The main road link between Moreno Valley and Riverside is the long and wide Alessandro Boulevard, which ascends from Riverside in a constant slope toward Moreno Valley. Thousands of cars travel it every day.
So, what of Alessandro?
The name Alessandro is simply the Italian version of Alexander. Curiously, the Italian version was used instead of the Spanish version in the popular novel “Ramona” that gave rise to a Hispanic revival of sorts here in Southern California.
“Ramona” was written in 1884 by Helen Hunt Jackson as a means of drawing attention to the plight of the Native Americans in Southern California, who had not fared well under Spanish, Mexican, or American rule. The story is about a young girl named Ramona who falls in love and marries a Native American sheep shearer named – you guessed it – Alessandro.
Why Alessandro instead of Alejandro? Probably because Jackson’s audience was predominantly located in the eastern United States, where Spanish was rare. There probably would have been thousands of people calling him Ale-JAN-dro instead of Ale-HAN-dro, and Jackson wanted to avoid that.
Regardless, over the years, the popularity of “Ramona” established a wave of romanticism that swept Southern California, resulting in many places, streets, buildings, and the like being named for its characters.
In the 1880s, a conglomerate of developers tried to establish a town called Alessandro about where Alessandro Boulevard meets the 215 Freeway. That didn’t take off, but in 1890, another group, the newly-formed Bear Valley and Alessandro Development Company, sought to bring water from today’s Big Bear Lake to lands east of Riverside. That company subdivided over 20,000 acres of land in what is today Moreno Valley, but back then was termed Alessandro Valley, named for the hero of the novel. They established (or re-established) a town of Alessandro. The main east-west street in the center of the large subdivision was named Alessandro, with streets in alphabetical order heading north being named for trees, and south for other plants.
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For several years, Alessandro Boulevard became the main east-west link through Moreno Valley, its eastern end connecting to Gilman Springs Road as it does today, and its western terminus about where the 215 Freeway lies today. Beginning in the 1950s, the city and county of Riverside were looking to extend Alessandro Boulevard west to meet with an extension of Riverside’s Central Avenue. That occurred, and became the configuration we know today, with Alessandro ending at Central Avenue in Riverside.
When one drives Alessandro Boulevard now, there is little to remind us about its origins in Southern California’s romantic Ramona myth.
If you have an idea for a future Back in the Day column about a local historic person, place or event, contact Steve Lech and Kim Jarrell Johnson at backinthedaype@gmail.com.
