Editing Linda Ronstadt (section)

===''Canciones de Mi Padre''===

{{main article|Canciones de Mi Padre}}

At the end of 1987, Ronstadt released ''Canciones de Mi Padre'', an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, or what she has described as "world class songs". Keeping with the Ronstadt history theme, her cover art was dramatic, bold, and colorful; it shows Ronstadt in full Mexican regalia. Her musical arranger was mariachi musician [[Rubén Fuentes]].

These ''[[canciones]]'' were a big part of Ronstadt's family tradition and musical roots. In January 1946, the [[University of Arizona]] published a booklet by [[Luisa Espinel]] entitled ''Canciones de mi Padre''.<ref name="MyFathersSongs">{{Cite web |last=Griffith |first=James S. |title=The Singing Ronstadts and Canciones de mi Padre – A Musical Family |url=http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/ronstadtfamily/music/cancintr.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615124049/http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/ronstadtfamily/music/cancintr.html |archive-date=June 15, 2007 |access-date=May 30, 2007 |website=Tucson'sRonstadtFamily}}</ref> Luisa Espinel, Ronstadt's aunt, was an international singer in the 1920s and 1930s. Espinel's father was Fred Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's grandfather, and the songs she had learned, transcribed, and published were some of the ones he had brought with him from [[Sonora]]. Ronstadt researched and extracted from the favorites she had learned from her father Gilbert and she called her album by the same name as her aunt's booklet and as a tribute to her father and his family. Though not fully bilingual, she has a fairly good command of the Spanish language, allowing her to sing Latin American songs with little discernible U.S. accent; Ronstadt has often identified herself as Mexican-American.<ref name="MexAm">{{Cite web |title=American Way |url=http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artamway.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808111245/http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/artamway.htm |archive-date=August 8, 2007 |access-date=May 7, 2007 |website=Linda Ronstadt's New Old Flame- Mexican Music}}</ref> Her formative years were spent with her father's side of the family.<ref name="rollingstone">{{Cite magazine |last=Herbst |first=Peter |title=The Rolling Stone Interview |url=http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/intrs78.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061022112308/http://www.ronstadt-linda.com/intrs78.htm |archive-date=October 22, 2006 |access-date=October 19, 2006 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]}}</ref> In fact, in 1976, Ronstadt had collaborated with her father to write and compose a traditional Mexican folk ballad, ''"Lo siento mi vida"''{{snds}}a song that she included on ''Hasten Down the Wind''. Ronstadt has also credited Mexican singer [[Lola Beltrán]] as an influence on her own singing style, and she recalls how a frequent guest to the Ronstadt home, [[Lalo Guerrero|Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero]], father of [[Chicano]] music, would often serenade her as a child.<ref name="AARP-07" />

''Canciones de Mi Padre'' won Ronstadt a Grammy Award for [[Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album|Best Mexican-American Performance]]. In 2001, it was certified double-platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 2&nbsp;million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling non-English-language album in U.S. music history. The album and later theatrical stage show served as a benchmark of the Latin cultural renaissance in North America.

{{quote box
| width=25%
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| quote=(I obtained) enough clout and ... after years and years of making commercial records, I was entitled to experiment ... the success of the (Nelson Riddle albums) ... entitled me to try the Mexican stuff.
|source=—Linda Ronstadt<ref name="Windy" />}}

Ronstadt produced and performed a theatrical stage show, also titled ''Canciones de mi Padre'', in concert halls across the U.S. and Latin America to both Hispanic and non-Hispanic audiences. These performances were later released on DVD. Ronstadt elected to return to the Broadway stage, four years after she performed in ''La bohème'', for a limited-run engagement. [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS's]] ''Great Performances'' aired the stage show during its annual fund drives and the show was a hit with audiences, earning Ronstadt a [[Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program]].

Ronstadt recorded two additional albums of Latin music in the early 1990s. Their promotion, like most of her albums in the 1990s, was a quieter affair, with Ronstadt making only a limited number of appearances to promote them. They were not nearly as successful as ''Canciones De Mi Padre'', but were critically acclaimed in some circles. In 1991, she released ''[[Mas Canciones]]'', a follow-up to the first ''Canciones''. For this album, she won a Grammy Award for [[Grammy Award for Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album|Best Mexican/Mexican-American Album]]. The following year, she stepped outside of the mariachi genre and decided to record well-known Afro-Cuban songs. This album was titled ''[[Frenesí (album)|Frenesí]]''. Like her two previous Latin recordings ventures, it won Ronstadt a Grammy Award, this time for [[Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album|Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album]].

In 1991, Ronstadt acted in the lead role of archangel San Miguel in ''La Pastorela'', or ''A Shephard's Tale'', a musical filmed at ''[[San Juan Bautista, California|San Juan Bautista]]''. It was written and directed by [[Luis Valdez]]. The production was part of the PBS ''Great Performances'' series.

In December 2020, it was announced that ''Canciones de Mi Padre'' had been inducted into the [[Grammy Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web |title=GRAMMY Hall Of Fame Welcomes 2021 Inductions: A Tribe Called Quest, Billie Holiday, Journey, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen And More |date=December 21, 2020 |url=https://www.grammy.com/press-releases/grammy-hall-fame-2021-inductions-welcomes-recordings-tribe-called-quest-billie-holiday-journey-linda |publisher=Recording Academy |access-date=February 16, 2021 |archive-date=March 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301191303/https://www.grammy.com/press-releases/grammy-hall-fame-2021-inductions-welcomes-recordings-tribe-called-quest-billie-holiday-journey-linda |url-status=live}}</ref>