STAYING TRUE TO HER ROOTS Gloria Estefan

With her new album Raíces, Gloria Estefan explores her roots once again, combining authentic Cuban rhythms, Spanish lyrics and a modern sound. But family — Emilio, her husband of nearly 50 years, their kids and grandkids — always comes first

INTERVIEW AND WRITTEN BY CEZAR GREIF

These days, we take it for granted that J Balvin can dominate the charts, Jennifer Lopez can grab the headlines with her life on- and offstage and Bad Bunny can conquer audiences worldwide. But such wasn’t always the case. When Gloria Estefan started out in the mid-seventies as the singer for Miami Sound Machine, there were very few places a Latin musical artist could go. As a pioneer of the “Miami Sound,” she opened the doors for countless musical artists to walk through and sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Having success both in English and Spanish while staying true to her Cuban roots (there’s Cuban percussion in almost all of her songs), Gloria and her husband, Emilio Estefan — also her manager, songwriter and producer — have done it all, including a 2015 Broadway musical based on her life titled On Your Feet! In 2025, Gloria is releasing a new record, Raíces, that is entirely in Spanish and proudly showcases her Cuban influences.

In person Gloria is very warm and friendly, but you can also feel her determination and takecharge attitude. Her husband, Emilio, was with her as we spoke, and the two kept trading jokes and stories like a well-oiled comedy duo. She’s done it all but still wants more. Eventually, her rhythm is going to get you!

Q: Your family was musical on your father’s side. Was there a lot of music at home when you were growing up?

A: There was a lot of music, but it was actually from my mother’s side because [although] my father had two brothers who were musicians, my mom was like the triple threat of her school. She won a contest to be Shirley Temple’s double when she was a small child, and for that reason I think it stayed in her life even though she wasn’t able to do it as a business or as show business because her father didn’t allow her to go to Hollywood. She was the star of her school. The only way she could get a diaper on me was to sing to me and I would just melt, and she would play all her mom’s records and the records that she had. So music was around me the whole time.

Q: You arrived in the United States when you were little and grew up as a child of immigrants. What do you remember from growing up in Miami while your parents had to adjust to a new country?

A: I was a toddler — so I was, like, two and a half — but I was very precocious, and I completely knew what was going on around me. My dad came first. He took the ferry from Cuba to Key West to try to look for a job, and then as soon as he had one we stayed at his sister’s house. His sister had moved out, had left Cuba, and we were staying with her temporarily. My mom and I flew on a Pan Am — I still have the round-trip ticket — they were planning on going back. That was their thought: “We’re going to leave Cuba for a little while.” And my dad immediately got involved with the Bay of Pigs project, without my mom knowing. He joined the brigade because he had been a police officer in Cuba. He was a part of it because of all his connections — they were all friends, they were going to try to overthrow the government. Meanwhile, my mom and I came to Miami, and everywhere we would look to try to rent an apartment, they had signs that said “No children, no pets, no Cubans.” Everybody was so afraid of there being a massive influx. And it was still the Deep South, there was a lot of prejudice in many different ways. My mom found this one place that was brand new, two little apartment strips facing each other. She asked the landlord if she could fill them for him. So she brought all her friends and family, who were young women with small children, whose husbands had all become a part of the Bay of Pigs movement. We grew up kind of like in a little commune. I remember going with my mom from church to church, and rosary group to rosary group, praying for the men that were in jail. They became political prisoners in Cuba. My mom was 29 years old, and she had lived a life in Cuba … she was like the princess of the family! And suddenly here she was with a small child in a new place. She had visited Miami on vacation with her dad when she was 15 years old, they would come and stay in hotels, and as a tourist it was one thing, but now, suddenly with nothing, as an immigrant, it was a completely different experience.

Q: Was there a particular singer who influenced your singing style, who was your singing idol or your inspiration?

A: My very first crush was this young Spanish singer — because when we came to Miami and my grandparents eventually made it out, my grandfather would save up and take me to movies

— his name was Joselito and he had this angelic voice. He was six years old, I was four. And he made movies and sang from the time he was a little kid. So [my grandfather] would get me his record, and I knew all his songs. I would sing them — I would memorize them and sing them, even when I was a young child. And then, after that, my grandma slowly had been sending my mom her record collection stashed in a box of mango baby food, which was the only baby food I would eat. And my grandma would go to the airport monthly with a box full of baby food and a record or two that she could put in there, and go up to the pilots of Cubana de Aviación and just give them my mom’s address.

And I don’t know how she convinced them, but there would be a knock at the door of our apartment, and there’d be a pilot standing there with a box of baby food and records inside. So those records were Cachao, Celia Cruz, Olga Guillot, eventually Johnny Mathis. My mother loved Nat King Cole, which started my love for Nat King Cole early in my life. And those were my first influences.

And then, later on, when I started listening to the radio on my own, I was in love with the Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, and Carole King, who became my idol when she put out that record, because there weren’t a lot of women at all at that time — when I was a young teenager and heard Carole King’s album Tapestry, that completely threw me for a loop. I wore out that record and would read every lyric and read every credit on the album. It really had a huge impact on me. I was very, very blessed when I got to sing with Carole on more than one occasion later in life. She was a big influence.

Q: In the ’70s, you formed Miami Sound Machine, which was a very original band mixing different influences. What do you remember about that time — joining a band, being in a band together with other musicians?

A: It all happened by accident. When I joined, it was called Miami Latin Boys. It was Emilio’s band — he had put it together. They were like a wedding band, and they played gigs all over the city. They had just played for the mayor. I had met Emilio at a mutual friend’s house in May of ’75, right after high school. One of my friends called me and said, “Hey, I would love for you to sing for this one gig. My dad has invited this guy to come over and give us pointers on how to do it ” — it was Emilio. He came with his accordion, he heard us sing, he gave us pointers and he left. Then, in July, I believe it was, I walk into this wedding and I see a guy in a tuxedo with his band, little band, and he was playing “Do the Hustle” on the accordion, and I recognized him from that time at my friend’s house. And he recognized me and he goes, “Hey, you know, why don’t you sit in with the band and do a couple songs?” And I go, “Well, what do you know? I know old Cuban standards.”

And he said, “Yeah, we do those.” So I sang “Sabor a Mí” and “Tú Me Acostumbraste,” these two really old Cuban standards. And then, that night, he said, “Hey, you know, there’s no girl singers in any bands in Miami. Would you like to join us?”

And I go, “Look, I can’t. I have two jobs as it is. I’m starting school in September as a sophomore, so I have to catch up. And my mom’s really not going to like this.”

Two weeks later, he tracked down my phone number and he called me again. And he said, “Look, I do this for fun, too. I have a full-time job at Bacardí — I promise you I won’t let it get in the way of whatever you’re doing, but I think it’d be really cool.” And I really wanted to do it.

My grandma had told me once that when I was a kid she would have me sing for her people. She had started a little restaurant in her house and she would make me sing for the people that went there. And I would say, “Well, I don’t like being the centre