Her music has brought her a string of covered awards, including two Grammy nominations and an MTV award. Just a few months ago, Estefan planted her hands and feet in the cement of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in July of this year, she will showcase her talent as a feature performer at the International Olympics. Her 1996 world tour entitled Evolution will follow, featuring her new album, Destiny. Service has been an integral part of Gloria Estefan’s work over the years. Besides giving benefit concerts for Amnesty International and Miami’s hurricane relief, she supports a number of human rights causes and national charities, contributes to AIDS awareness for children, and promotes the empowerment of our youth.

Estefan is deeply enriched by her family life; her husband Emilio Estefan is also her producer, and they have two children. In the following interview, she speaks of her family, her passion for singing, songwriting, and performing, and her commitment to give voice to the power of love and hope through her music. In her words, "The most any human being can ever hope for is to be loved. This is all that really matters. ... what all of us spend our lives searching for."

Gloria, you seem to absolutely love what you do and have said, "Performing is one of the best feelings that I know."
Yes. I love what I do with music. Ever since I was born and started talking, I have been singing. I think it came with me. My mom says it is the only way she could get a diaper on me! She would sing to me, and I would just melt as I listened to her. My daughter is the same way – I already see that in her. But I never thought I’d be a performer because I was very shy as a child and teen with people that I didn’t know. Music has always been a very fulfilling experience for me, almost like a catharsis, or an emotional avenue for to express. Growing up, I was usually alone in my room singing with my guitar, and at that time, it seemed like enough.
Then I got into writing and arraning music – what a discovery! For me it’s the most beautiful thing I do in life. As for performing, once I was relaxed, I really began to enjoy it.

How did you move from the shyness and insecurity you had about being in the spotlight to the level of self-esteem you have now?
For me, gaining confidence has been a natural part of maturing as a woman. The only difference is that much of my life is in the public eye. My career has unfolded almost as my personality does in my close relationships – it’s been a slow, steady process of deepening and connecting. I see each fan of my music as a individual person. I have always tried to deepen those relationships, since I highly value those who enjoy my work.

Many people consider you to be a positive role model in the music industry since you are considered to be down-to-earth and you have a stable family life. Do you have any particular role models or mentors who have influenced you?
Yes. My grandmother was my hero. She gave me a very strong vision of what women can be. Growing up, I never suspected that women were second-class citizens or that they didn’t have the freedom and power that men had. My grandmother was born in 1905. When she came to this country at the age of nine, she wanted to be a lawyer. Of course, that was unrealistic. Her family pulled her out of school, and she had to work to maintain her twelve brothers and sisters. That was life in her generation: kids worked. Along with an incredibly talented chef, she started a catering business. At the age of 73, when my grandfather died, she finally got her driver’s license because she wanted to be more independent. She was a very spiritual woman, a woman who always gave of herself to everyone, and everyone loved her. She was just a wonderful role model for me.

Do you have any regular spiritual practices that you find helpful in your life?
I have meditated my whole life, almost as a form of self-hypnosis, but I didn’t really know what it was until after my tour bus accident, when a friend of mine sent me the book, Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss. It made a big impact on me and gave me a lot of strength during my recovery. I drew upon it often. I was always curious about hynosis without realizing that I’d been doing a form of it myself for years. Eventually, I met Brian Weiss, and when he hypnotized me, he used the same method that I have using since I was a child to do a kind of inner meditation. That has been my way of praying as well.

You had a brush with disaster with your tour bus accident in 1990. For a while, you were told that you might never walk again. What are a few of the important life lessons that you carry with you from that experience?
There were many. I found a discipline that I didn’t know I had that was necessary for me to get through the grueling physical therapy. I don’t talk to many people about that time in my life because it’s hard to fathom unless you have been in that situation yourself. But I guess if anyone would understand, it would be Body Mind Spirit readers. I actually felt people’s prayers like a physical energy surrounding me. It was a very powerful and life-changing force that did not allow me, in the crucial time after the accident, to feel hopeless or down. I chaneled a healing power into my body through meditation, and I firmly believe that it had a lot to do with my recuperation back to full health. Even the plastic surgeon who closed me up said that he was "getting religious" after seeing me come back to full health with all of the spinal injury that I’d had.
I experienced the power of people’s prayers and good wishes for me. I was touched by the spirit of unconditional love that came from so many – it wasn’t done out of self-gain. Thousands of people from all walks of life sent many, many wonderful things my way. I realized from that experience that life is to be lived and enjoyed every moment of each day – and lived to the fullest! That’s our whole purpose here – to learn to live our lives fully and enjoy each minute.

