|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 11:45:23 GMT
Gilbert “Gib” Ronstadt, Class of 1928 Businessman, Community Service www.badgerfoundation.org/gilbert-ronstadt/
“Canciones de mi Padre” a June 21, 1995 editorial in the Arizona Daily Star, pays tribute to Gilbert Ronstadt and his underlying influence on the Tucson community. The editorial is “soft-spoken”, as was the man whom it praises.
“Gilbert Ronstadt, who died in Tucson this weekend (June 17, 1995), was known to most people as the father of singer Linda Ronstadt. Some may also have known him as the inspiration of her highly acclaimed Spanish-language album, Canciones de mi Padre. “They knew only a fraction of the story. “To Tucsonans, Gilbert Ronstadt was more than a father to superstar Linda and former police chief Peter; he was, in many ways, a father to Tucson itself.
“Gilbert Ronstadt was born a decade into the 20th century, on June 1, 1911. Arizona had yet to become a state; Congress Street was a dusty road through the middle of tiny downtown. When he died, some 84 years later, Tucson would be a vibrant, growing and eminently livable city – due in no small part to him.
“As a young man, Ronstadt entertained Tucsonans with his beautiful voice, singing on both the radio and on nightclub and theater stages around town. Friends said he could have been a professional, but family responsibilities – including carrying on the family hardware business – came first.
“Ronstadt could not abandon his love of things musical, however, and when he started his own family, he made sure to pass on that love of music to his children. He filled their home with mariachi music, and encouraged the family to sing together. (Gilbert’s two other children—Gretchen (Suzy) Jacome and Michael, are equally musical!)
“Fortunately, Ronstadt could not abandon his love for his hometown, either. After serving in World War II, he returned to focus on the needs of this rapidly growing city. He founded one of its first neighborhood associations, and stressed the need to preserve Tucson’s rich cultural heritage.
“He helped improve city services, getting dirt roads paved, and chairing the group that established Tucson’s first sewage system. “He led efforts to restore and revitalize downtown, and served on numerous civic boards, including those of the Chamber of Commerce, the Tucson Trade Bureau and the Arizona Historical Society. He worked to preserve Spanish missions on both sides of the US-Mexican border, and decades before NAFTA, he helped establish trade ties between Tucson and Mexico.
“Always described as a quiet, unassuming man, Gilbert Ronstadt was content to stand outside the spotlight that shone on other members of his family. But in Tucson, his good works and love of community—like the mariachi classics he helped reintroduce to the world through his famous daughter—live on.”
In 1990 the Tucson Chamber of Commerce added a new award to its annual Man and Woman of the Year awards ceremony. That award, the Founders’ Award—for his long-term community service—went to Gilbert Ronstadt.GILBERT RONSTADT 1911-1995"I contacted Gilbert Ronstadt because I wanted to meet Linda’s father, but what I discovered was a rare intellect who had led one of the most fascinating lives of anyone I wrote about in these pages. He spent every Wednesday with me one summer sharing his stories. They were the best days of my writing career." Daniel Buckley
MEMORIES…of music and more by Daniel Buckley on Oct. 26, 1994, under Living NOTE: TWO PHOTOS/SIDEBAR/PHOTO MUG: Linda Ronstadt
Community leader Gilbert Ronstadt has led a colorful life in his 83 years here.
Memories surround Gilbert Ronstadt.
He still lives in the home he built in 1938, a home with 14-inch thick walls of adobe made with mud from his front yard. The ceiling is fashioned of pine he bought for 10 cents a log from his neighbor, artist Maynard Dixon. Within this home lie the things Ronstadt cherishes most. There are photos of his family – his wife, Ruthmary, who died in 1982, and children: Peter (Tucson’s former police chief), Suzy (Jacome), Michael and singing star Linda Ronstadt.
In the busiest room, the family room, hangs a gold record of Linda’s “Canciones de mi Padre.’ Gilbert, 83, is the proud padre who inspired the collection of mariachi music, which has fueled a resurgence in its popularity.
In another room hangs a poster of the art used on the cover of the album. Also hanging there are several of his watercolors. Many of those were featured in her “Mas Canciones’ album.
Next to the framed record hangs a charro hat given to him by Luis Donaldo Colosio, the Mexican presidential candidate assassinated earlier this year whom Ronstadt had befriended. A serape lies on the couch. It was given to Ronstadt at the 1994 Tucson International Mariachi Conference by the great Mexican songstress Lola Beltran.
“That was a big surprise,’ Ronstadt laughed. “I thought I was going to be very nonchalant and toss it over my shoulder. It landed on my head.’
It’s a warm, comfortable home, where the quiet is broken by the laughter of grandchildren, the crowing of a rooster, the singing of birds.
Memories swim through Ronstadt’s head, as well. He recalls hitching a ride to school on the buckboard of a horse-drawn dump cart. He remembers Civil War veterans marching in parades when he was a child.
He remembers watching the movie serials spilling off the narrow screen and across the stairway to the balcony of a long-gone theater. And he remembers taking the 50 cents his mother gave him and his brother for a haircut, going to a half-price barber shop, and using the rest for movies and ice cream. “We came back looking like peeled radishes’ he laughs.
Ronstadt’s father was Federico Ronstadt, who moved to Tucson from Sonora, Mexico, in 1882. He started Ronstadt Hardware Company, which sold anything that was considered hardware – from cars to tools.
Ronstadt recalls the days when he and his father would take a rifle with them on business trips and shoot their lunch. And he remembers when the six-guns he and his brothers wore on their hips convinced the doorman at the plush Santa Rita Hotel they needn’t wear neckties to enter.
He remembers being caught by his mother at 1:30 a.m. as he and his brother excitedly listened over headphones to a radio set his brother had built.
“She was ready to give us hell for not going to sleep, so we put a pair of earphones on her,’ he said. “There was a guy playing the piano in Chicago and she was entranced. I don’t think we got to sleep until 5 a.m.’
He recalls writing a check for a hotel bill in Mexico on a piece of wrapping paper – and having it cashed. And he remembers the Great Depression when, working as a bill collector for his father, whose company was in receivership, he found that everyone was in the same boat.
There are ugly memories, too, such as the Ku Klux Klan taking the collection at the Baptist church across from the Sixth Avenue house he grew up in, and prejudices against Native Americans.
In one instance, one of his father’s employees reported incredulously that an Indian wanted to buy a Buick. “Sell him anything he wants,’ his father replied to the stunned salesman. He did, and he was paid several thousand dollars in cash, from a small satchel.
Music has had a big part in Ronstadt’s life. His father, who played the flute and a little guitar and piano, formed Tucson’s first civic orchestra, the Club Filarmónico before the turn of the century. The group had disbanded by the time of Gilbert’s birth, but his father was still active musically, playing flute with two violinists and a banjo player.
“Music in those days was mostly something you made up at home or listened to on phonograph records,’ Ronstadt recalled. “Music was in every backyard in the summer time, and in the winter, too, because it provided entertainment for family and friends. Where else did you go?’
His older sister, Luisa Espinel cq, was a renowned singer of operetta and Spanish folk music. Her recitals attracted international audiences.
“She was probably 50 years ahead of her time,’ Ronstadt said. “What she did was the type of intimate expression that could work so well with television.’
Espinel has another family distinction. She put together and published a collection of Spanish folk songs, titled “Canciones de mi Padre,’ a title later borrowed by her niece.
Music became especially important to Ronstadt as he entered the University of Arizona in the late 1920s and started serenading sorority girls.
“My ploy was to sing to the young ladies, and it worked,’ he said. “It was much quicker than dancing. I made much more progress that way, and it was cheaper, too.’
Ronstadt’s voice got him a job singing with a megaphone at the Rialto Theater. Soon after, he had a half-hour show of his own on KGAR radio singing sentimental favorites such as “Among My Souvenirs,’ “I’ll Always Be in Love with You’ and “All Alone.’
He remembers people calling in requests. “I had groupies,’ he said. “Old ladies in their 40s.’
Ronstadt also sang in clubs, and once was offered $125 a week to go to San Francisco with a band. It was great money for those days, but after figuring his expenses, Ronstadt decided to stay in Tucson.
Years later, Ronstadt passed the musical torch to his children. Peter excelled, singing in the Tucson Boys Choir and in high school with a group called the Night Beats. They put out a Billboard-charting song called “Lonesome Road Rock.’ Peter, Suzy and later Linda teamed up to form a folk group called The New Union Ramblers.
Linda, of course, went on to great fame, but the rest of the family still sings together informally. At this year’s Tucson Meet Yourself, Ronstadt proudly watched as daughter Suzy, sons Michael and Peter, nephew John, brother Ed and granddaughter Mindy shared their rich family harmonies with a crowd of several hundred, singing songs of their generation as well as Ronstadt’s and his father’s.
