Gloria Estefan - part I

by
College Directory Columnist

May 7, 2010

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She was born"Glorita" Maria Milagrosa Fajardo on September 1, 1957, in Havana, Cuba, just two years before Fidel Castro marched into Havana on January 9,1959, and became Cuba's new leader.

Her parents were Gloria and Jose Fajardo, who had been a former volleyball star, a policeman, a soldier and a bodyguard to Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista.

Her maternal grandparents were from Spain. Her grandfather, Leonardo Garcia, was from Pola de Siero, Asturias, and her grandmother from Logrono. They get married in Spain and then immigrated to Cuba.

Following Castro's ascent to power, when she was only two years old, Estefan's parents fled to Lafayette, Indiana eventually settling down in Miami, Florida with their infant daughter.

Two years after his arrival in America, her father was recruited for the 2506 Brigades a Central Intelligence Agency-funded band of Cuban refugees. He was head of the Tanks Division and led the invasion at the Bay of Pigs, the unsuccessful attempt to defeat Castro's power, in 1961. Jose's cousin was a member of Castro's military. Jose was captured by him and was put in jail for more than a year and a half. During those days while he was in a Cuban prison, Gloria and her mother lived in a Cuban ghetto outside of Miami. With her mother struggling to survive in a strange land, Gloria sang for women whose husbands were in jail too.

After President John F. Kennedy negotiated the release of the captured soldiers, Fajardo rejoined his family. He was released in 1963. Young Gloria was in first grade when Jose returned from Cuba. The family moved to Texas where her sister, Rebecca, was born.

However, a little later he enlisted in the United States Army, and volunteered for Vietnam.

Gloria was a music lover since she was very young. During the time her father was in Vietnam, she used to send him recordings of her singing. His father sent her a letter, where he predicted "One day, you're going to be a star."

In 1969 his father returned to the United States in 1969, but he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. One of the reason of his disease could be he might have been exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange while in Vietnam.

Gloria's mother had been a teacher in Cuba. To support her family she began to work during daytime and she attended school at night. That was the reason why Gloria, although she was too young, had to stay home taking care of her father as well as of her younger sister.

Gloria was a very good student; she attended St. Michael-Archangel School and Our Lady Of Lourdes High School in Miami, where she always obtained excellent grades at the same time she was taking care of her father and sister. Obviously those days Gloria had not any time for a social life. To comfort herself she used to sing and play her guitar, which she enjoyed very much. When she was 16, her father was admitted to the Veterans Affairs hospital, and she was released of caring for him.

In 1975 after graduating from Lourdes Academy, Gloria began to study at the University of Miami.