Superstar Ana Gabriel comes to Santa Rosa

Not every American singing star is from the United States. Some of the biggest acts in North America come from south of the U.S. border.

Ana Gabriel, 53, a long-established Mexican singer and songwriter from Tijuana, has recorded a long string of hits in Spanish, and plays to sold-out stadiums and arenas all over the world.

She’s expected to easily fill the 1,600-seat Wells Fargo Center auditorium when she plays Sonoma County for the first time Nov. 19. Through a translator, Gabriel recently talked about the show, and her career, in this e-mail interview:

Q: How are your audiences in the United States different from the crowds you get in Mexico or South America?

A: Well, it depends — the audiences in the U.S. when I perform on the West Coast are very different from those on the East Coast, for example. The crowd on the East Coast is mostly made up of Colombians, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans and Central Americans, but from Chicago on to the West, the demographic is mainly Mexican, and I am able then to interpret the banda (brass-based) tunes and more of the Mariachi material. Latin America is a total “melting pot” of tastes. Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile all enjoy the Mariachi. In Central America now there is a new tendency, and they are more receptive to the banda music, so the show order changes quite a bit from time to time.

Q: This is your first appearance in Sonoma County. Do you perform often in other parts of California?

A: California is a very important market for us, and we play from San Diego to Sacramento. Nevertheless, it has been a couple of years that we have not played in the San Francisco Bay Area. So I am definitely looking forward to havingfun at the Wells Fargo Center. I enjoy the smaller venues. They tend to be more intimate and I can interact better with the audience.

Q: You entertained U.S. troops bound for Iraq. Do you have any special memories of that?

A: It was so wonderful to be able to offer some entertainment to the troops, especially when we saw that there were a lot of young Hispanics.

Q: Do you write all of your songs?

A: I have been writing most of the songs I interpret in my CDs. However, I have also had the pleasure and honor of singing songs from Jose Alfredo Jimenez, Cuco Sanchez, Juan Gabriel and Armando Manzanero among others. Two years ago, I released a record which paid tribute to three friends and three great composers —Vicente Fernandez, Roberto Carlos and Juan Gabriel. My newest consists of two CDs, in which I tried to include all the hits that Lucha Villa had in the last period of her active career.

Q: Which ones mean the most to you — the romantic ballads or the faster ones?

A: All my songs are like my “children” — softer ones, Mariachi tunes, rhythmic ones — but there are a couple that are quite special, like the one I dedicated to my grandfather, “Destino.”

Q: You have done a lot of fundraising for poor children, through a variety of organizations. Why are you especially interested in helping children?

A: Children have always been very special to me, and whenever there is an opportunity to help, I will always try to be there. I am also helping an orphanage in Hermosillo, Mexico, which right now houses a bit over a dozen children. Last year, I also became the godmother to the Special Olympics in Ecuador, and this year, we are going back again, not only for a couple of concerts, but also to inaugurate one more school. I think children are not only innocent, but they don’t have the ability to defend themselves, and after seeing so much abuse, and parents who have no responsibility, I decided that as long as God gave me the strength and the health to do so, I would try to help them.

Q: Did you come from a large family?

A: Yes. We were nine — five girls and four boys.

Q: How many albums have you recorded? Are there special ones that changed your career?

A: I believe I now have 25 albums. My very first internationally recognized album, “Sagitario,” was very important, but they are all the result of a lot of dedication, inspiration and hard work from a group of people that have been working with me now for almost 20 years.

Q: How long do you spend in the studio for an album?

A: It varies. This last one took us a bit over a year, I would say around 17 months, but the result is great. I have included three genres — the pure Mariachi tunes, orchestrated Mariachi and Sinaloa banda. It is the first time I have recorded banda, and I must say that it was wonderful.

Q: How many concerts do you do a year? What do you do when you’re not recording or touring?

A: I try to concentrate my touring among the months of February and March then May and then September through November. . . . I usually try to stop around the first week of December and then I spend the holiday time with my family, my friends and all my loved ones. I also use that time to write songs. It doesn’t always happens, but I do my best to make the time.

Q: How does religious faith affect your music?

A: I am Catholic. However, I have to say that I don’t attend services on a weekly basis and I don’t believe in a lot of things that the Church as an establishment has instituted. I believe in God and I believe in His supremacy and power. In some sort of way my faith is present in a lot of my tunes.

Q: Why do you think you are so popular in Mexico?

A: I believe you should ask the audience. They are the ones that have supported my career for the past 35 years and I definitely owe it all to them. Mexico is a great country, but I cannot forget all my fans in Latin America, Puerto Rico, the U.S. and Spain.