Not all of Ronstadt’s accomplishments came from music. After serving several years in the Army during World War II, he began organizing at home, founding one of Tucson’s first neighborhood associations and getting dusty Prince Road paved.
His community organizing experiences and familiarity with water issues through work for his father’s machinery and hardware business got him appointed head of the group creating Tucson’s first sewer system.
“My kids used to call me `Mon Sewer,’ ‘ he laughs.
Prior to that, the city dumped sewage in settling ponds along Silverbell Road, where the untreated excess would run into the Santa Cruz.
Disaster was diverted by that early action, he noted.
Ronstadt served on the board of the Desert Museum and the Tucson Festival Society. He chaired the Post-war Planning Committee, helping shape Tucson’s growth in the early 1950s. And he was active in international matters as well, spearheading an effort to turn Spanish missions north and south of the border into tourist attractions, and generally improving the climate of economic and cultural exchange along the border.
He remained active in the Ronstadt Hardware Company, even after his retirement, until its demise. Competition from chain stores, the decline of the cotton industry and the closure of the mines made it impossible for the downtown landmark to compete. “I couldn’t bring myself to go down when they auctioned the merchandise,’ he said.
For all his community influence, Ronstadt is happiest with those that are musical.
“Music to me is one of the things that makes life very enjoyable,’ he said. “It can express a lot of things that can’t be expressed with words. I tell my kids that as far as performing is concerned, the real income is the connection with the audience.’
Ronstadt is proud of daughter Linda, his `star’
DANIEL BUCKLEY
Citizen Music Critic
“I’m a star,’ an excited Linda Ronstadt told her parents over the phone after “Different Drum’ pierced the charts in 1967.
“We’ve been listening to it and we’re very happy, but you’ll be a star when you can sing standards and people will buy your records,’ Gilbert Ronstadt recalls responding.
Linda remembered years later when she and Nelson Riddle collaborated on “What’s New.’ She dedicated the album of standards to her dad.
Still later, Linda produced two albums inspired by her dad. They were “Canciones de mi Padre’ and “Mas Canciones,’ recordings of Mexican mariachi favorites.
Gilbert contributed watercolor paintings to the latter release, and he translated her hit “Blue Bayou’ into the Spanish “Lago Azul.’
But like most parents, Gilbert was apprehensive as Linda and fellow-Tucsonan Bob Kimmel headed to California to seek their musical fortunes.
“I wanted her to stay in school and learn more,’ he said. “I felt that she was too young and innocent to go out into the big world.’
Linda and Kimmel landed in Venice where, with Ken Edwards, they founded the Stone Poneys. “They were lucky to make $5 a week sometimes,’ Gilbert recalled.
Even after things started rolling, dad worried.
As “Different Drum’ climbed the charts, Linda stopped in Tucson for a few days, then headed for New York for a winter-time “Tonight Show’ appearance wearing sandals, jeans and a coat more cosmetic than functional. Bad weather caused the group to land in Rochester and bus to the city. But as her proud parents watched, Linda sang “Different Drum’ on the “Tonight Show’ – in bare feet.
As her fame grew, so did the number of nut cases that wrote or tried to otherwise contact her. Gilbert became the screen for such things, opening her mail – some sent to the house, some to the Ronstadt Hardware store – to see if it was something he should forward or trash. “I got so I could tell from looking at the envelope whether it was apt to be from a crazy,’ he said.
But there have been plenty of rewards, too, such as the attention he got in in a Tokyo record store when he produced his credit card, pointed to a poster and said “That’s my daughter.’ “Oh, you father Rinda Ronstadt?’ the clerk asked, bowing profusely.
And, of course, getting to meet heroes such as Nelson Riddle, Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan and Lola Beltran. “She’s (Linda’s) playing with a band that knows how to accompany her singing,’ Gilbert told Nelson Riddle after a show. “That’s always the way I thought it should be,’ the band leader replied.
“I’ve had a chance to cash in on all of my interests and rub shoulders with a lot of the good ones that I would have missed otherwise,’ Gilbert said smiling.
There were musical rewards as well, like when Linda returned from Nashville one time with a copy of “Long Long Time.’ “That made the hair on the back of my neck stand up,’ he said. “I said, `It’s going to be a hit!’ and it was – a big one.’
Probably the biggest thrill came from the effect “Canciones de mi Padre’ had on the mariachi world.
“I’ve heard from a number of people in Mexico that her two albums have had a good influence on the younger Mexican public,’ he said proudly. “Up and coming Mexican artists are reviving the traditional songs that had been put on the back burner. Mariachis make good music.’
As she prepared material for that album, Linda and her father kept the phone lines tied up with him translating and explaining the motivation behind the lyrics, helping her make those songs come to life.
Linda is living out her father’s dream – proving that timeless music, no matter what its origin, is just that.
Gilbert couldn’t be prouder.
PHOTOS
RICK WILEY/Tucson Citizen/Gilbert Ronstadt, above, takes time to reflect on the past at his Tucson home, which he built in 1938.
SHARA WELLS/For the Tucson Citizen/At left, members of the Ronstadt family, from left, Suzy Jacome, Mindy Ronstadt, Peter Ronstadt, Ed Ronstadt, John Ronstadt and Michael Ronstadt, perform at the 1994 Tucson Meet Yourself.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 26th, 1994 at 8:16 am and is filed under Living. Tags for this post: Citizen Music Critic, Daniel Buckley, page-1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Ronstadt patriarch helped shape city by Daniel Buckley on Jun. 19, 1995, under News NOTE: OBITUARY; PHOTO
Retired Tucson businessman Gilbert Ronstadt, father of singer Linda and ex-Tucson police chief Peter, dies at home of heart failure while surrounded by family and friends.
Tucson native Gilbert Ronstadt, patriarch of the well-known family that includes singer Linda and former Tucson police chief Peter, died Saturday, just three days after celebrating his 84th birthday.
For his birthday celebration, a large group gathered around him and sang his favorite songs.
He died surrounded by family and friends in his room, which looks out over his pond, plants, birds and other animals in the backyard of his longtime home off Prince Road.
Mr. Ronstadt died of heart failure, said his son, Peter.
Besides running the family hardware store, now the site of the Ronstadt Transit Center, Mr. Ronstadt helped shaped modern Tucson and was the catalyst for the rebirth of mariachi music.
Mr. Ronstadt is well-known as the inspiration behind daughter Linda’s highly successful “Canciones de mi Padre’ recordings – two collections of the favorite mariachi classics she grew up hearing her father sing and play.
Peter Ronstadt, Tucson’s former police chief, recalled last week’s birthday party: “We ended up with “Volver, Volver.’
“With Daddy’s voice still coming through, as clear as it always was,’ added daughter Gretchen “Suzy’ Ronstadt Jacome. “Linda said he always did have the best voice in the family.’
But he left it up to his children to finish the song.
“I could see him gathering strength from that music,’ said Linda. “He’d always carry the big chorus at the end (of `Volver’), and really sing out. This time he left it for us to sing the big finish.
“It occurred to me that we were the big voices now, that we had received the information and were ready to carry on that tradition.’
Mr. Ronstadt had joined his daughter Linda in duets at several of the Tucson International Mariachi conferences.
And in 1994, the great Mexican singer Lola Beltrán coaxed Mr. Ronstadt to the edge of the stage to give him the serape she had worn.
“He could have been a professional entertainer,’ said longtime friend Lalo Guerrero, speaking by phone from his home in Palm Springs, Calif. “He had a big, beautiful voice, though he was always very shy about himself. But music was his life, really.’
He was born into it. The son of Federico Ronstadt, the founder of Tucson’s first municipal orchestra (the Club Filarmonico), Mr. Ronstadt grew up in a home filled with song.
His older sister, Luisa Espinel, was a renowned singer and collector of folk songs. She bound her field collections in a volume titled, “Canciones de mi Padre’ – a title borrowed by Linda for her album.
In his college days at the University of Arizona, Ronstadt sang with a megaphone at the Rialto Theater, and had a half-hour show on a local radio station singing sentimental songs of the day.
He performed in clubs, too, and was offered a spot singing professionally in San Francisco. But he turned that down to stay and help with the family’s business, Ronstadt Hardware, located where Ronstadt Transit Center now is.
He ran the business until his retirement in 1983. His wife, Ruthmary Ronstadt, had died the year before.
But while he was in business, “You couldn’t think of buying from anyone else,’ said longtime Tucsonan Henriqueta DeMeester. “You always got personalized attention.’
