#blog #book
Feels Like Home by Linda Ronstadt and Lawrence Downes narrates Linda’s memories of her Sonoran Borderlands and her Family. I read the book because I had recently heard Linda suffered from PSP just like my wife, Gwen.
In Summary, most of the book is about Linda’s roots: her family, the Sonoran Borderland, Tucson, food, and of course music.
Family: Frederick Ronstadt, her great-grandfather emigrated from Germany in the 1840s, married Margarita a local girl, and that’s where the story begins. Her grandfather emigrated to Tucson as a young man if you want to call it an emigration. Back then the boarder was porous and people traveled back and forth across the border at will. Her grandfather started a hardware store in Tucson and many of his customers came up from the Mexican side of the border to purchase equipment. Most of her siblings, nieces, and nephews still reside in the Tucson area.
Sonoran Borderlands: The Sonoran Borderlands are an area starting at Tucson and extending south around 250 miles and around 150 miles wide at the widest point. Of course the land is an arid desert. The Indigenous peoples of the region farmed, hunted, foraged, traded, made war, and coped with alternating floods and droughts for millenniums. Then the Spaniards came – it’s a wonder any of them survived. Some of the old ways still exist south of the border but they are disappearing fast
Tucson: Linda was born in Tucson in 1946 and grew up there. She left Tucson at 18 for the bright lights of Los Angeles to further her signing career. Her father owned the hardware store and was a musician They lived slightly outside Tucson on 10 acres, a family of six.
Some of her favorite places were The Arizona Inn where she stays when back home, the Mission Garden, the Canelo Projects, and the 47 Ranch.
Food: The book contains many recipes, in fact the book started out as a recipe book but over time morphed into the recipe, story of here ancestors, story of her family, story of the Sonoran borderlands, story of the border, and story of Tucson. I favorite of mine is Dried Beef Stew | Cazuela De Machaca.
Many recipe – in fact the book started out as a recipe book but over time morphed to include the story of here ancestors, story of her family, story of the Sonoran borderlands, story of the border, and story of Tucson
Music: Linda’s father besides being a successful businessman was a musician who led his own group. Prior to her father she comes from a long linage of musicians. Her grandfather, Fred, started Tucson’s first civic band comprised of two dozen musicians. They toured all over Arizona and even into California.
When Linda left home in search of her calling she traveled with an old Martin Guitar first purchased by her grandfather and later her father. She used it until recently when she could no longer make music she passed it along to her nephew, Petie
I enjoyed the book and recommend it. It’s not one of those books you read from cover to cover in one setting. I found myself reading a chapter and then thinking about it and my own past for a few days until I had sorted things out in my mind and was ready to move on.
Now I’m planning on traveling to Tucson the later part of March to visit some of her old haunts.
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