Gloria Estefan: Singing Through Struggles | THE THREAD Documentary Series

I would question like why would I get all this Fame when I really that wasn't the point of making music and I remember thinking maybe this is the reason just to show people that yes you could go through terrible things but it depends on how you deal with it and what you do with the cards that you're dealt and that we have power and and a lot of control over our lives in ways that we give up for no [Music] reason well welcome please introduce yourself I am Gloria Maria milagrosa Fardo Garcia mon Perez de Stefan that's the Cuban name I am Gloria Stefan well I am so glad you said your full name because I was going to try and I would have just completely mangled it I want to go back in time a little bit when you came to the United States uh at the age of two tell us about what you know of that and why it happened and and some of the backstory it goes to your parents and grandparents my father was a police officer in Cuba his father was a commander of the army so when the revolution happened uh on that fateful New Year's Eve he was actually part of the motorcade of the first lady because as a motorcycle policeman that's what he did my grandfather had uh gone to military school with Batista as young men so uh they were very close and my grandfather was not very happy when B staged a coup rather than uh continue to the election but when the Castro forces came in um they jailed my grandfather and my father immediately he had come home that night and told my mother we're in trouble the president just left the country and she asked him not to go back and he said I have to go back I'm a police officer my duty is to the Cuban people and I need to go back and she told them you're they're going to arrest you he goes it doesn't matter if they arrest me I have to go back and that's exactly what happened uh his father and him were jailed for 3 months but they eventually let my father go because he was a very respected and loved police officer and he had done no wrong he told my mother that he needed to get us out of Cuba because he knew what was coming they had a very clear idea of who Castro was and he left on the ferry to you West to try to find a job and a place for us to live and then my mother and I followed once we had been in Miami a few months my father told my mother that he was going to go somewhere he couldn't tell her where he was going into training for Bay of Pigs so he disappeared and the next we heard was my mother seeing on the news that there had been an invasion in Cuba what happened was that even though they were trained in top-of-the line equipment the equipment they were given to actually go there was all broken down and faulty my father was the head of the tanks Division and his turret was broken um they were expecting air power to follow and and give them Munitions and at the last minute um I believe it was Robert Kennedy that uh pulled the plug and told them all to come back the aircraft carriers that took them there turned around and left them on the shore some of the men tried to swim back to the ship they didn't make it a lot of them died on that Shore or were very injured by the Castro forces that were expecting them my dad was jailed we found out because my mother saw it on the news and when they released the names of who had been captured that's where she found out he spent 18 months I believe in the Cuban jail all the while that my dad was in Cuba in jail my mother uh found tiny Apartments next to the Orange Bowl in Miami two strips of Apartments facing each other with lots of other women right yes and moved in all of women that she knew that were also with their small children with and their husbands jailed in Cuba so it was kind of like a little commune of Cuban women supporting each other helping each other one car shared amongst all of them I remember all of this it was very clear I remember my mother dragging me to prayer circles and and uh churches and masses praying for the men that had been taken prisoner I was on a plane recently watching and I watched Bridge of spies which I had never seen and at the very end of the movie it says that the the subject of the film was the man that negotiated the exchange for for Cuba and the United States where political prisoners were exchanged for trucks and medicine and one of those men was my father so when I read that I was I was so shocked um but he did come back and they promised those men that if they learned English that they could join the US Army as officers he joined the US Army as a second Lieutenant we were stationed in uh San Antonio Texas where my sister Becky was born I was 6 years old this was 1963 and my father had just shaken hands with President Kennedy right before his assassination because he had had an event where he was thanking the Bay of Pigs um survivors and uh the men that had been uh released this was in San Antonio it was in San Antonio because he went to San Antonio before Dallas Gloria you you have to tell me your mother went to school with Fidel Castro Fidel Castro was at the University when my mom was at the University not in the same year I believe but they she knew of him and they used to joke and call him B which means ball of dirt because apparently he didn't bathe that often but she said that he would walk around with mind com under his arm and he would practice that bombastic oratory style of musolini in the mirror if you compare them they're very similar in uh their style of their oratory style so uh she already didn't like him even before he did what he did but uh he was brilliant in his control of Cuba and in his uh megalomania he was an intelligent guy and you said something which the older I get I the more I'm certain it's true it's you live in every moment can you talk about that philosophy I sing since I talk it came with me it was my way of releasing my emotion I would cry when I would sing even as a very small child I had a crush on this matina star that was six years old he was an older man I was three four and his voice would envelop me when I would hear it and my grandfather would save up money to take me to the movies to see joselito this young Spaniard that was uh an amazing singer music moved me it was my Escape it was what allowed me to survive some of the toughest moments in my life and at the age of eight I started being