After serving several years in the army during World War II, Mr. Ronstadt focused on Tucson’s growing needs.
He chaired the Post War Planning Committee, charting Tucson’s early expansion in the late 1940s and early ’50s.
During that period, he also headed the Sanitary District general committee, helping establish Tucson’s first sewage and waste treatment facilities at a critical time.
Mr. Ronstadt took the helm of the Neighborhood Associations Council, and pioneered efforts to expand Tucson’s trading ties with its Mexican neighbors as far south as Hermosillo, Son.
In the ’60s and ’70s, Mr. Ronstadt chaired the Chamber of Commerce’s Caballeros Del Sol and served on the boards of the Chamber of Commerce, the Tucson-Mexico International Exchange Commission, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson Festival Society, Arizona Historical Society, and the Tucson Trade Bureau.
He also spearheaded early efforts to restore and revitalize downtown, to preserve the Spanish missions of Sonora on both sides of the border and to keep Tucson’s cultural heritage alive.
In 1991, he was awarded the Chamber of Commerce’s Founder’s Award for his long-term service in shaping the community.
“He was a leader in almost every movement,’ said Mr. Ronstadt’s longtime friend and business associate, Cele Peterson. “He was so quiet, but he was sort of a peacemaker when troubles came up.
“He had a love of the old – Mexican and American. He was such a great person and had such a sense of humor.’
Gilbert Ronstadt was a visual artist as well as a musical artist. Several of his watercolors were used in the booklet accompanying Linda Ronstadt’s “ Mas Canciones’ album. He worked in silver and copper as well, and had a fondness for building incredibly detailed miniatures.
In addition to children Gretchen Ronstadt Jàcome, Peter, Michael and Linda Ronstadt, Mr. Ronstadt is survived by his brother, Edward; beloved companion Jeanne Ure; and grandchildren Erin Gilmore, Federico Jàcome, and Philip, Melinda, Michael, Peter, Mary and Carlos Ronstadt.
Visitation will be tomorrow from 6 to 9 p.m. at Tucson Mortuary’s South Chapel, 240 S. Stone Ave., with a rosary recited at 7. A memorial Mass will be offered Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at Ss. Peter & Paul Church, 1946 E. Lee St.
This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 1995 at 8:19 am and is filed under News. Tags for this post: Citizen Staff Writer, Daniel Buckley, page-1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Gilbert Ronstadt’s family, friends gather to say goodbye by Daniel Buckley on Jun. 22, 1995, under Local NOTE:
The joyous sound of mariachis filled the air as mourners left the funeral of Gilbert Ronstadt.
It was music he loved – music of passion and life, like the man himself, played by Tucson’s Mariachi America.
Roughly 400 family members and friends turned out yesterday at Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Church to say goodbye to a man who was an integral part of Tucson’s modern history. Ronstadt died Saturday of heart failure at the age of 84.
Among those present were his children, singer Linda Ronstadt and former chief of police Peter Ronstadt, son Michael Ronstadt and daughter Gretchen Ronstadt-Jàcome.
All of the grandchildren, as well as Ronstadt’s brother, Edward, nieces and nephews and his beloved companion, Jeanne Ure, attended the 45-minute service.
Friends included entertainer Lalo Guerrero, historian James Officer, James Griffith of the University of Arizona’s Southwest Folklore Center, musician Travis Edmonson, businesswoman Cele Peterson and retired Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s “Desert Trails’ TV host Hal Gras.
There could have been numerous stories of Ronstadt’s years at Ronstadt Hardware, his steadfast support of the preservation of Tucson and Sonora’s natural and historic riches, his artistry, his pioneering efforts to develop trade with Mexico, and his deep ties to his Mexican-American heritage.
His service to the community alone could have filled hours. The eulogies might have focused on his love of music – particularly that of the mariachi – and his passing of that love to his family.
But at the request of family members, Rev. Kieran McCarty, who delivered the homily, avoided anecdotes, asking those attending to silently recall for themselves their favorite memory of Gilbert Ronstadt and reflect upon it.
Tucson Bishop Manuel D. Moreno presided over the services with assistance from McCarty, Rev. Charles Polzer, and Rev. Van Wagner of Ss. Peter & Paul.
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 22nd, 1995 at 8:19 am and is filed under Local. Tags for this post: Citizen Staff Writer, Daniel Buckley, page-1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Bits & pieces by Daniel Buckley on Dec. 14, 2000, under Living Gilbert Ronstadt, a longtime Tucson hardware store owner and father of singer Linda Ronstadt, painted the world around him on scraps of paper and the backs of empty envelopes.
By DANIEL BUCKLEY
Citizen Music Writer
Michael Ronstadt keeps a tiny, stone frog his dad carved for him. He carries it in his pocket everywhere he goes.
His sister, singer Linda Ronstadt, keeps hers on the bed stand. And siblings Peter and Suzy Ronstadt have theirs as well.
“He’d go out and pick up rocks out of the driveway and the next thing you’d know you’d have a little frog or a little bird,” Tucson’s former Police Chief Peter Ronstadt recalls of his father – Gilbert Ronstadt’s – fondness for sculpting miniatures. “After he died and we were trying to divide up all those things, we wound up basically holding little lotteries – all four of us. So all of us have some of those now. They’re cool. I know they’re one of the reasons I’ll never forget my dad.”
Most people never knew the artistic side of the man whose Ronstadt Hardware store on Congress catered not only to folks needing hammers and nails but the irrigation rigs of the big farms and the heavy equipment of the mines as well. Quiet and soft spoken, Gilbert Ronstadt, who died in 1995 two days after his 84th birthday, was a community leader who helped found the Arizona Historical Society, restore the San Xavier Mission and foster trade with our neighbors to the south.
But over the years, on the backs of envelopes and scrap paper, restaurant place mats and hunks of cardboard, Gilbert Ronstadt painted the world around him. He never took it seriously. To him it was “doodling.” But there is an unmistakable quality in the images, a personality and whimsy that draws one in.
When Linda Ronstadt did her “Canciones de mi Padre” and “Mas Canciones” mariachi collections, she turned to her dad’s paintings for cover art, much to the horror of her art director. But when he saw the work for the first time, he was floored, declaring that he could never match her father’s flair for watercolors.
Son Michael and his wife, Deborah, have recently taken it upon themselves to share some of Gilbert’s drawing and paintings with the world through a series of cards (see related story in Calendar).
Though he had no formal training, Gilbert Ronstadt was a natural artist.
“He could see the desert perfectly well,” Linda recalls. “He really understood the colors and the shapes, and he could memorize landscapes and keep them in his head for years and still paint them.”
Sometimes when Peter and Gilbert would go out hunting, Gilbert would just stop.
“He’d just be standing there sketching something on the back of a check stub,” Peter recalls. “Sometimes on a matchbook cover. And then he’d take it home and out of that would come a little watercolor painting.”
“When Peter and Linda and Michael and I took Daddy’s ashes out by the old ranch to scatter out by Sasabe, we looked around and in every direction there was one of Daddy’s paintings looking at us,” eldest daughter, Suzy, says. “Out there you could see no sign of progress. No sign of technology. No phone poles or airplanes. You couldn’t hear any generators or air conditioners. It was just the mountains and the sky and the things that grow in the desert. It was just beautiful. And you had exactly the same feeling as you had when you looked at one of those pictures of Daddy’s.”
Art was a family thing with Gilbert Ronstadt. During WW II, Gilbert would draw stylized ducks where the “air mail” stamp went to amuse his kids. Bedtime stories were illustrated with impromptu cartoons. And as the kids grew older, birthdays and Christmas were special occasions because one could always count on a hand-painted card. The Ronstadt kids kept a sharp eye out for their favorite artwork.
“Once in a while we’d be over there and see one of the paintings that he had done when he was fooling around or maybe you’d watched him work on a painting,” Peter recalls. “We’d whine until he gave it to us. He was funny about that. He didn’t necessarily want to give the good ones away. But all of us have a few here and there.”
He didn’t have much time to paint and sculpt when the kids were little. But upon his retirement, it became a way for him to relax and enjoy life.
Linda’s daughter’s school had suggested always giving children good art supplies so they get into the sensuality of the materials. Following that logic, the singer tried to give her dad the best paper made.
“He wouldn’t use them,” she laughs. “I’d find them all still wrapped up in a corner of his dresser. He was stingy. We’d give him a hard time for that. So we’ve got all these piles of scraps now that we won’t ever throw away.
