Federico José María Ronstadt (January 30, 1868 – December 13, 1954; ) was a Mexican business and cultural leader in

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

, in the early 20th century.

Life and career

Ronstadt was born in Las Delicias, in the municipality of Banamichi,

Sonora, Mexico Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital (and largest) city of which is ...

, in 1868, the son of Margarita Redondo y Vásquez and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Friederich August Ronstadt from

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

. He moved to Tucson in 1882 to learn the blacksmithing and

wheelwright A wheelwright is a Artisan, craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright" (which comes from the Old English word "''wryhta''", meaning a worker - as also in shipbuilding, shipwright ...

trades. He eventually formed the F. Ronstadt wagon and carriage company, which later changed its name to the F. Ronstadt Hardware and Machinery Company and became the largest business of its kind in southern Arizona.''Borderman: The Memoirs of Federico José María Ronstadt''
The University of Arizona Library Though he declined many invitations to run for high political offices, Ronstadt was an active community leader. He served a two-year term on the

Pima County Pima County ( ) is a County (United States), county in the south central region of the U.S. state of Arizona, one of 15 List of counties in Arizona, counties in the state. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 1 ...

Board of Supervisors, was chairman of the Water and Agricultural Committee of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Tucson

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest Service club, service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, go ...

and supported numerous political campaigns and causes. Music was essential to his life. A guitarist and vocalist, he founded what was probably Tucson's first professional orchestra, the Club Filarmonico Tucsonense, in 1896.James S. Griffit
''Tucson's Ronstadt Family,''
The University of Arizona Library In the mid-1920s Ronstadt was among the organizers of the

Tucson Symphony Orchestra The Tucson Symphony Orchestra, or TSO, is the primary professional orchestra of Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1928, when the season consisted of just two concerts, the TSO is the oldest continuously running performing arts organization in the Sout ...

and he directed a production of

Victor Herbert Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and co ...

's ''

The Red Mill ''The Red Mill'' is an operetta written by Victor Herbert, with a libretto by Henry Blossom. The farcical story concerns two American vaudevillians who wreak havoc at an inn in the Netherlands, interfering with two marriages; but all ends well. Th ...

''. Music and stories always filled Ronstadt's home and inspired his children and grandchildren. He was married twice. His first wife, Sara Levin, was the daughter of Tucson City Pioneer Alexander Levin (1834–1891) and Zenone/Zenona Molina. Alexander Levin was born

German-Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

in Bahn,

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

, he later converted to Catholicism, his wife's religion. Together Federico and Sara had four children: Luisa, Laura, Frederick, and Alicia. After the death of his first wife Sara from typhoid,Ronstadt was married a second time to Maria Guadalupe Agustina Dalton, who was of one-quarter English and three-quarters Mexican ancestry. Federico and Maria had four children together: William, Alfred, Gilbert, and Edward. His daughter Luisa, known professionally as

Luisa Espinel Luisa Espinel (December 8, 1892 – February 2, 1963), born Luisa Ronstadt, was an American singer, dancer, and actress. She toured, taught, performed in vaudeville, and appeared in a movie with Marlene Dietrich. Early life Luisa Ronstadt was ...

, and granddaughter by Gilbert,

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who has performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music. Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three A ...

, became internationally acclaimed singers. Linda paid tribute to her creative family tradition by recording a

Mariachi Mariachi (, , ) is a genre of regional Mexican music dating back to at least the 18th century, evolving over time in the countryside of various regions of western Mexico. The usual mariachi group today consists of as many as eight violins, two ...

album, ''

Canciones de Mi Padre ''Canciones de mi padre'' (Spanish for ''Songs of My Father'', or ''My Father's Songs'') is American singer Linda Ronstadt's first album of Mexican traditional Mariachi music. History The album was released in late 1987 and immediately became a ...

'' (Spanish for "Songs of My Father"), in 1987. Ronstadt remained active in business, writing and music up to his death in 1954. The City of Tucson dedicated its central transit terminal to Ronstadt on March 16, 1991, for his early contribution to the city's mobility which included six

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey, and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two ...

-drawn

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

s delivered in 1903–1904. Noted historian David Leighton honored the Ronstadt family in January 2020 by naming two streets, Corte de Federico (Federico Court) and Calle de Lupe (Lupe Street) on property that used to be the family's homestead, at Prince Road and Tucson Blvd. The Tucson Musicians Museum is dedicated to the legacy of Ronstadt for his fundamental contributions to Tucson's cultural identity.''Federico José María Ronstadt''
Tucson Musicians Museum

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ronstadt, Federico Jose Maria Musicians from Arizona 1868 births 1954 deaths People from Sonora Businesspeople from Tucson, Arizona Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican people of German descent 20th-century American businesspeople