able to accompany myself on my guitar I would lock myself in my room and just put the radio on record the songs and learn how to play them and to be clear you had not intended you could sing from when you could speak but you never thought in those early days you were going to perform I sing since I talk but I never would have imagined doing what I do because I don't like to be the center of attention it's it's not my nature my mom was the diva of the family and nobody could compete with my mama and I didn't want to I was in awe of her she sang she danced she told jokes she was the life of any room that she walked into I was like my dad quiet reserved very sensitive very thoughtful I observed everything and everyone that was around me but I was content to observe and my music was a very personal Escape for me it's not anything that I wanted to do for other people however kind of got pushed into that position by my mom who once at 8 years old that I started playing guitar would have me perform for the family or her friends or anybody that was in the house I'd hear her go glorita or Glory Mari I go oh that's the bring your guitar name that she called me and I would grab the guitar and stare at the floor but pour myself into these songs that I didn't even know what I was singing about but I thought they were beautiful and I would learn them songs from Raphael nacking Cole songs that spoke of emotions and feelings that I had no clue about but somehow musically I understood them and emotionally I would transmit them perhaps because of all the pain in my voice from all the things that I was living and the responsibilities that I had I poured it all into my music but never ever did I imagine uh or want to become an artist become a a singer on a stage to me that was my mom you're a private person and yet you've been one of the most public people any of us know and and you've not shed away from the responsibility that comes with that the opportunity to help others and use that you you made the decision to talk about something that happened to you early on to help other young women who went through it can you talk about that absolutely my mother heard that one of my dad's cousins uh had a a beautiful classical music um school so they were my dad was thrilled for me to go and study classical guitar because they thought that it would be good for me to learn music along with my S that I loved but it turned out that this man was a predator of the worst kind and it took a full year for me to uh bring up the courage to tell my mom what was happening with this man uh I know I think I got even more fearful because I knew that he was getting to the point where he was going to do something irreversible to me and I knew that I had to avoid that at all costs I was N9 years old and I lost a circle of hair from my head in with anxiety and uh there's always a something that comes of it for my instance my hair fell out I was kept making excuses not wanting to go there so there are very you know strong clues that can tell you if your child is going through that also to prevent what you can do to help your prevent that this happened to your child by arming them with tools like you know speaking to them openly about it telling them you can always tell Mommy or Daddy um anything that's happening to you so there are ways that we can stop this from happening um and of course putting those Predators Behind Bars because they would they would get away with it you went to school you got a degree in Psychology you minored in Fr French then you got this job you loved you were a translator at the airport yes an international receptionist I was able to get that job because at the University of Miami um French was going to be my minor so if you were studying languages you could apply you had to pass a test because it was still a County Job and uh I passed the test with flying colors and I was an interpreter for Spanish English and French and we were between customs and immigration uh serving the Translating needs of the immigration officers and I had quite an interesting experience working there I loved every minute of it but I also had another job teaching Community School guitar two nights a week and I started a full load of classes um the IR job was six days a week my shift was 1: in the afternoon to 9: at night the two nights I talk guitar was from 9:30 to 11:30 so I would literally go straight to the other job and then I went to school from 8:00 in the morning to noon and would change in my car on the way to my job at the airport but the thing that your mother put her foot down was because of your fluency and language was there an effort to recruit you into the government there was I was I had the graveyard shift with you know on Sundays from 1: in the afternoon to 9:00 at night I was the only one in customs and they had officers in there that were undercover that I had no clue about but I had built quite the reputation in my uh work as you know somebody that was very efficient very professional but I was quiet very private so I was approached to see if I wanted to join the CIA I was beside myself I was so happy I loved the idea of that so when I came home and I told my mom she went ballistic she said how could you do this to me after everything I suffered with your dad and I go okay mom okay but I would joke with her all the time years later and I go well Mom you really don't know if I join do you because I kind of have the perfect cover don't I I'm a pop star I meet heads of state I get into places that most people wouldn't be allowed in I mean you really don't know do you we're making some news now I would have been a good spy because I am despite my job a very very private person and who knows I mean you never know well you wound up being a public person because of your husband ailio and by joining an all male band called the Miami Latin boys absolutely uh which really couldn't keep that name well thank the Lord they couldn't keep the name uh yes it's kind of funny because my mom who did not want me to join the band was kind of guilt guilty of getting me in the position to join it um it was the summer that I had started working already right before I started school and when I graduated high school one of my friends was a friend that we would play guitar together we both love the Beatles if we got together in anybody's house we'd always