“Lots of times his drawings of people had our faces in them or his own face as a child. One of the ones that Mike’s just redone has a little boy running through it in the background. A little Indian boy in Mexico with a group of Indians. But it’s my dad. It’s his face. And there are a couple of them that are me. One is my sister. And I don’t even know if he even did it consciously, although when I pointed it out to them he said, ‘Yeah, you’re right. That’s you.’ ”
It’s something Michael Ronstadt sees in his dad’s work too.
“We traveled in Mexico a lot,” he recalls. “In Oaxaca, the Zapotec Indians have a certain feature with their eyes and cheeks. He liked those people a lot. He also liked the Seri Indians a lot and in Sinaloa, the Mayo Indians. He used to spend a lot of time in the Mayo Indian villages, trading. He’d always come wandering home with a bunch of artifacts. He understood those people a lot, and he was able to capture them.”
Along with the paintings, Gilbert Ronstadt’s artistic instincts pulled him into the world of miniatures as well. He made a tiny serving set with an oval platter roughly the diameter of a quarter and itty-bitty knives and forks. But what to serve on Tom Thumb’s dinnerware? The universe steps in every now and then.
“One day . . . I was working in that area and I stopped off there for coffee,” Peter recalls. “As we were sitting in the porch area, there where that plate glass was, a humming bird flew into the window and broke its neck. My dad went out there, picked the thing up, took it into the kitchen, plucked it, cleaned it, roasted it and served it on these little tiny plates like a little tiny turkey. We all had a little tiny bite.”
Little boxes became another Gilbert Ronstadt specialty. When Peter joined the police force, his dad made him a tiny box with a miniature pistol salvaged from a Western tie bar and a small badge soldered to the top.
Seeing the artwork afresh has been a joy for all the family, though tempered by the loss of his physical being.
“I wish Daddy were here right now because I have a red geranium sitting by the fountain here,” Suzy says. “I know exactly what the picture would look like if he could draw it.”
Dozens of Gilbert Ronstadt’s watercolors have now been reproduced on cards and prints. Learn more about the artist’s love of painting and his family’s decision to share the images with the public. See Calendar.
PHOTOS: XAVIER GALLEGOS/Tucson Citizen
Michael Ronstadt (above) holds the frog his father, Gilbert Ronstadt (left, now deceased), carved for him many years ago.
Michael Ronstadt and wife Deborah (above) with framed examples of Gilbert Ronstadt paintings. Michael (left) holds one of his father’s miniatures.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 14th, 2000 at 8:58 am and is filed under Living. Tags for this post: Arizona, Art, Daniel Buckley, Family, page-1B, Painting, Sculpture, Tucson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
companion thread ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/4570/cultural-influence-linda-ronstadt
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 11:46:44 GMT
A TALE OF TWO FAMILIES: The Ronstadt and Dalton Families
This clip is interesting in that it shows two Mexican families both with anglo names rich in tradition and upset about the changing attitudes towards their Mexican heritage and the families attempts to rectify it in no small measure. This tenacity must be genetic as the Ronstadt family of today seems to have the same zest for its cultural traditions, most obvious through Gilbert's children Michael and Linda. I don't know that Linda's children will continue on as they now live in California and not much is known about their lives but Michael and his boys are definitely keeping that spirit alive in a big and wonderful way. Linda continues on in a more activist way through her speaking out on the social justice theme of Mexican Immigration, a human rights issue if nothing else. We can see these struggles early on in both the Dalton and Ronstadt families of Tucson and Mexico.By 1890, Winnall Dalton, Sr., had sold his one-half share in his successful horse carriage business to a longtime family friend named Fred Ronstadt and embarked on a series of unsuccessful farming ventures, followed by a disastrous investment in mining in northern Mexico in which he was said to have lost about $20,000. His fortunes stood in sharp contrast to those of Ronstadt, who embraced change and turned the horse-carriage business he had bought from Dalton into a downtown automobile and hardware venture, the first of its kind in Tucson. Ronstadt was the Mexican born son of a German immigrant, a canny businessman, a flute player and prominent band leader who strived to raise Tucson’s cultural standards and was patriarch to a long line of figures in the arts. His daughter Luisa Espinel Ronstadt was a nationally known folk singer who danced for Marlene Dietrich in the 1932 movie“ The Devil is a Woman"
www.ronstadt.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=1076&page=1
To continue with the story of Winnall Dalton Jr.
Fred Ronstadt later wrote a vivid, affectionate portrait of his brother-in-law and business associate Winnall Dalton, Sr., in his memoir Borderman. Ronstadt wrote that Dalton was “a fine specimen of manhood” – photographs show a tall, very handsome chap with smoldering dark eyes and a fashionably bushy moustache – and his “Spanish was pure, without a trace of an accent. ”The Ronstadts and the Daltons were extremely close and intermarried at least three junctures; Fred Ronstadt’s second wife was Lupe Dalton, the daughter of Winnall Dalton, Sr., and his Mexican wife María Jesús Vásquez. Despite their Anglo sounding names, both families were considered part of the Mexican blood elite of Tucson and felt strongly about preserving their Mexican traditions. Prominent and intermarried Mexican families like the Daltons and Ronstadts of Tucson, in historian Thomas Sheridan’s words, “admired the technological progress of the United States, yet many of them despised the more crassly materialistic aspects of U.S. society and culture. They were also deeply disturbed by the rising tide of discrimination against Mexicans in the Southwest. More than anything else, these influential individuals strove to nourish a sense of Mexican identity in cities like Tucson, to offer Mexicans an alternative to either subordination or assimilation in the southwestern United States.”
This story of bi-national identity on the border is important to understanding Winnall Dalton, Jr., Roque Dalton’s father, because it suggests that when he left Tucson in about 1916 and journeyed to Mexico and then Central America, the world he entered was considerably less foreign than the image of a marauding American cowboy looking for adventure would suggest. Although a U.S. citizen, he had a Mexican mother, was raised in a household where both he and his parents spoke fluent Spanish, and came from a city where he was considered Mexican. Both sides of his family had quite literally seen the border cross them and, at least on his father’s side, had a deep and personal sense of grievance against the U.S. government because of it. As the Ronstadts rose in wealth and prominence in Tucson society, the Daltons declined. Winnall Dalton, Sr., had endured such bad luck in his farming and mining ventures that he asked his son-in-law Fred Ronstadt for a job at the hardware store that Dalton had once co-owned.
In 1913, the first full year of Arizona statehood, Dalton appeared in the Tucson City Directory as a wagon maker, a profession by then fast fading into obsolescence as Oldsmobile’s and Studebakers arrived en masse. The next year he was listed as a wood worker in Ronstadt’s shop. He died in 1917 at the age of 67 of what his death certificate described as acute gastritis. All this suggests that young Winnall Dalton, Jr., had good reasons to leave Tucson. His father, embittered to the end by the loss of the family estate in the Mexican-American war, as shown in a series of letters he wrote in his last years of life,13 had himself lost a successful business and then been reduced to the status of shop employee. Evidence survives to suggest that his son Winnall was a restless and quarrelsome young man who, very early on, wanted out of humdrum Tucson society.
In 1912, at the age of 18, he was working as a railroad clerk.14 Neither he nor his father had any criminal record. Around this time he started a cattle-raising business near Tucson with his older sister Hortense and her husband Pepe Ronstadt. The business failed and young Winnall took the blame. The details are lost but the experience contributed to his permanent estrangement from Tucson, which he left around 1916, apparently never to return. He does not seem to have been much missed. His name barely appears in the vast quantities of letters, photographs, documents and other archival materials accumulated over decades by the Dalton and Ronstadt families. He went first to Mexico, which was then embroiled in revolution, but he did not take long to reach Central America. The first documentary evidence we have of Winnall Dalton, Jr., in Central America dates from July 17, 1917. This piece of evidence is a U.S. World War One draft registration card (now held by the National Archives western office in Laguna Niguel, California) in which Dalton, aged 23, lists himself as a self-employed miner in Yoro department, Honduras. The card is signed by Dalton and a U.S. consular agent. Under previous military service, he lists that he served for one year as a major in the cavalry division of the Mexican army of Venustiano Carranza. We need not take this particular claim at face value, although he did make it on a sworn and witnessed U.S. government document. Still, it is not the only indication that Dalton participated in the fighting in Mexico. He and his older brother Henry (who stayed in Tucson and later became a member of its City Council) were involved in shipping small aircraft from the United States to the Mexican army at the behest of Carranza loyalists, according to Winnall’s son. Whatever the circumstances of his involvement with Carranza’s army, Dalton may well have been influenced by Ignacio Bonillas, another prominent Tucson figure and associate of his brother-in-law Fred Ronstadt who never gave up his Mexican citizenship and later served as Carranza’s ambassador to the United States. Dalton’s connection to the Carranza army might, in part, account for one of the more enduring stories about Roque Dalton, that his father and two uncles had smuggled weapons to Pancho Villa during the Revolution and then cheated the revolutionary leader of a large sum of money. In Roque Dalton’s posthumously published autobiographical novel Pobrecito poeta que era yo, the narrator says:www.daltwhitt.org/?page_id=833
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 11:48:20 GMT
The Ronstadt Familyfrom Daniel Buckley
The Ronstadt Family was honored with the Generations of Commitment Award by Pima Council on Aging at its gala event in April, 2014. Since Federico (Fred) Ronstadt arrived in Tucson in 1882, the family has shaped Tucson and Arizona more and more with each passing generation. Fred created Tucson's first classical music ensemble (the Club Filarmonico) and was a founding board member of the Tucson Symphony. His daughter, Luisa Espinel was one of Arizona's first international opera and art song stars. And his grand daughter, Linda Ronstadt, was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Ronstadts have been involved in politics, art, ranching, construction, policy making and so much more. This video tells a bit of the family's history and impact on Southern Arizona and northern Mexico.
