Gloria Estefan

Gloria Estefan was born September 1, 1957, in Havana, Cuba, She fled Cuba at an early age to escape the Castro Revolution and came to America. She, along with her sister and mother, were separated from her father for quite some time. Her father was forced to stay behind in Cuba and when he arrived in the USA, was recruited to be involved with the Bay of Pigs invasion and then served in the Vietnam war for two years. As a child, Gloria wrote poetry and took classical guitar lessons. When her father returned from war, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Gloria used music as a way to cope with her father’s illness.

In 1975, Gloria met Emilio Estefan and joined his band called the Miami Latin Boys. After several months, the two began dating and were married in September 1978. Together they have a son, Nayib, and a daughter, Emily.

The Miami Latin Boys began to take off with Gloria at the helm and soon changed their name to Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. They were able to crossover from the Latin music charts to the English music charts, with their song, “Conga” cracking the Billboard pop, dance, black, and latin charts simultaneously. As her star power grew, Estefan broke out into a solo career, with Emilio working as her music director and producer.

While travelling on their tour bus, Gloria, Emilio and Nayib were involved in a bad bus crash on March 20, 1990. Their bus collided on a snowy interstate with a tractor trailer. Gloria has a severe spinal cord injury and had to have steel rods implanted into her back. Although she had a long road of recovery, Estefan was able to make a comeback in January of 1991 at the American Music Awards.

In recent years, Estefan has turned her creative pursuits to other areas of the arts. She developed a biographical jukebox musical entitled On Your Feet! along with Emilio about her life and career. She has been recognized as a Kennedy Center honoree and is the recipient of 3 Grammy Awards.