Linda Ronstadt leads kids to the intersection of arts and understanding across the border
BANAMICHI, SONORA, Mexico - Rosa Armida Contreras and Rafael Vindiola stood to the side of a portable wood dance surface plopped down in the town square, the two high school students shyly eyeing each other after being invited to join members of a visiting music and dance group that had traveled nearly 1,100 miles south from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Contreras, Vindiola and more than a dozen other teens from Grupo de Danza Xunutzi folkloric dance troupe eventually shuffled forward to match dance moves with their U.S. guests, but only after Eugene Rodriguez, founder of the Northern California's Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, reiterated his request.
Among several dozen people of all ages looking on was singer Linda Ronstadt, a longtime cheerleader of the work Rodriguez and his collaborators have been doing for 30 years, teaching traditional Mexican music and dance to young people.
Another member of that entourage, colloquially referred to as the Rolling Rio Sonora Revue, was another longtime friend of Ronstadt's, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. He's one of several high-profile musicians who have worked closely with Los Cenzontles over the years. Others include Los Lobos singer, guitarist and songwriter David Hidalgo, blues musician Taj Mahal, Ireland's the Chieftains and roots music guitarist and songwriter Ry Cooder.
Browne and Rodriguez collaborated in 2017 on a bilingual song, "The Dreamer," a tune that roughly documents the experience of one of Los Cenzontles' maestras (teachers), Lucina Rodriguez. The latter came to the U.S. at 11 with her family - an experience echoed in the stories of many immigrants.
On this trip, Browne would deliver a solo acoustic rendition of a song by Cuban singer-songwriter Carlos Varela, whose music Browne has championed in recent years. He performed "Muros Y Puertas," which translates as "Walls and Doors," a song that lobbies for unity over political and cultural division and one possessing a message