Some nice family sentiments from Linda's sister Suzy and brother Peter and their cousins.Interesting to note Gilbert was active in preserving the Spanish missions of Sonora including San Xavier del Bac where Linda herself narrated a PBS special about that mission (but that video disappeared from youtube):
Mission San Xavier del Bac
Located in nearby Tucson, Mission San Xavier del Bac is a Spanish Catholic mission dating from 1692 when it was founded by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, a Jesuit missionary. At the time the area was an Indian village, and Kino was the first non-Indian to visit the place, which was then known as Wa:k (although he wrote “Bac,”). It is he who called for the construction of the church, named in honor of San Francisco Xavier; however, the church needed to be rebuilt after 1770 due to destruction from Apache attacks.
Because at this time Spanish Jesuits were banned from the Americas, it was rebuilt under the eye of the Franciscans. This is a unique facet of Mission San Xavier del Bac, as it’s one of the few Arizona missions still led by Franciscans, with mass still taking place. Additionally, the church is touted as the oldest European structure in Arizona still intact, and often the country’s best example of Spanish Colonial architecture.
As soon as you arrive at the site, you’ll understand why it’s known as the “White Dove of the Desert.” The structure is done in white adobe with a sand-colored ornate entrance, which appears striking against the cacti-filled desert landscape. Inside, original statuary, frescos and sculptures bring history to life with such beauty even non-religious visitors can appreciate it. In fact, the artwork is a highlight of a visit. It is recommended to take a tour with a docent -- which typically take place 9:30am, 10:30am 11:30am and 12:30pm, although call first to confirm -- to really grasp the history of the mission and understand what you’re looking at in the church and museum areas. Before leaving, light a prayer candle and browse the gift shop for a momento of your trip.
Practical Info
Mission San Xavier del Bac is free to enter, and is open 7am to 5pm daily. The mass schedule is Saturday Vigil at 5:30pm; Sunday 8:00am, 11:00am, 12:30pm; Monday through Friday 6:30am (Juan Diego Chapel); Tuesday through Friday 8:30am (Mission church).
San Xavier del Bac Mission
That mission was also the inspiration in part for this song about Linda written by Paul Simon for his excellent Graceland album.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 11:50:50 GMT
Ronstadt Family Associated With Tucson As Early As Late 19th CenturyBy Steve Goldstein
Published: Thursday, July 6, 2017 - 3:25pm
Updated: Thursday, July 6, 2017 - 3:34pm
Unless you’re from southern Arizona, when you hear the last name "Ronstadt," you’ll automatically think of legendary singer Linda Ronstadt first.
And though her artistic impact has been felt internationally, the city of Tucson was associated with the Ronstadt family long before that — as early as the late 19th century with the Fred Ronstadt Hardware company. The story appears in this month’s Arizona Highways magazine.
With me to talk more about the Ronstadts is Tucson writer and documentarian Daniel Buckley: (podcast)
theshow.kjzz.org/content/501017/ronstadt-family-associated-tucson-early-late-19th-century At the end of the interview is mentioned a story about the Ronstadt family in the current issue of Arizona Highways which is what prompted this interview.azmemory.azlibrary.gov/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=ahfschaus&CISOPTR=170&action=2&DMSCALE=55&DMWIDTH=512&DMHEIGHT=512&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMROTATE=0TITLE Silage loader on Carlos Ronstadt's Agua Linda Ranch CREATOR Unknown SUBJECT Ranches--Arizona; Silage--Arizona; Agua Linda Ranch (Ariz.) Browse Topic Agriculture DESCRIPTION Silage loader on Carlos Ronstadt's Agua Linda Ranch. Rotator on loader chops out a four foot swath of silage into hopper and up-endlass drive into truck TYPE Image Material Collection Richard Schaus Collection, MS FM MSS 6 RIGHTS MANAGEMENT Contact the Arizona Historical Society Library and Archives, Tempe. www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org/tempe-archives/ DATE ORIGINAL 1950 - 1959 Time Period 1950s (1950-1959)
Luisa Ronstadt Espinel
azmemory.azlibrary.gov/cdm/ref/collection/rhcalt/id/16
Luisa Ronstadt Espinel, Music Ambassador to the World By: Christine Marin. 2009.
Luisa Ronstadt Espinel inherited her love of Mexican and Spanish music, dance and theatre from her father, Federico José María Ronstadt, who established a successful blacksmithing, wagonmaking and carriage factory and a hardware enterprise in Tucson. He is also known to have provided the leadership of Tucson’s first symphonic institution, the Club Filarmónico Tucsonense in 1889.
Luisa inherited her beauty, grace and love of Hispanic culture from her lovely mother, Sara Levin Ronstadt, who died at the age of thirty-two of heart failure, brought on by a bout of typhoid fever in 1902 when Luisa was only ten years of age. Two years later, Luisa’s father married Lupe Dalton, daughter of Winnall A. Dalton and María Jesus Vásquez Dalton. A young and attractive twenty-two year old woman, Lupe was employed as a bookkeeper at Federico’s place of business, “F. Ronstadt Company.”
The Ronstadts held the admiration and respect of Tucson’s elite and middle-class Mexican and Anglo citizenry and were well-known within their community for their love of music and cultural sophistication. Early photographs taken of Luisa as a young woman capture her soft, oval face, high cheekbones and dark eyes, along with her flair for the dramatic in both style and dress. She was instructed in private schools and learned to appreciate the depth, power and beauty of her Hispanic culture and Spanish language.
While in her mid-twenties, Luisa’s parents sent her to San Francisco, where she received advanced formal training in music, dance and drama. Life in the city exposed her to new avenues of expression and creativity and introduced her to the world of theaters, opera houses, musical performances, and concerts. Eager to enhance her talents in singing and dancing, Luisa travelled to Paris and Madrid and soon began her international musical and acting career and achieved praise as a performer of Spanish folklore.
When she returned to the United States, she toured Texas, California and the Pacific Northwest, performing Spanish dramatic monologues on stage in theatres and on college campuses. In 1927, Luisa made her debut at the Edyth Totten Theater in New York, winning new audiences and praise from theatre critics and writers for her performance. She was soon labeled as the “glamorous Spanish Diseuse”, a professional entertainer known for her recitation of Spanish monologs and skilled in story-telling.
When Luisa performed at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, she spoke of her beloved parents and childhood memories of Tucson and her love of the desert, and the frontier life she left behind. She recalled the summer evenings, when her father “would accompany his songs on his guitar and later tell us marvelous stories of when he was a little boy.”
Luisa Ronstadt Espinel never returned to live in Tucson. She settled in Los Angeles after her career and performed at the famous Olvera Theater, where she taught music. In 1946, she published Canciones de Mi Padre, a collection of Mexican folk songs dedicated to her father, Federico José María Ronstadt. Her niece, the famous Linda Ronstadt, would perform and record a similar collection under the same title as a tribute to her own father, Gilbert Ronstadt, in 1987.
Luisa Espinel Ronstadt’s Tucson roots made her more than an international entertainer of Hispanic folklore and culture. She became the symbol of what is good about the history and culture of Arizona’s Mexican borderlands—a region made special because of the songs, traditions and stories of her father’s journey north from Mexico.
Sources:
Borderman: Memoirs of Federico José María Ronstadt. Edited by Edward F. Ronstadt (Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1993.
Ronstadt Family Collection, 1802-1993. (Manuscript # 407). Special Collections. University of Arizona Library. Tucson, Arizona.
Sheridan, Thomas E. Los Tucsonenses: the Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941. (Tucson: Univ. of Arizona Press, 1986), pp. 189-206.