Your husband/producer Emilio was at your side throughout your recovery period. Did the accident deepen the love you have together?
Very much so. Many people didn’t realize it at the time, but he didn’t know if he could handle something as emotional as that. Men are often very goal-oriented and problem-solving, even in their emotional life. My husband could have turned and run the other way, and I’m sure that many have done that. But Emilio became so supportive, I couldn’t have asked for more love and support. I really would not have been the same without him. It deepened our relationship beyond what words can describe, because we lived through a very tough experience together.
And you know, the reason it really threw me was that I was suddenly in a foreign body. I have always been very active and very independent, and it was difficult to feel that I was now living inside of a strange, unfamiliar environment. It really drove home to me that we are not our bodies. Our bodies are governed by our spirits – they are just a temporary vehicle in which our spirits reside for a while, but we certainly are not our bodies.

It sounds like you developed a type of faith you didn’t have before the accident.
Yes. As a child, I was raised a Catholic, and I always had many questions that went unanswered. Dogma and I have a problem! And yet I have always felt things very deeply, and this helped me to see that the road is inward, and that those things we search for outside of ourselves are really inside of us. There is nothing that is outside of God. I tap into the energy of the Godforce by going inward. When I had the accident, it was almost as though I was forced to go inward! Nothing that I learned during that time was earth-shatteringly different from what I had felt all my life, but it really guided me in a whole new direction.

Has it changed your perspective about music?It seems that more musicians are realizing the potential that they have to inspire hope and create positive change in the world with their music.
Yes, that is very important to me, because music has always done that for me. It has never been an escape; it is a beautiful emotional and spiritual experience and has always beem very fulfilling for me. So if my music can be that for someone else, I take that very seriously.
That news we see is so often negative, because it focuses nto just on the horrible things happening locally but also globally. I believe we have to balance that with positive messages and empower people – especially our youth, because many of them are depressed! A lot of what they are telling us is that they don’t know how to come out from under the barrage of negativity. We have to help empower them. What better way than through music, through something that touches them emotionally and deeply? To me that is a responsibility, as well as something that I enjoy doing.

The theme of your upcoming world tour is evolution. What inspired the title?
It has been five years since we have toured. As a human being, my life experiences during these past five years have become a part of my music. So that’s why the theme of this tour is evolution. I want people, when they go to a concert, to get to know me as a human being a little more. I would like my audiences to get an overview of how we have
evolved – personally, spiritually, and musically, through time.

What’s the creative process like for you when you are writing songs? Do you ever feel that a songs is "coming through you?"
My songs have their own unique way of being born. To me they are like having children. Every time I "give birth" to one, I wonder if I’ll ever do it again! I guess that’s what inspiration is all about. I feel that some of the songs on my new album, Destiny, came through me rather than from me. I believe that songs that just come through me are inspired by the universe, so that important messages can get out there into the world.

In your popular song "Always Tomorrow," one of the lyrics is "I guess it took a little time for me to see the reason I was born into this world." What do you consider your life pupose to be?
I think that in general, my life purpose is to be a communicator – of love and hope. And it’s what I’ve done best my whole life since I wa a little girl, and now through my performances – to communicate hopefully about positive and inspirational things. I think that’s my destiny.
The accident was a turning point. I think the public looked at me differently from that point on. They saw me more as a human being. Even people who didn’t particularly follow my music saw a human being go through a difficult experience and continue onward, perhaps inspiring other people not to give up. Overall, I think our destinies are multiple and have millions of currents. ... Every person affects every other person and every living thing on this planet.

What are some of the ways that you feel you are making a positive difference in the world?
Well, one way is through the gift of communication – writing songs like "Coming out of the Dark," "Always Tomorrow," and on the new album, "Reach," which to me are very special. And, on a grander scale, through giving money to various causes and giving benefit concerts. An example is Hurricane Relief, a benefit concert that we put on for the victims of the Miami hurricane. We were able to raise over three million dollars. We were able to draw upon
well-known people, who vounteered to help. In this one instance, because everyone came aboard to help, we were able to raise a lot of money and make a very positive impact on our community in need.
Human rights also mean a great deal to me. I think that the right of human beings to fully reach their creative goals is a very important in life and should not be stifled by people or governments or religious extremes. The concert I did for the Cubans at Guantánamo was very personally fulfilling. Because I am a Cuban, I could talk to them very personally in a certain way. I cannot always do things privately, as I would prefer. For instance, I don’t ordinarily talk about sex in public, but I feel that I must in order to support AIDS education for our children.

