Ysabel del Valle
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Ysabel del Valle (March 21, 1837 – March 28, 1905) was a philanthropist and rancho owner, and the matriarch of a large Californio family. She was a model for the rancho matron character "Señora Moreno" in Helen Hunt Jackson's novel Ramona (1884).
Early life[edit]
Maria Eufemia Ysabel Varela was born in Los Angeles, California, Mexico, the daughter of Cerval Varela and Ascencion A. de Varela.
Marriage and charity work[edit]
Ysabel Varela became the second wife of alcalde Ygnacio del Valle in 1851 when she was 15 years old and he was 44.[1] She was known to care for homeless children in Los Angeles, seeing to their food and health needs.[2] She provided quarters for the Daughters of Charity religious order, raised money for them, and donated almond trees for their orphanage.[3] She built and maintained a Roman Catholic chapel on the del Valles' Rancho Camulos[4] in the Santa Clarita Valley; the chapel was called "the Lost Mission" because it became a stop for mission tourists and traveling priests.[5]
Ygnacio died in 1880; Ysabel ran the rancho for twenty years as a widow, with help from three of her children.[5] Her mother lived with her at Rancho Camulos, until 1899. Ysabel del Valle was a known model for the rancho matron character "Señora Moreno" in the popular 1884 novel Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson; the author visited Rancho Camulos in her research for the book.[6][7][8]
Death and legacy[edit]
Ysabel del Valle died in 1905, aged 68 years, at her daughter's home in Los Angeles.[9] Her gravesite is in Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles. One of her sons, Reginaldo Francisco del Valle, became a California state senator. One of her granddaughters, Lucretia del Valle Grady, was a Democratic party official and a diplomat's wife.[10]
The del Valle Family Papers were donated to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County by Josefa del Valle Forster, Ysabel's daughter.[11] There are photographs of her and her children in the Reginaldo del Valle Papers at the California Historical Society.[12] A photograph album of the del Valle family at Rancho Camulos, assembled by Charles Fletcher Lummis, is in the collection of the Huntington Library.[13] Other items of the family's history are in the Rancho Camulos Museum in Piru, California.
A 2016 exhibit at the library of Loyola Marymount University focused Ysabel del Valle's religious devotion, including objects from the chapel at Rancho Camulos.[14][15] Her story was one of eleven biographies included in "History Keepers", a 2017 California Historical Society exhibit at El Tranquilo Gallery on Olvera Street in Los Angeles.[2]
References[edit]
- ^ Margie Brown-Coronel, "Creating home, creating legacies: how the Del Valles built Camulos" O Say Can You See? blog (February 19, 2018).
- ^ a b "Coming to the Aid of Orphans: Ysabel Varela del Valle" California Historical Society blog (September 19, 2017).
- ^ Kristine Ashton Gunnell, "The Daughters of Charity as Cultural Intermediaries: Women, Religion, and Race in Early Twentieth-Century Los Angeles" in David J. Endres, ed., Remapping the History of Catholicism in the United States (CUA Press 2017): 103, note 20. ISBN 9780813229690
- ^ "Rancho Camulos, Piru, California" National Park Service.
- ^ a b Evie Ybarra, Legendary Locals of Fillmore (Arcadia Publishing 2015): 13. ISBN 9781439651827
- ^ Carlyle C. Davis, "Ramona: The Real and the Ideal" Out West (December 1903): 583-588.
- ^ Major W. H. Patton, "A Feast at the Home of Ramona" The Golden West (May 1, 1921): 5.
- ^ "What's the Big Deal about Ramona?" The Signal (June 1, 2007): 41. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Mistress at Camulos Dead" San Francisco Chronicle (March 30, 1905): 4. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Lucretia Grady, Democratic Party Aide; Twice Seconded FDR Nominations" The Washington Post and Times-Herald (May 25, 1972): B6. via ProQuest
- ^ Del Valle Family Papers, 1818-1920, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
- ^ Reginaldo del Valle Papers, California Historical Society Digital Library.
- ^ Photograph Album from Charles F. Lummis to Susanita Del Valle, Huntington Library.
- ^ "The Del Valle Vestments: The Devotion and Performance of a Matriarchy" William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University (February to May 2016).
- ^ Leon Worden, "The Del Valle Vestments: Relics of old SCV on Display at LMU" SCVTV (February 7, 2016).
External links[edit]
- Margie Brown-Coronel, "Beyond the Rancho: Four Generations of Del Valle Women in Southern California" (doctoral dissertation, University of California at Irvine, 2011).
- Casa Del Rancho Camulos, State Highway 12 (5164 East Telegraph Road), Piru, Ventura County, CA Drawings from Survey HABS CA-38, Library of Congress.