Why Linda Ronstadt Still Matters to Tucson A Tucson music historian reflects on the lasting influence of our city's most famous musical export
By Daniel Buckley
media1.fdncms.com/tucsonweekly/imager/linda-ronstadt-at-age-16/u/zoom/3872524/buckley.jpg
Linda Ronstadt at age 16.
Linda Ronstadt's singing days are over but her hometown's love affair with the storied singer is anything but.
And that love affair goes both ways. She still owns a home in Tucson, keeps in touch with her childhood friends and remains inquisitive about goings-on in her hometown.
Part of Tucson's attachment to Ronstadt is that she is so much a Tucson girl.
Ronstadt grew up just off Prince Road in a small house next to a massive cottonwood tree, now torn down. It was in her childhood house that, on her second birthday, the father of Chicano music—Lalo Guerrero—awoke her with a birthday serenade. Guerrero was a close friend of her father, Gilbert Ronstadt, who ran the family hardware business downtown.
The Ronstadt family was a musical bunch that shared songs in sibling harmony every night as the dishes were washed and put away. Her dad was an eclectic and tasteful music lover whose well-worn record collection ran the gamut from Nelson Riddle American standards to mariachis and ranchera singers.
As a child, Linda grew up in the musical shadow of her older brother, Peter, who would later become Tucson's chief of police. Pete was a gifted boy soprano soloist in the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus until one summer when his voice suddenly plunged into the bass-baritone register. But in his Boys Chorus days, Linda was his understudy, learning all of the repertoire he would sing, including the Pirates of Penzance, which she would later record.
She followed Pete into the coffeehouses of Tucson, singing harmony at first and growing stronger in finding her own voice. She attended the University of Arizona, as she says, "for about a minute," before heading to California to work on being discovered.
Her musical career is one of integrity from beginning to end. She was disciplined and hard-working, with a gift for finding material that fit both her voice and spirit. She surrounded herself with the best talent she could find throughout her career—from the Stone Poneys days, through the times when the Eagles backed her up, and on to American standards with Nelson Riddle, country with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton, and ranchera recordings with Mariachi Vargas, Los Camperos de Nati Cano and the best of that world. She made her voice a vehicle for many of the best songwriters of the day, from Warren Zevon to Jackson Browne, Lowell George, Jimmy Webb, Karla Bonoff and many more.
She brought recording business back to Tucson whenever she could, often laying down vocal tracks and doing mastering in local studios. Ronstadt even recorded one whole album here —The Western Wall, with Emmylou Harris, recorded at the Arizona Inn.
People still talk about seeing her in local coffeehouses as a young girl, or singing "Tumbling Dice" with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones at the Tucson Convention Center. Her performances of classics from the golden era of mariachi helped the genre gain a second wind, and forced the Tucson International Mariachi Conference to add an extra night to its performances. And at one of those mariachi appearances she showed her love for Lalo Guerrero by acting as the backup singer for the man who serenaded her when she turned 2.
She took a personal interest in fledgling mariachi and ranchera singers from Tucson, including Monica Treviño, and introduced the members of Tucson's Mariachi Cobre to her vocal coach, after which Cobre set the standard for vocal work for years. And along with giants Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán and Los Camperos de Nati Cano, she turned to Cobre and Tucsonan Gilbert Velez's group to record with her on her Canciones de Mi Padre and Mas Canciones CDs.
When she began touring with symphony orchestras, singing American standards, Ronstadt turned to Tucson jazz icon Jeff Haskell to write arrangements and often to serve as conductor on the tours. And on a personal note, Linda generously agreed to be on the advisory board on this writer's film on mariachis in Tucson.
Tucson loves her as much for the person she is as for her musicianship. Courageous, opinionated, outspoken and proud of her roots, she is well read, well informed and ready to get involved in whatever flips her switch.
When SB 1070 was signed, she was among the first rallying to protest at the state Capitol in Phoenix. And on several occasions she went door to door endorsing local candidates for office that she believed in.
When victims of domestic violence in Tucson had nowhere to go to escape, either by themselves or with their children, Ronstadt ponied up the money to build the Casa De Los Niños battered women shelter. Her caring for our city and for those most vulnerable has never ceased.
But no doubt Linda Ronstadt's greatest connection to her hometown has been the inspiration for every aspiring young singer this city has produced. Every local young belter has a Linda Ronstadt tune in the hip pocket. And every mariachi has a tune or two learned first from Linda Ronstadt.
Daniel Buckley is currently working on his 8th documentary film, The Mariachi Miracle (AKA Mariachis Transform Tucson). For more go to www.danielbuckleyarts.com.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 11:55:48 GMT
Here is more information on this beautiful historic Ronstadt house with photographs of individual rooms as it is now a bed and breakfast. This should be a popular place to stay if you are ever in Tucson as a Ronstadt fan. When I posted the KJZZ podcast earlier in this thread I stumbled upon this one in search of the Arizona Highways article that is appearing in the magazine this month which prompted the Daniel Buckley interview on my local NPR radio station. The Arizona Highways article doesn't appear available on the internet site yet but I will post it when it becomes available. How they managed to keep those spiral hedges looking the same for decades at the entrance is a marvel. There is also another historical Ronstadt house in downtown Tucson. I did post it somewhere in the forum but it may be on the old forum and will need to repost.
144university.com/tag/tucson-historic-houses/ Big Blue House Inn 144university.com/
On June 3, 1914, José María Ronstadt — better known as "Pepe" — purchased a big blue house at the corner of Tucson's Sixth Avenue and University Boulevard. As postmaster of Tucson, a county supervisor and owner of the Santa Margarita Ranch, which served as headquarters for the Baboquivari Livestock Co., Ronstadt was well acquainted with the well-heeled Tucson lifestyle. And he decorated his inn accordingly. After Ronstadt died, he left the house to his wife, Hortense, who remained there until her own passing in 1965. After several additional changes of ownership, the Big Blue House ultimately landed in the hands of Leona Marie Ramsey in 2005. Under her careful supervision, the house has undergone several renovations, including the preservation of its door frames and original woodwork, painting, and the restoration of the porch railing. Today, the inn features seven rooms, as well as a separate cottage that's available for extended stays. Big Blue House Inn is located at 144 E. University Boulevard in Tucson. For more information, call 520-891-1827 or visit www.144university.com.In the 1924 photo, Federico Ronstadt and his wife, Lupe, pose with their four sons, (from left) Bill, Edward, Gilbert and Alfred. Gilbert is Linda's father.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 12:01:51 GMT
The First Ronstadt Superstar Luisa Ronstadt Espinel inspired a young Linda Ronstadt.
April 1, 2006 by Jana Bommersbach
Luisa_ronstadt_espinel
She grew up in Tucson, Arizona, was the first Ronstadt superstar and is remembered for her album, My Father’s Songs.
But this isn’t a story about popular singer Linda Ronstadt, who is performing to this day. This is a story about her aunt, who was a star before Linda was ever born, but undoubtedly was an inspiration to her.
Luisa Ronstadt Espinel, born in 1892, would become an ambassador of culture as she performed throughout the United States and Europe—bringing Spanish and Mexican music to the general population.
Both she and her niece can trace their musical roots back even further, to Luisa’s father Federico Jose Maria Ronstadt, and to the traditions his family brought to the Arizona Territory from Mexico.
A Star is Born
Luisa was born the first of four children to Fred Ronstadt and Sara Levin. The family lived in “The Old Pueblo,” then the major town in Arizona. Tucson had originally been settled as a presidio for Spanish troops and explorers, and then went under Mexican possession. But even as it was sold to the United States, its Mexican roots ran deep. At the time of Luisa’s birth, and into the early 1900s, the majority of Tucson residents were of Mexican descent.
Like many families, Luisa spoke Spanish at home—she learned English only after going to public school—but the language most relevant in her life was the language of music. Her mother played piano, her father played guitar and her siblings all sang along with her. “The most vivid memories of my childhood are interwoven with music and mostly the music of my father, who loved it. It was his whole life in those days; his business was a secondary consideration,” she told The Arizona Daily Star.
Her father had been born in Mexico in 1868 to a German father and a Spanish mother, but he was sent to Tucson when he was a teenager to apprentice at a freight company. By 19, he bought the wagon company and became so successful, he ran wagons from Colorado to Mexico. But it was in music where he made his real mark. Fred Ronstadt helped found one of Tucson’s first orchestras, Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, in 1888. He arranged the danzas, mazurkas, polkas and serenades performed in a new bandstand on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons. The band also played for special occasions—Christmas, New Year’s Eve, national holidays, church socials, parades. In 1890, it toured Southern California. Newspapers reported that the band was popular with both Mexican and Anglo populations.
