POP MUSIC REVIEW : RONSTADT RETURNS TO HER ROOTS AT MARIACHI FEST

Linda Ronstadt certainly likes diversity. Since the days when she got her start singing on a Tucson radio station, she has distinguished herself in country, rock, folk, operetta and big-band styles.

But she returned to her roots Saturday--as a special guest during the second International Festival of Mariachis, held at the Universal Studios. As she launched into another ranchera with three full mariachi bands blowing, bowing and strumming behind her, Ronstadt certainly had the audience on her side at the facility’s Screen Test Theatre.

“ Otra, otra “ fans shouted at the end of each song--and the more than four dozen assembled mariachis grinned enthusiastically as she concentrated on some pretty ballads.

“She’s a terrific singer, and her voice is just right for the rancheras ,” said Luis Reyes amid his family of seven. “I actually came to see Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, but to hear her too was great.”

“ Terrifico ,” seconded his brother Fausto, whose English was rather more limited.

Ronstadt, daughter of a Mexican-German hardware store owner, returns once in a while to the songs she heard all around her--and got her start performing--in Tucson. Thus, her weekend appearance at Universal Studios wasn’t unprecedented.

Ronstadt has been singing at mariachi festivals for years, her publicist, Paul Wasserman, said before Saturday’s performance. “She just likes vamping with them. It’s a nice stylistic break for her.” She also sang with mariachi musicians recently in San Antonio and Dallas.

Indeed, the singer expects to record an all-Spanish LP next year and has recorded with salsa star Ruben Blades.

But Ronstadt won’t be neglecting the other sides of her career. She has just finished a country album with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton. She’ll also perform at an AIDS benefit Sept. 20 at the Wiltern Theater.

Also on the festival program Saturday were stirring performances by two Los Angeles-based mariachi groups, Los Camperos de Nati Cano and Los Galleros de Pedro Rey, and by a visiting group from San Antonio, Tex., called Los Campanas de America.