inevitably end up doing sing along and all this so he called me and go hey I want to put together a band for one night for our parents that we're coming back from a religious retreat and they're they're having a big party I think it'd be really cool I'd love you to sing I go okay absolutely I'm there so I went to his house and I was sitting on the floor he was going playing the piano we're running through what's songs we were going to do and there's a knock on the door and he goes oh by the way my father works with this guy at bardi Imports that has his own band Miami Latin boys and he called him over so he can give us some pointers on how to do this CU I've never done it I go okay cool the door opens and I see a pair of bare legs and an accordion and I go okay great legs by the way cuz I I noticed them right away so he came in uh he heard me sing we told him what we were going to he gave us the pointers he played his accordion for us and he left that was in May in mid in mid uh summer one of the my Dad's Army buddies daughter who I grew up and would play with in South Carolina and Fort Jackson was getting married and um I see this guy play in a tux with a band playing do the hustle on the accordion and I go wait a minute I know this guy he looked very familiar we ran into each other in a doorway and on a break when he was not playing and I he goes hey you're that girl that I met at my friends I go yeah you're that guy that came and gave us a pointers he goes why don't you sit in with the band I'm going oh my God and my mother overhears this cuz she was listening in the minute she saw me talking to a young man that she did not know and she goes yes sing for them because she would always make me play my guitar and sing for them when I was a kid so I got up there you know holding on to that mic and I sing the songs and it was everything fell into place so naturally the keys were perfect somehow for me I got a standing ovation of course he didn't know that everybody there knew me so he was doubly impressed and when we finished he said hey you know um there's no girl singers and bands in Miami and I think it'd be really cool if you could join the band he goes why don't you tell you know come over to the rehearsal and just see how it is so I went with my mom my grandmother and my sister to this tiny apartment on Flagler and 47th where he lived with his parents the band took up the entire space the people in the rest of the condos would throw a party whenever he had a rehearsal because they had no choice so they were enjoying the music in the Courtyard there dancing and and I remember being up against the wall cuz there was no room and uh I sang a song for the band and when we left he goes look if you want to do this I'd love to have you I met his parents and I told my mom mom I'm not going to quit school I really want to do this I really want to I I have nothing that I do that's fun that and my grandmother was the one that told me because at first I was kind of listening to my mom and my grandma said you know what this is a gift that you received you're supposed to share it and one day it's going to land in your lap and I hope you recognize when that day comes because you're not going to look for it it's going to find you and when she F when she went with me to the rehearsal after the rehearsal she said to me you remember what I told you you have to do what you want to do your mom has had her life you need to make your own decisions and we joined and Emilio asked me if I'd ever written music that he wanted to do an original album for the band so that we had original material and I said well I've written parodies all my life I've written poetry I think I could do it so I wrote a song we recorded it on that album I wrote a couple and um we put it out in 1976 and it got one of the songs got on the radio all of a sudden sudden we started getting a bigger following and he realized when he was going to put out the record that he couldn't call it Miami Latin boys with a female front so we wanted to be called Miami just Miami but you can't incorporate a city name so he said why don't you call it Miami Sound Machine and amilo goes okay but it was ended up being a very lucky name for us I have to ask you about someone that you could talk for 20 hours about and that's your husband the The Man Behind the Accord uh when you decided to perform on weekends with what would become Miami Sound Machine how much of this was what fell in your lap which your grandmother said you'll know it when it happens to you and how much of it was I really like him okay when I joined Miami Latin boys Amo had an older girlfriend there was an attraction and there was like he always had a spark in his eye but he's a flirt not in a sexual way but in he flirts with everyone he's like he loves life he loves everything he does he's so energetic so he was very attractive to me that way but I saw him as my boss he seemed a lot older than he was he was only four and a half years older than me and I respected him very much you know but there was such chemistry there that it was inevitable that this was going to happen to the point where I had decided that I wasn't going to get married I wanted to study I wanted to travel abroad I had been accepted both to the clinical psychology School in University of Miami and to the sbone in France so by the time that I graduated I realized that I I preferred looking for a career in diplomacy or international law and I wanted to go to France to do it however by that time the The Chemistry Between Us had just taken us to that place on July 4th 1976 where he told me it was his birthday he was lying his birthday is the 4th but of March so he could get a a kiss on the cheek and when I went to kiss him he turned his face and everything that had been building up just happened and we were together from that moment on I got married the day after I turned 21 because I knew that I wanted to be with this man the rest of my life I think that to a degree Destiny had something to do with it I joined the band because I really loved more than the performances the rehearsals I thrived on having at my disposal instruments to put together rhythms to experiment with the vocabulary of our Latin music that he played and the American music that I grew up listening to and I just loved the rehearsals and the writing and the recording that it