In 1902, Luisa’s mother died of scarlet fever. Her father later married Lupe Dalton, who gave him four sons—all musicians, too. The third son from that union, Gilbert, is Linda Ronstadt’s father.
Her Own Awakening
Around 1911, Luisa went to boarding school in San Francisco, where she took voice lessons and worked as an organist. She also began research that would focus her life, reports Wynne Brown in More than Petticoats: Remarkable Arizona Women. One day, she found a collection of songs and legends that she had heard as a child. “The discovery of these familiar things in a new and glamorous setting was a definite experience to her. It gave them a sudden new life in her imagination and stimulated her desire to explore further into their background. Eventually it turned the course of her music career away from conventional channels,” reported The Los Angeles Times.
Luisa moved to Georgia, where she taught music at two colleges, until she returned to Tucson in 1917 to perform in an opera staged to raise funds to build the Temple of Music and Art. She sang under her stage name, Luisa Espinel. Reviewers said she had a “magnetic, husky” voice.
She traveled to Europe in 1924 in search of more folk songs, spending weeks in museums and libraries in Spain and France, where she found songs and dances that dated back to the 1200s. While there, she polished her act into what Brown calls “a scholarly combination of music, acting and dance.”
To go with her unusual and exciting music, she sought out unusual and exciting costumes and instruments. The Tucson Citizen reported that her tambourine had “hung for one hundred years in an Asturian kitchen in northern Spain and was the property of a peasant girl, Gloria, with a reputation for magic.” Luisa wore a century-old brocade wedding dress that she had found in her travels. “The costumes and properties she uses would make in themselves a little museum,” noted The Tucson Citizen.
In 1927, to great acclaim, she performed authentic folk music from the 12 regions of Spain at the Edith Totten Theatre in New York City. The New York Times noted that she had four encores and a standing ovation. The reviewer gushed, “Senorita Espinel can congratulate herself on a genuine success. Her entertainment was interesting, unusual and artistic. She made a colorful figure in Spanish costumes and acted her songs naturally and wittily.” The review went on to call her a “graceful dancer, as well as a talented singer.”
But Brown notes Luisa was most pleased with these words from The Los Angeles Times: “Cognizant Spaniards declared it was the first time the folk music of Spain had been presented in its pure form, without the pernicious influence of Broadway or the boulevards of Paris.”
Luisa returned to Tucson a recognized superstar. When she performed at the Temple of Music and Art, she added Arizona and Mexican songs to her Spanish repertoire.
In 1928, she returned to Georgia to perform, surprised to find so many of her former pupils on hand to laud her. That same year, she became the first singer of folk songs asked to perform at the Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. To top off her illustrious year, she performed at the Congressional Library in Washington, D.C.
Luisa toured for years, altering and refining her programs. In 1932, her tour was called Cuadro Castizos, or “little framed canvases of real life.”
She eventually settled in Los Angeles and went into the movies, costarring several times with her friend Marlene Dietrich, Brown notes. In 1934, she married a painter named Charles Kassler, Jr., but the marriage didn’t last.
In 1946, she published a book of Mexican folk songs, Canciones de Mi Padre, or “My Father’s Songs.” Forty years later, her famous niece would use the same title for her successful album of mariachi music.
In her later years, Luisa gave private voice lessons and was the resident hostess, teaching the public about Spanish traditions at the Casa de Adobe historic mansion, which is part of the Southwest Museum. She died on February 2, 1963, in Los Angeles.
Luisa Ronstadt Espinel’s contribution to celebrating Spanish and Mexican music will never be forgotten, especially at home. In 1994, the city of Tucson awarded her family a “Copper Letter Award,” thanking the Ronstadt family for “keeping the air of our town beautiful with song for well over a hundred years.”
truewestmagazine.com/the-first-ronstadt-superstar/
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 12:02:30 GMT
Here is an interesting story about Gilbert's dad and how Broadway in Tucson got its name:
Street Smarts: NY salesman's jesting may have inspired Tucson's Broadway
February 12, 2013 12:00 am • David Leighton For The Arizona Daily Star(20) CommentsIn 1862, Maj. David Fergusson of the Union Army commissioned a survey of the little sun-baked adobe town of Tucson.
The town had about 600, mostly Spanish-speaking townspeople, and the street names on the map reflected this. Today's Congress Street was called Calle de la Alegria, and Pennington Street was Calle del Arroyo, just to name two. There was no name for what was then a poorly defined dirt path and what is now Broadway.
When the town map was updated by George Hand around 1880, the road was called Camp Street after the Union military's Camp Lowell, which the street led to. Camp likely got that name in 1872 as a result of the S.W. Foreman Survey, when downtown street names were changed from Spanish to English. Many were renamed for prominent Tucsonans killed by Apaches.
In the late 1890s, Fred Ronstadt, who owned a blacksmith and wagon shop on the corner of Scott Avenue and Camp Street that was described as "a neat adobe structure with high-peaked roof and wide, sliding doors," was visited by a traveling hardware salesman from New York City. After their business was done, they chatted about life in the small, hot and dusty town of Tucson.
The salesman is said to have told Ronstadt, "What you need here is some of the spirit and liveliness of the big city. Some of the bustle and hustle - like our Broadway back in New York."
Several months later, the traveling salesman called on Ronstadt again, the story goes. He opened his sample case and took out a street sign "borrowed" from the city of New York. The two stepped outside the shop on the Camp Street side, and the salesman fastened the Broadway sign to the adobe wall of the store.
"There you have it. Tucson's in the big time now - there's your Broadway," the New Yorker is said to have boasted. Soon people started calling Camp Street Ronstadt's Broadway, probably as a joke - but by 1909, Broadway began replacing Camp Street on Tucson maps.
Editor's note
Each week the Star tells the stories behind Tucson street names. If you have streets to suggest or stories to share, contact writer David Leighton at streetsmarts@azstarnet.com
Sources: • Special thanks to Jerry Tobak of J.R. Insurance and Luis Montaño of El Con Custom Cobblers • Email from Frederick Ronstadt (descendant of Fred Ronstadt) • Don Schellie, "How A Drummer Gave Tucson Its Broadway," Tucson Daily Citizen, Sept. 2, 1965 • "Hardware Salesman and His Conscience Haunt Broadway," Arizona Daily Star, April 23, 1937 • Don Schellie, "How Broadway got its name," Tucson Daily Citizen, Oct. 30, 1975 • "Plaza of Pioneers," Tucson Museum of Art, 1982 • 1862 Maj. Fergusson map • 1870-1880 George Hand map (in private collection) • 1909 Sanborn Insurance map of Tucson (Arizona Historical Society)
azstarnet.com/news/local/street-smarts-ny-salesman-s-jesting-may-have-inspired-tucson/article_4987769f-1aa5-5c12-b21f-3eb22aaf1ad9.html
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 12:02:58 GMT
Gilbert forged a friendship with Lalo Guerrero who quickly became a family friend and visitor to the Ronstadt household.
Published on Feb 10, 2011 The 2 minute opening to the Lalo Guerrero Documentary. Directed by Ernesto Quintero & Luis Gonzalez. This opening won a Cine Golden Eagle Award and the documentary, directed by Nancy De Los Santos and Dan Guerrero won an Alma Award and played on PBS for two years.
Guerrero was born in Tucson, Arizona, one of 21 siblings (although only nine survived). His father worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad. Guerrero left his hometown to pursue his dream in music. He says that he gives his mother all the credit for his musical talent, and Guerrero said she taught him to "embrace the spirit of being Chicano".[2] Guerrero, in time exceeded even his wildest dreams as a musician, writer and performer for more than six decades, gaining worldwide recognition as the father of "Chicano Music". His first group, Los Carlistas (the trio included Chole Salaz and Joe Salaz), represented Arizona at the 1939 New York World's Fair, and performed on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour on radio.
He moved to Los Angeles in the 1940s, and had a few uncredited roles in movies, including Boots and Saddles and His Kind of Woman. He recorded for Imperial Records and fronted the Trio Imperial. He also formed his own orchestra and toured throughout the Southwest. He performed at the La Bamba club in Hollywood, a place frequented by the biggest stars in the movie business. In the 1960s, he bought a night club in Los Angeles and renamed it "Lalo's". In the 1940s he became a friend of the Ronstadt family of Arizona, in particular Gilbert Ronstadt, father of popular vocalist Linda Ronstadt. Linda recalls childhood memories of Guerrero serenading her. At his funeral, Linda sang a traditional Mexican song in tribute.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 12:04:01 GMT
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 12:04:26 GMT
Pete Ronstadt and The Nightbeats here with a big hit. The vocal here with Pete is terrific! (You may have heard of Pete's little sister, Linda Ronstadt) Besides Pete on the vocals and guitar,there was Nate Foster-guitar, Bert Roberts-Drums, Lance Hoopes-Sax, and Don Grossberndt-Piano.
