Ramona Pageant Returns to the Rocks
HEMET, CALIF. — Do you recognize the famous actress in the left photo, born in 1940? She played Ramona at the annual California pageant that’s celebrating 91 years in 2014. She went by the name “Raquel Tejada”. If you guessed Raquel Welsh shown in the photo from 1959 when she was 19 years-old, you’d be correct. She was one of many leading ladies who have taken the role of Ramona, based on the novel by Helen Hunt Jackson.
The setting is appropriately Southern California after the Mexican-American War. A mixed-race Scots–Native American orphan girl, Ramona, suffers racial discrimination and hardship mixed with love’s pain throughout her youth and adult years. The story unfolds in an authentic setting complete with the rocky, rugged hills, live horses, and an outdoor theater that makes the show so powerful and special. As California heads into summer and theater troupes plan their outdoor Shakespeare season, Ramona Pageant is the closest to heart & home for many who consider California’s storied past still relevent today. See more>
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