Tucson To Rename Music Hall For Linda Ronstadt On Saturday

TUCSON, AZ —Less than a year after the city of Tucson celebrated Linda Ronstadt Day on the singer's 75th birthday last July, Ronstadt will be receiving another honor this weekend in Tucson.

At a Saturday ceremony at the Tucson Music Hall, 260 S Church Ave., Tucson Mayor Regina Romero will be formally renaming the theater as the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall for the singer who was born and raised in the city before going on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide.

According to a spokesperson for the theater, the ceremony will take place at 6:25 p.m. and is part of the Tucson International Mariachi Conference Espectacular Concert. Tickets are available for purchase online, though a limited number of free tickets will be given out at the Music Hall beginning at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on a first-come, first-served basis, according to the theater's spokesperson.

Speaking to KXCI earlier this week, Romero said Ronstadt is in town and is expected to attend the dedication. Ronstadt retired from singing in 2009 after she was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare and incurable brain disorder similar to Parkinson's disease, according to NBC News.

On KXCI, Romero spoke about her reasons for pursuing the name change to honor Ronstadt, whose grandfather Federico was born in Sonora, Mexico. The singer has said she was heavily influenced by Mexican music and she put out a 1987 album "Canciones de mi Padre" ("Songs of my Father"), of Spanish-language traditional Mexican music that she learned from her father.

"It's so appropriate because of (Ronstadt's) incredible connection to music, and being able to recognize her during the 40th annual Mariachi Conference ..." Romero said. "She has done so much to elevate mariachi music, the music of the Sonoran Desert, and to bring attention to Tucson. I thought it was most appropriate to rename it after Linda Ronstadt."

Romero pointed out that the Ronstadt family is a long-time Tucson family that had their businesses downtown. The neighborhood where the Tucson Convention Center lies also is in a former Mexican neighborhood, parts of which were torn down, leading to the displacement of many residents.

"It's really about trying to retake the space for what was there before," Romero said. "Renaming the (Tucson Music Hall) after Linda was that piece to reclaim that space, that there was history there.

"It was important for many historians to be able to add the names of Mexican-American families and people into the space that was still, to this day, a horrific trauma in the history of the city in terms of displacing and gentrification, and specifically displacing Mexican families and Tohono and Yaqui people from the center of our city."