Zoom Records was Southern Arizona’s first rock and roll record label. It was the creation of two 17 year old Tucson, Arizona, Catalina High School students, Burt Schneider and Ray Lindstrom. All the records were produced during a short 7 month period in 1959, but they capture the independent rock sound of the era. They were all recorded in Phoenix at Audio Recorders of Arizona, where Duane Eddy made all his big hits. Legendary engineer, and Grammy award winner, Jack Miller was at the controls. He was famous later for sessions with many top stars including the Rolling Stones.
None of the records were giant chart busters, but they got heavy play and made the hit sheets in Tucson as well as a few other places in the US and Europe. They continue to be included on many US and overseas compilation releases featuring 50's American rock and roll and rockabilly.Sea of Love - Pete Ronstadt and The Nightbeats
Pete Ronstadt & The Nightbeats - Lonesome Road Rock www.rarerockabilly.n.nu/TEENER The Nightbeats feat. Pete Ronstadt - Doreen
Released on ZOOM 004, recorded August 27, 1959. Written by Aussie star Johnny Devlin Cryin' All Night - Pete Ronstadt and The Nightbeats on Zoom Records Pete Ronstadt and The Nightbeats here with a up-tempo cut. The vocal here with Pete were the world’s best. (You may have heard of Pete's little sister, Linda Ronstadt) Besides Pete on the vocals and guitar,there was Nate Foster-guitar, Bert Roberts-Drums, Lance Hoopes-Sax, and Don Grossberndt-Piano. Nightbeat - Pete Ronstadt and The Nightbeats on Zoom Records Linda Ronstadt (w Mike Ronstadt & Pete Ronstadt) - Dos arbolitos (Canciones de mi Padre 1989)
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 12:05:19 GMT
obitsGretchen Ronstadt (Suzy) O'BRIEN sister of Linda, dies at 76O'BRIEN, Gretchen (Suzy) Ronstadt, born March 11, 1939, died May 8, 2015. Predeceased by spouse, Murray Audré O'Brien; sons, Robert and James Cowley and son, Gilberto Jácome. Survived by daughter, Erin Gilmore (Douglas High); son, Federico Jácome (Julie); grandchildren, Jacob and Leah Jácome and Matthew Wallace (Theresa) and their children; siblings, Peter, Linda and Michael Ronstadt and their families; former stepchildren, Natalie Johnske (David), Suzanne Jácome, Alex J. Jácome and their families. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Society of St. Vincent de Paul, 601 E. Fort Lowell Rd., Tucson, AZ 85705.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 12:05:59 GMT
Tucson's "First lady of fashion" Cele Peterson talks about her incredible life just before her 100th birthday. Cele died 05/06/10 at the age of 101.Upper left video shows Cele chatting with Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords who was shot by a disgruntled conservative Tucson native that was radicalized by right wing talk radio. Gabby survived and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly is running for U.S. Senator as a Democrat from Arizona 2020.Tucson's first lady of fashion, charity turns 100 by Associated Press (March 14th, 2009 @ 8:37am) TUCSON, Ariz.
(AP) - Back in the early 1930s, when Cele Peterson opened her first clothing store in Tucson, she made a buying trip to New York. She brought along a friend to help her drive across the country.
Actually, two friends.
``I had a little gun on me because, after all, we were driving to New York,'' Peterson says.
Since it was illegal to carry a firearm in New York and she didn't dare leave it in the hotel, Peterson had to think. ``I put it in my muff and thought, 'Nobody knows I've got it,''' she recalls.
``We were at this one showroom and this guy said to me, 'you're from the wild West.' And I said, 'Sure.' He said, 'Do you carry a gun?' I said, 'Of course. Who doesn't?' And I opened my muff.
``Well I want you to know I got the best service from that company from then on out.''
On Saturday, Tucson's grande dame of fashion and style turns 100 years old. She's sharp as a tack, with barbed opinions, and still puts in time at her business. Her childhood memories sound like they sprang from the pages of a Western novel.
Through field glasses she watched puffs of rifle smoke from the Mexican Revolution across the border in Naco. She put a dead rattler in a candy box on Valentine's Day and gave it to her chemistry teacher, who promptly fainted when he opened the box.
Today the mischievous girl might have ended up in reform school. Instead she became a pioneer businesswoman and one of the most important philanthropists this city has yet created.
Sitting at the desk in her clothing store at the Crossroads Festival shopping center, Peterson recalled the events that led up to her move to Tucson.
Born Cecilia Fruitman in Pensacola, Fla., her family moved first to Tennessee, later to California and then to Bisbee when she was around 3 years old.
After graduating from high school in Bisbee, Peterson attended the University of Arizona for a year. She was 15 at the time - a source of great worry to her mother because college age boys, not knowing her real age, were asking her out. After that she headed east to study at an all-girls school. She hated it and quickly enrolled instead at nearby George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she met her future husband, Tom Peterson.
In 1931, with a pair of women from Tucson, she opened her first store downtown called The Coed Shop. That name stuck until she changed it to Cele Peterson's a few years later.
``'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,''' she said of the risky decision. ``I never thought that I was getting into something that I couldn't handle.''
Peterson hit upon an idea that set her business apart - to market not what people could afford to buy but what they wanted to buy. She sized up her market and her customers and set about making a name for herself.
One of her customers was her friend Ruth Mary Ronstadt, mother of singer Linda Ronstadt. Linda is Peterson's goddaughter.
``One of my earliest memories is going with my mother to Cele Peterson's dress shop, probably around 1950,'' Linda Ronstadt says. ``Cele knew her clients well. She knew what social functions they would attend and what their budgets would allow.
``She also was a talented designer. She designed clothes that were both stylish and practical for this hot climate and slightly more relaxed atmosphere,'' Ronstadt said. ``She called it her Station Wagon line and I can remember items my mother wore year after year.''
In 1934 Peterson married Texas-born Thomas Peterson, an insurance man who died in 1989. Tom kept an eye on the financial details of her business, leaving her to make the creative side work. Together they had five children.
The business grew and expanded with the town. Her business took her around the world on buying trips and fashion shows. But Tucson was always home.
``I think we have a big battle in Tucson today,'' says Peterson, who has lent her resources to numerous local charities. ``I think we're battling between keeping it a unique community as opposed to a metropolis. We're not trying to be a Phoenix, and yet the developers are trying to make us into a Phoenix.''
As she tickles the 100-year mark, Peterson is still an elegant presence in Tucson.
``Fashion is a way of life,'' she says. ``It doesn't have to be in clothes. It's in trends, in houses. It's in your eyeglasses. It's in whatever you do ... And I still say life is what we want it to be.'' You will notice Ronstadts galore including a cameo of Linda as well as Congresswoman Gabby Giffords before the rightist assassin gunned her down not far from this location in Tucson.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 12:06:26 GMT
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 12:06:51 GMT
20/20: Rebecca Schaeffer’s Stalker Arrested by Linda Ronstadt’s Brotherby 2Paragraphs in Culture | April 12, 2019 2paragraphs.com/2019/04/20-20-rebecca-schaeffers-stalker-arrested-by-linda-ronstadts-brother/
"Your Biggest Fan" on ABC's 2020
The 20/20 two-hour special “Your Biggest Fan” looks at what’s considered one of the first big celebrity stalking cases. Rebecca Schaeffer, a 21-year-old actress known for her role as Patti in the TV sitcom My Sister Sam with Pam Dawber, was fatally shot at the door of her Los Angeles home on July 18, 1989. Her killer was Robert John Bardo, a man from Tucson, Arizona who had been stalking Schaeffer for three years.
Bardo confessed and was tried by prosecutor Marcia Clark (who later became famous during the O.J. Simpson murder case). Bardo was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
And that’s not all — this case strangely features celebrity connections throughout, even outside Los Angeles and Hollywood.
Bardo was arrested (one day after the murder) by Tucson Police Chief Peter Ronstadt, brother of singer Linda Ronstadt. Peter Ronstadt was Tucson Chief of Police for 10 years, 1981-1991. Prior to becoming a police officer, Peter joined his sisters Linda and Suzy in a folk trio called the New Union Ramblers in 1963. They signed a recording contract but by 1966, Linda left Tucson for Los Angeles, where she sang with the Stone Poneys, and launched her solo career.
|
|
|
Post by the Scribe on Mar 22, 2020 12:07:18 GMT
|
|