The coup acknowledges the Estefans’ place on a very short list of
America’s most beloved musicians, along with pioneering music-
makers and fellow prize-winners Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, and
Smokey Robinson. “To be receiving this amazing popular song prize
from the Library of Congress is beyond our wildest dreams,” said Gloria
Estefan in a red carpet interview with WTOP.
During their trip to D.C., Gloria and Emilio Estefan also visited the
Library of Congress to see the exhibit Here to Stay: The Legacy of
George and Ira Gershwin and pay tribute to the duo who inspired the
award. It proved to be a moving experience for the couple, who shared
their mutual admiration for the legendarily gifted brothers.
“From the moment I started singing, I was drawn to the iconic
songs of the immensely talented Gershwin brothers and have had
the privilege to record several of them,” said Gloria, who browsed
some of the collection’s lyric sheets, librettos, and sheet music. “As a
songwriter, it’s probably the highest honor you can get,” said Emilio
in conversation with Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. “It’s an
incredible award because it was so difficult for us in the beginning,
coming to America,” he added. “They opened the doors to us in such
an incredible way.”
When the Estefans return home to Miami, they’ll have to make room
for their newest trophy on a crowded award shelf, because their
work has racked up accolades from many of music’s most prestigious
gatekeepers. Since hitting the Top 10 while fronting Miami Sound
Machine in 1985, Gloria Estefan has sent three songs to the No. 1 spot
on the Billboard chart, winning three Grammys, four Latin Grammys,
the BMI President’s Award, and a coveted place in the Songwriters Hall
of Fame along the way.
It’s a collection that takes even Gloria by surprise, as she admitted in a
recent conversation on her YouTube channel with daughter Emily, who is
also a musician. “It’s in those rare moments when I’m actually watching
one of those videos they put together before I do a speech,” said the
elder Estefan. “That’s when it really hits me, all the stuff we’ve done.”
Accepting so many accolades has kept the Estefan family jetting into
the nation’s capital often. (Gloria has even been spotted posing with
the Turkey in the Terminal at Reagan National.) In 2015, Gloria and
Emilio Estefan came to D.C. to receive America’s highest civilian honor,
when President Barack Obama awarded the couple the Presidential
Medal of Freedom at a ceremony in the East Room of the White
House. Recounting their chart-topping record sales, the then-president
noted the hurdles facing any artist hoping to touch audiences in two
languages. “Some worried they were too American for Latins and too
Latin for Americans,” said Obama before presenting the gleaming
medals. “Turns out everyone just wanted to dance and do the conga.”
More recently, Gloria Estefan returned to D.C. to host the 2018
Kennedy Center Honors, presenting awards to Cher, Wayne Shorter,
Reba McEntire, Philip Glass, and the co-creators of the musical
Hamilton — Lin-Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Andy Blankenbuehler,
and Alex Lacamoire.
That same year, D.C. residents packed seats for a toe-tapping crash
course on Gloria Estefan’s life when the biographical musical On Your
Feet! arrived at the Kennedy Center in January. It was an enthusiastic
reception. “People who claim they aren’t happier when they leave “On
Your Feet!” than when they arrived,” wrote Washington Post theater
critic Peter Marks, “aren’t adequately in touch with their feelings.”
FLYWASHINGTON.COM 8 AUTUMN 2019
The Tony Award–nominated show follows the musical duo through
their early lives in Miami, a whirlwind romance, and boundary-breaking
careers — and it doesn’t look away from the many challenges they’ve
faced along the way.
Born in Havana to a Cuban family with musical roots, Gloria arrived in
Miami as a toddler in 1960; locked away in a safe inside her Miami home
are a Cuban passport and a round-trip Pan Am ticket — bittersweet
mementos that prove the family hoped to return to the island when
better days arrived.
Even after decades in the United States, where she has deep roots in
a city that’s embraced her as a hometown hero, Estefan is pained by
Cuba’s lack of political freedoms, and she still hasn’t returned to the
country. “It kills me that, as a Cuban exile, I can enjoy anything I want
in Cuba, and Cuban citizens can’t,” Estefan said in a 2017 interview with
the Washington Post. “I don’t want to go and have to shut up, or say
something and have to go to jail.”
Life in Miami could be hard, too. “When I moved to Miami, my mom
and I were on our own because my dad was a political prisoner in
Cuba,” Estefan recounted from the stage at the Women Leaders of the
Americas Forum earlier this year. Her father would go on to serve in
the Vietnam War (and later suffer debilitating health issues as a result
of exposure to Agent Orange) and an early number in On Your Feet!
is not something that
“ Success
is easy. It really takes a lot of
hard work. You have to believe
in yourself and forget about
negativity.
”
depicts a young Gloria recording a song for her absent parent while
strumming a guitar:
Cuando salí de Cuba
Dejé mi vida, dejé mi amor
Cuando salí de Cuba
Dejé enterrado mi corazón
When I left Cuba
I left behind my life, I left behind my love
When I left Cuba
I left my heart buried there
Singing became a refuge for Gloria. “It was my release from everything,
my escape,” she said to Rolling Stone in a 1990 interview. “I’d lock
myself up in my room with my guitar. I wouldn’t cry. I was afraid that if
I let go just a little bit, it would all go. I would sing for hours by myself…
It was my way of crying.” Her mother and grandmother’s strength
would also prove formative for a young girl finding her way. “My first
experience of womanhood was watching women in my household
doing it all,” said Estefan at the Women Leaders of the Americas Forum.
“I learned from example.”
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