fulfilled me in ways you cannot imagine so when we got together and we started working together with this it just happened unfolded naturally it was meant to be it felt like and he gave me the motivation and the you know security to write of course you have to speak amilio because if you just listen to what he says without knowing who he is you want to kill him like he would say to me you know you could improve 95% when we we were out on a date and I go really what what 5% are you dating me for exactly like but I knew what he meant was he goes no no it's just that in the rehearsal I see you so open when you sing the songs and when you're rehearsing and then when you get on stage I know that you can do it so much more like in his own inimitable way of saying things he doesn't edit it just goes from his brain to his mouth he gave me the motivation to get up there and be more who I was and relax and let the feeling of what I feel about music take over my performance and then it became it became more and more natural and he pushed me more and more out front little by little like so that I could be comfortable and he just was amazing and he also we were a great team we're very different we're polar opposite on the astrology he's Pisces I'm Virgo but we're on the same page about business family comes first even politics uh we rarely had disagreements about anything which makes for a great marriage I got to say and um we were our own cheerleaders we were excited about what we were doing it's been an amazing experience and that's how it's been every step of the way quite honestly it's it's been a wonderful wonderful experience with amilio half a life ago half a lifetime you said it feels like many lives you had a terrible accident can you explain what that is and what happened yeah it was March 20th 1990 which was Emilio's niece's birthday she's someone who we adore and um we were traveling from New York City to Syracuse where I had a concert and I thought let me take a nap I was on the front of the tour bus on the couch my son was in the back with his tutor doing homework my husband was on the phone with his brother and um he was telling him that we were on the cover of the Miami heral that day holding this Crystal Globe representing 5 million in sales for one of our albums and the caption was Gloria and Emilia Stefan have the world in their hands and right when he reads that line to him we get rear ended on the tour bus the next thing I realize is I'm on the floor of the bus it's all hell has broken loose there was broken glass everywhere and my husband is standing over me covered in blood it was like a surreal thing and I knew that I'd broken my back I couldn't move but I also knew that I hadn't severed the cord because the pain was excruciating and I told my husband I go I broke my back and he's going no maybe you dislocated bottom line it took an hour and a half for the ambulance to get there there was an angel in a car behind us that I wish I could thank but I never found out her name she was a nurse that showed up at the door and said is anybody hurt and I go I think I broke my back and she saw me grabbing my leg and lifting it because that's the only only thing that would alleviate the pain for a moment and she said okay you cannot move she sat behind me she used her hands as a brace and she said no matter how much it hurts you can't move it took an hour and a half the paramedics came they took me out the front of the bus Which the glass had been torn away and it was snowing inside which we now know actually helped me because you put spinal cord injuries on ice immediately and nature put me on ice it was incredible and that angel that came in and held my head just sat there with me until the the ambulance came and was able to get to me suddenly here you are that Globe your husband's talking about you you're on top of the world metaphorically but then you wake up in a hospital bed and it's a year-long recovery talk talk about the experience of your recovery Amelia was beside himself he went gray in a twomon span he used to have a little when we met with the president in the picture you see a little white circle of hair on his beard two months later he'd gone white he didn't know what to do he was feeling like how could this happen at this moment in our lives we're literally at the top of our careers the best moments sold out World Tour and then he sees me having to to start over he didn't leave my side for 3 months and this man has ADD he he doesn't stop then I made it a goal to be back on stage and I was back on stage first at the American Music Awards in January of 1991 and then my first show was in Miami on March 1st 1991 20 days shy of a year of my uh accident music heals music brings joy and you know it because you Channel it what music brings you Joy oh my gosh there is so much music that brings me joy but if I reach back natkin Cole every time I listen to natkin Cole I get transported to my youth to all this promise in front of me to a very nostalgic time to this beautiful beautiful like a flower blossoming is what n King Cole makes me feel the Beatles excitement energy what fueled my young life I still remember when I first got introduced to the British Invasion and it was Jerry and the Pacemakers with Fair cross the mercy that I pull up to a laundr mat with my mom and the smell of the laundry came at me and this comes on the radio and I made her leave me in the car that to this day when I hear that I smell laundromat why because it's a bolero the the Brits were all about Latin music so it was my two worlds colliding but Carol King Stevie Wonder Elon John I can't choose one there's too many they're all all the music that has shaped my life has brought me joy music has never brought me anything but joy [Music]

Channel: Life Stories

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Keywords: Gloria Estefan Interview, Gloria Estefan, Singing Through Struggles, THE THREAD, Singing Through Struggles Trailer, through Struggles Trailer, gloria estefan songs, official gloria estefan, gloria estefan life story, gloria estefan life, Grammy award, Gloria Estefan difficult times, american, cuban, estefan, gloria, latin, music, Singer, THE THREAD Documentary Series, gloria estefan documentary, emilio estefan

Id: gbCYzTnNErs

Length: 31min 41sec (1901 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 04 2024