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.

Luisa Ronstadt was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1892, the daughter of Mexican-born businessman and musician Federico José María Ronstadt, and his wife Sara Levin.^[1] Her mother died in 1902, from a fever,^[2][3] and her father remarried, to Lupe Dalton; one of their granddaughters was singer Linda Ronstadt,^[4] who recalled "visits from Aunt Luisa" as "wonderfully exciting."^[5][6] Luisa Espinel went to San Francisco, New York, and Paris to study music;^[7] she went to Spain to study Spanish music and dance in the 1920s.^[8][9]

Espinel toured as a dancer and singer in the western states^{[10][11][12][13]} and in vaudeville.^[8] She was a member of the Mexican Players of Claremont, California in the 1930s.^[8] She taught music and dance in Los Angeles, toured and gave concerts in folk-inspired costumes,^[14][15] and danced in the film The Devil Is a Woman (1935), starring Marlene Dietrich.^[7] In 1946 she compiled a book of traditional lyrics, Canciones de mi padre: Spanish Folksongs from Southern Arizona, released by University of Arizona.^[8] In the 1950s, she taught Spanish to adults in Pasadena,^[16] and was a presenter at the Casa de Adobe, a recreated Californio residence at the Southwest Museum.^[17]

In 1935,^[18] Espinel became the second wife of the American artist Charles Kassler, and was a model for his 1934 mural "Pastoral California", in Fullerton, California.^[19] She died in 1963, aged 71, in Los Angeles.^[20] Her papers are in the Ronstadt family collections at the University of Arizona and the Arizona Historical Society libraries.^[8][3]