You are singing your inspiring new song "Reach" at the Olympics in July. How did that come to be?
Life just throws these things to you. I was invited to write with some other artists for the album for the Olympics. My friend/co-songwriter Diane Warren told me she had come up with a song title and asked me what I thought of "Reach". When I heard the word, it drew me back to the time right after the accident when I had to talk myself into getting up out of bed every day to do five or six hours of painful physical therapy. After that, I was able to approach the piece from a deeply personal point of view. Writing the song took me back to mey first night back on stage after a year of recovery, which was almost like winning a gold medal – it was the most euphoric feeling of victory I have ever felt in my entire life.
Here’s where the real magic comes in. In the chorus of the song, it says, "If I can reach higher ... I am going to be stronger." We wanted every person to feel inspired, whatever their goal may be. When we sent the demo to someone on the Olympics committee, he leaped out of his chair, because the theme for the 1996 Olympics is "Higher, Stronger, Faster." Talk about things coming through you! After I heard the word "reach," it’s almost as if the rest of the song wrote itself. We didn’t know anything about the Olympics theme at the time, so I guess it was just waiting there to be written.

You have won several awards over the years. Is this one of the greatest honors of your career?
It is definitely a peak. I have always followed the Olympics because I think it is one of the most beautiful events in the world, human beings at their physical and spiritual finest. It is a world event that has rarely been tainted by violence. As a healthy competition, it doesn’t get any better. For me to have a song tied forever to that event is a wonderful experience. And I do feel more like a world citizen because of it. (Ah, my baby Emilio just brought me a flower. Gracias! She, too, wishes to celebrate being a world citizen!)

What inspires you and keep you going in your life?
The power of love. Love is a constant source of inspiration, surprise, and wonderment. The scope, the nuances, the incredible web of emotion that we all share touches everyone regardless of background, culture, or religion. We all need and crave love, and in some ways, we’re all constantly searching for it. And it’s all around us: if we reach out, it is right there for us to have all the time. I’ve found that the more I open myself up to messages from the universe, from God, and from my intuition, the more I learn. And let me tell you, I am super analytical, and very logical. But regardless of that, I always pay attention to my intuition, because I think it is our direct connection to God.
We need to open ourselves up and listen to the millions of ways there are to help ourselves and to learn from a situation. And usually those nonverbal hints are the most
real – impressions and feelings that feel true. Sometimes I’ll have a question going around in my mind for days, and one day I’ll wake up with an answer from out of the blue – something that feels true. We must be willing to go inward more often. Every strong lesson I have ever learned has been a feeling, intuitive one. The more I have turned inward, the more answers I have received.

In the song "Reach," one of your lines is, "Some dreams live on in time forever. Those dreams you want with all your heart." What dreams do you hold for the future of music and the world?
To me, music has been the most beautiful way to communicate cross-culturally. It unites us at our core. I would just love to see more inspirational music all around the world. You don’t have to understand it or categorize it. It is just something that touches you. That’s always a beautiful thing to see – boundaries breaking down little by little, happening naturally through the healing power of music. We are becoming a smaller world, a world where we touch each other more directly.
We must empower people to use the unique gifts that God has given them to create and celebrate life, to overcome those things that we can, and to change the negative things that are our creations. There is nothing apart from God. I see evil simply as ignorance. Our youth need to realize that we have the power to make our lives the way we want them to be. We have more power to change things and turn them around for the better than we realize.
We shouldn’t wait around for God to do it. We were given the power. It is meant to be used for our benefit and our enjoyment, so that we can live as the beautiful creative beings that we truly are. Hopefully, we will learn little by little, to use more of our positive, creative forces and not to surrender so much power to others.

Gloria, at the end of your life, as you look back, what will you most hope to have achieved?
I want to leave a legacy of love with my family, my friends, and with my music fans. I want people to know that I really cared about them and that I really was nurtured by their love. I felt that way when Lucille Ball passed away. I never met the woman in person, yet she filled my life with so much laughter and good times that I wished the best for her, and I knew that I would miss her. She left a lot of beautiful things behind. I named two of my dalmatians after her an her husband – Lucille and Ricky! What she left behind publicly was a wonderful legacy of laughter and love. To me, humor is one of the most important things in my life; it has helped me through some very rough points. My humor can sometimes be irreverent, but every moment it has been there with me, even through the darkest moments. I think it helps us to not take ourselves too seriously. There is just too much to celebrate and too much to be grateful for.

© All rights reserved by Body Mind Spirit 1996

Many thanks to Amanda Warnock!!! You are really an Angel!!!

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