Ysabel del Valle

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).

Ysabel del Valle in her later years, from a 1903 publication.
(Ysabel del Valle with child) (12911447415)

Early life

Maria Eufemia Ysabel Varela was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Cerval Varela and Ascencion A. de Varela.

Marriage and charity work

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
"Home of Ramona brand" label for Rancho Camulos products

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
  1. Margie Brown-Coronel, "Creating home, creating legacies: how the Del Valles built Camulos" O Say Can You See?" blog (February 19, 2018).
  2. "Coming to the Aid of Orphans: Ysabel Varela del Valle" California Historical Society blog (September 19, 2017).
  3. 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
  4. "Rancho Camulos, Piru, California" National Park Service.
  5. Evie Ybarra, Legendary Locals of Fillmore (Arcadia Publishing 2015): 13. ISBN 9781439651827
  6. Carlyle C. Davis, "Ramona: The Real and the Ideal" Out West (December 1903): 583-588.
  7. Major W. H. Patton, "A Feast at the Home of Ramona" The Golden West (May 1, 1921): 5.
  8. "What's the Big Deal about Ramona?" The Signal (June 1, 2007): 41. via Newspapers.com
  9. "Mistress at Camulos Dead" San Francisco Chronicle (March 30, 1905): 4. via Newspapers.com
  10. "Lucretia Grady, Democratic Party Aide; Twice Seconded FDR Nominations" The Washington Post, Times Herald (May 25, 1972): B6. via ProQuest
  11. Del Valle Family Papers, 1818-1920, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
  12. Reginaldo del Valle Papers, California Historical Society Digital Library.
  13. Photograph Album from Charles F. Lummis to Susanita Del Valle, Huntington Library.
  14. "The Del Valle Vestments: The Devotion and Performance of a Matriarchy" William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University (February to May 2016).
  15. Leon Worden, "The Del Valle Vestments: Relics of old SCV on Display at LMU" SCVTV (February 7, 2016).
  • Ysabel del Valle at Find a Grave
  • 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.
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