GLORIA REFLECTS ON HER CAREER
THE QUEEN OF LATIN POP REFLECTS ON HER CAREER, MARRIAGE – AND THE NEARDEATH EXPERIENCE THAT CHANGED HER LIFE
Gloria Estefan can tell you the exact moment her life changed forever: March 20, 1990, when a semi-truck crashed into her tour bus on a snowy Pennsylvania highway, breaking her back. “I was taking a nap on the bus, trying to be fresh for the show that night, and suddenly I was lying on the floor, not able to stand up, looking up at the ceiling, going, ‘What happened?’ The pain was excruciating,” Estefan, 62, says, recalling the accident over a Zoom chat from her home office in Miami, where she and husband Emilio, 67, are isolating during the pandemic. That near-death experience shifted her focus.
“There was definitely a before and after from that accident. Even though I wouldn’t want to go through it again, I learned a lot about just living day to day,” she says. “I remember thinking, ‘Maybe this is the reason that I’ve gone through this; maybe I can be an example to people of how to take control of our lives.’”
After an arduous recovery, Estefan indeed regained control of her life – and made history as she took her career to new heights, from becoming the first Latin artist to headline the Super Bowl halftime show to winning Grammys and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“I never got into music for fame,” Estefan says. “I did it because I love music, and it’s been the thing that has gotten me through the toughest times of my life.”
Born Gloria Fajardo Garcia in 1957, Estefan and her family immigrated to the United States from Cuba when she was just 2 years old. She found solace in song as she helped her mother Gloria, a schoolteacher, care for her sick father José, a Vietnam War veteran. But music was just a pastime until she met Emilio in 1975 and began fronting his band, Miami Sound Machine.
The couple – who wed in 1978 and are parents to son Nayib, 39, and daughter Emily, 25 – have built a musical legacy and a life together. Now 30 years after her accident, Estefan continues to inspire with the release of her latest album, Brazil305, on which she re-imagines her biggest hits, including ‘Conga’ and
“I don’t think I need to retire – I don’t get bored”
‘Rhythm Is Gonna Get You’. Here, the music icon shares what she’s learned, in her own words, from faith, fame and family. Says Estefan, “I want to make every moment count until I’m gone.”
ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN B
When we met, Emilio had a full-time job at Bacardi, and I was about to start college and was working as an interpreter in immigration and customs. By the ’80s we knew we had to make a decision: “Look, we both have careers; let’s go for it. If nothing comes of it, then we always have something to fall back on, but what if we can make our life doing what we love?”
SUCCESS IS RELATIVE
We first became famous in Latin America, and we’d play at a 50,000-seat stadium and come back and play at a wedding. So we were huge stars internationally, but in Miami we were still a gig band. I remember driving in my car and hearing the very first single we cut here in Miami, playing on a local station. I had to pull over my little used ’73 Toyota Celica – my knees were weak, I was so excited. I just sat there going, “Oh my God, my voice is coming out of the radio.”
TRUST YOUR GUT
We always were very clear on what would work. We played ‘Conga’ before we even recorded it, and people would react as if it was a hit already – they’d rush to the dance floor. When we told our label ‘Conga’ should be the single, they said no and released a different single. So it took a whole year for ‘Conga’ to become big.
YOU GOTTA HAVE FAITH
I went to a Catholic girls’ school. We prayed a lot – the Our Father, the Hail Mary –
but I couldn’t connect because it was just spouting, almost like a meditation. But when I was the recipient of the prayers of millions of people around the world after my accident, I felt a physical energy.
It was the most powerful force, like I was plugged into the wall, juiced up. It wasn’t about religion: I felt the consciousness of other human beings wishing me well and the power of that collective spirit. So I’m convinced that thoughts create reality, and that the thoughts that we’ve put out into the universe are going to manifest.
START SMALL
After my accident, I couldn’t imagine going from being almost paralysed to walking again. I made myself short-term goals to accomplish, such as walking an extra [half metre], so each day I just went a little further. Don’t think about that daunting thing that seems unattainable – think about what I can do today to be just that much closer to that goal.
MARRY A MAN WHO MAKES YOU LAUGH
Emilio makes me laugh every day. For years he called singer Aretha Franklin – who loved him by the way – “Urethra Franklin”.
That is harder to say than her actual name, but in his mind, somehow that other word had stuck in there. And that’s what her name sounded like to him.
TAKE PRIDE IN WHERE YOU CAME FROM
I’d rather keep awards in the office because my home is my home, but the Grammys are on the mantel in my family room – they are very special – and the Presidential Medal of Freedom is here because it signifies so much. Emilio and I were the first couple to receive it together. We’re immigrants who came to this country with nothing, and this country tells you, “You can be who you want to be.” Our cultural differences are our strength and only enrich this country. The United States is supposed to be a place of freedom and opportunity for everyone, and we cannot allow that to ever change.