ramona Diary tour turns surreal as he enters the myth of the Californios with the talking head of the Chicano folk hero Joaquin Murrieta. They race a self-styled Zorro to get the spurious “Jewels of Ramona” while the media is convinced SRD and Joaquin are the serial killer dubbed Two Heads. Ultimately, SRD records his truth and recreates a mental America, a dream where he may exist.
Check out chapters published online:
"The Head Joaquin" at Label Me Latina/o
"M'ijo Don't Dance With No White Devil" at Pithead Chapel
"Wrath of Mom" at Diagram
"My Heart is Bathed in Chilis" at Somos enescrito
Blog post on Ramona and "Spanish California"
"Ramona: Why California Looks Like Taco Bell."
Check out the Editor's Note and the First Chapter:
"The Head Joaquin" at Label Me Latina/o
"M'ijo Don't Dance With No White Devil" at Pithead Chapel
"Wrath of Mom" at Diagram
"My Heart is Bathed in Chilis" at Somos enescrito
Blog post on Ramona and "Spanish California"
"Ramona: Why California Looks Like Taco Bell."
Check out the Editor's Note and the First Chapter:
