Ronstadt stays true to musical heritage
Mexican American singer remembers sounds of youth in new documentary
“Linda and the Mockingbirds” is available on video on demand beginning Tuesday, Oct. 20. www. lindaand themockingbirds. com For The Chronicle’s review of “Linda and the Mockingbirds,” go to datebook. sfchronicle. com.
Linda Ronstadt considers herself a “secret” Mexican American.
“Because I’m lightskinned and I have a German surname, people don’t realize that is my background,” the 75yearold singer recently told The Chronicle, calling from her home in San Francisco’s Sea Cliff neighborhood. But there have been some clues. The 10time Grammy winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer who, since the mid1960s, has performed everything from folkrock and country to light opera, jazz and pop, had tremendous success with her run of albums devoted to traditional mariachi music.
From 1987’ s “Canciones de Mi Padre” (“Songs of My Father”) and 1991’ s “Más Canciones” (“More Songs”), through 1992’ s “Frenesí” (“Frenzy”) and 2004’ s “Mi Jardín Azul” (“My Blue Garden”), Ronstadt has recorded some of the bestselling nonEnglish albums in the U. S.
Earlier this month, the singer, who stopped performing in public after a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in 2012, was also recognized as a “Legend” at the 33rd annual Hispanic Heritage Awards.
Ronstadt delves deeper into her heritage in a new documentary, “Linda and the Mockingbirds.” Directed by James Keach, who was also behind the lens for last year’s “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice” ( available to stream on HBO Max), the film chronicles her 2019 trip to Mexico with the students of Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, the grassroots Bay Area organization devoted to preserving Mexican culture.
“It came about purely by accident,” Ronstadt said of the film. “I was taking a trip to Mexico with 30 kids from the ages 6 to 19 who are with this cultural group, and these other people wanted to make a documentary about me. I said, ‘ If you want to interview me, you have to come to Mexico.’”
That is how Keach ended up with his unintentional followup to “The Sound of My Voice.”
“She was very kind about it,” the director said. “She said, ‘ I don’t want to do a typical talking head. We’re going down to Mexico, and we would love it if you filmed.’ I had no choice. We needed to have her in the movie. Little did I know a film would come out of it.”
The documentary fits into Ronstadt’s lifelong mission of putting the spotlight on the music she grew up with along the border in the Sonoran Desert. A native of Tucson, she recalls her family singing the traditional canciones passed down by her grandfather Federico, a guitarist and vocalist who was born in Sonora, Mexico, in 1868 to a German father and a Mexican mother.
“I grew up listening to it and loved it,” Ronstadt said. “I heard Mexican radio my whole life.”
She said that her singing style was shaped by the music she grew up with, even on her 1970s and ’ 80s pop hits such as “Blue Bayou,” “When Will I Be Loved” and “You’re No Good.”
“Linda and the Mockingbirds” follows Ronstadt, Los Cenzontles and friend Jackson Browne on a bus ride from the Bay Area to Mexico, where the students visit the small town of Banámichi, where Ronstadt’s grandfather grew up.
She has been working with the organization cofounded by Eugene Rodriguez since the early ’ 90s when she discovered a few of its students performing outside the Palace of Fine Arts.
“I met them on the street,” Ronstadt said. “They had the wooden box with the wooden heels, and they were playing the music with the traditional instruments. They were doing it all right. I know when people are playing it wrong — I call it Dorito music. But they were doing it right, and they were trying to raise enough money to travel to Mexico to study with the masters.”
She has supported the cause ever since, bringing friends like Browne and Los Lobos on board.
“Sometimes I have to remind myself she is not just my friend but she is also this amazing icon,” said Rodriguez.
The film not only celebrates the music, but it also touches on immigration, demographic shifts and the brutal politics at play that cause family separation and the holding of children in cages.
“That was a motivator in a really big way, to tell the story and for me to understand what these people had actually gone through to get to America,” Keach said. “People who look like me and have never been in a Mexican household are going to identify with this. They’re going to think, ‘ Wow, they are just like us.'”
Ronstadt has largely stayed at home since the coronavirus outbreak, reading and painting. (“I can be comfortable at home,” she said. “I have a cat and a garden.”) She has also kept a wary eye on the American political landscape, disheartened by the discrimination against immigrants and people of color playing out at a national level.
She hopes the film in some ways opens up the discussion.
“It is Linda’s magic at work,” Rodriguez said.