From Ink Air Music and All Songs Considered, I'm Robin Hilton.

When Linda Ronstadt started releasing pop records back in the late 1960s and 70s,

a lot of fans in the US didn't realize she was Mexican-American.

But she reclaimed her culture in the 1980s by releasing a Spanish language mariachi album.

It was a rare and surprising move at the time for an artist who was known and who had grown

popular for singing only in English.

This fall, Linda Ronstadt released a new memoir called Feels Like Home A Song for the

Sonoran Borderlands.

And she sat down recently with Felix Contreras and Anamaria Sayer, host of NPR's Alt Latino,

to talk about her Mexican heritage, how she says that she wanted to sing in Spanish a

lot earlier in her career, and why she never felt like what she calls the quintessential

American girl.

Hey, on this week, we get to interview Linda Ronstadt.

I know you're really excited about this one, Feels.

Oh my gosh, you can't imagine.

Triste carabana de recuerdos por mi mente ha pasado.

Rostros de nostalgia que ha dejado, una Amoria fracasado.

Mid-career, she took a stand and reclaimed her culture because not many people knew that

she was Mexican American from Tucson while she was making all her pop music.

And then in the 80s, she made these mariachi albums that just completely blew the lid off

of contemporary mariachi music.

Which is really fascinating because I feel like in today's world, we're seeing this happen

...