Gloria awaits her dream

July 11, 2004

More than anything, she wants to perform for her people in a free Cuba

Cuba must change before Gloria Estefan can live her dream. "The one thing I want dearly is to give a performance in a free Cuba," the 46-year-old Havana native said in a phone interview last month. "I've never been able to sing to my own people."

"(Fidel Castro) has driven the country into the ground. I think they will have to look at options once he's out of power. It'll be a beginning for them. Castro keeps such a tight rein. They're very fearful of him."

Estefan said she realizes Cuba's nonviolent transition to a democracy likely will have to wait until Castro dies. Until then, she said, she can't perform in Cuba.

She and her parents fled the country when she was 16 months old. Her father led a U.S. tank division during the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1963, was imprisoned in Cuba and returned to his family in Miami after being released a year and a half later.

When Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine began performing in 1975, they were breaking new ground in the United States. Today, Estefan, who grew up in Texas and Miami and graduated from the University of Miami, is one of many Latin performers succeeding in the United States, such as Grammy-winning veteran guitarist Carlos Santana; classically trained jazz artist Paquito D'Rivera; pop vocalists Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez; Joan Sebastian, who won the Latin Grammy last year for best regional Mexican song, "Afortunado"; and Juanes, who won five Latin Grammy awards in 2003 including album of the year.

Latin performers offer a diverse genre that goes from salsa to jazz, pop and rock to classical, a genre that can be as rhythmic as Estefan's early hits, such as "Rhythm's Gonna Get You," or as mature and soul-searching (or soul-revealing) as her later songs, such as her inspirational "Coming Out of the Dark."

"What we call Latino music is a mix of so many different genres. Argentina has its own sound, for example," Estefan said. "(Latino nations) all have their own national musicians. They each have their own thing happening."

She said she felt excited about going to Ecuador in June to sing a medley of her hits for the Miss Universe pageant.

Latin Grammys

On Wednesday, Estefan will learn whether she and her latest album, "Unwrapped," might be up for an award. That's when the Miami-based Latin Academy of Recordings Arts & Sciences, Inc., will announce the nominations for the fifth annual Latin Grammy Awards; George Lopez is back as the host of the Sept. 1 telecast on CBS.

Estefan shows her love for diversity in her CD collection, which goes beyond Latin music. "I love 9 Inch Nails. Stevie Wonder inspired me. I liked Cat Stevens."

Estefan's tour to promote her album comes to Staples Center in Los Angeles on Aug. 14 and Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim on Aug. 15. The album's first single, "Wrapped," showed Estefan's appreciation for the styles of other nations: It features an Andean guitar and is influenced by Columbian sounds.

Estefan calls "Unwrapped" a serious album about relationships. "I've become much more mature. Sometimes you get inspired. Much of my inspiration comes from life and from my daughter (Emily Marie Estefan, born in 1996)."

As the Hispanic population has grown in America, Latino music has grown into a cultural, commercial force. "The public has never been a problem; the audience has never been a problem," Estefan said. She explained that Latino musicians have faced the challenge of getting record companies to give them contracts.

She credits the exposure on MTV and movies for opening doors for Latino artists. And the marketing has begun to catch up with the audience's love for the music, she said.

Estefan, born Gloria Maria Milagrosa Fajardo, has been married to Emilio Estefan Jr., her first and only boyfriend, since 1978. They have a son, Nayib, a filmmaker (born in 1980) who produced the DVD "Live and Unwrapped." It showed his mother in concert at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

"We work very hard; we persevere," Gloria said. "We never tried to follow a popular trend."

'I do not believe in judging'

Estefan, who succeeded in pursuing her life's dreams, praised this season's "American Idol" singers when she served as a guest judge on the night they performed her music, accompanied by the Miami Sound Machine.

"I don't judge; I said so (on the telecast). I do not believe in judging," Estefan said. "Who am I to tell them? I'm not going to tell them, 'You sounded terrible.' That's the job for Simon (Cowell). There's no way I'm going to discourage anyone when they're doing what they love."

But she said she doesn't see Cowell as mean.

"No, he's honest. I think the thing we love about him is he's saying what we're all thinking."

Cowell, a BMG Records executive, is preparing the singers for dealing with the music industry, she noted. But she teased him on the show for causing an increase in therapy bills.

She praised "Idol" winner Fantasia (who no longer uses her last name Barrino) for being a great singer and a young mother who succeeded in achieving her dreams. It's a story that Estefan has lived.

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