Gloria Estefan - part II

May 7, 2010

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While a student at the University of Miami, she took a job as a Spanish and French translator at Miami's International Airport, in the Customs Department.

She was once approached by the CIA as a possible employee, considering her language abilities, it was said. But Years later when she had already sold 90 million albums worldwide becoming American Idol star, Gloria Estefan disclosed that the CIA once tried to recruit her as a spy and recognized her mother Gloria convinced her to decline the job offer.

In 1975 while studying at the University of Miami Gloria Fajardo met keyboardist Emilio Estefan who had been born in 1953 in Havana, Cuba, and had moved to the United States as a teenager. When Gloria met him he was working in its marketing department as a sales manager.

While working there he had formed a band called the Miami Latin Boys. They played popular Latin music, but because there was no lead singer, the quartet members took turns singing.

They met each other one day in which Gloria was persuaded by her mother to attend a party at a church. It was a wedding party where a band called the Miami Latin Boys was playing as entertainers.

Emilio Estefan, who was the band leader, asked Gloria to sing with them for a few numbers. To the girl's surprise (she was very shy) she received a standing ovation.

Soon, Gloria and her cousin, Merci, joined the band.. A few weeks later Emilio asked Gloria to perform as lead singer with the band. At first Gloria sang only on weekends, because she was still attending the University of Miami.

The band was quickly renamed the Miami Sound Machine. As the popularity of the band grew, they went from playing small weddings to performing in front of larger crowds and eventually, a year and a half after Gloria joined the group the band recorded its first album for a local label.

In 1979 Gloria Fajardo, graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Psychology, with a minor in French from the University of Miami.

Although Gloria and Emilio maintained a platonic relationship for the first few months of playing in the band together, eventually they fell in love with each other, and on September 1, 1978, Gloria's birthday, they were married. They had a son, Nayib (born September 2, 1980) and a daughter, Emily Marie (born December 5, 1994).

By the time his son was born Emilio Estefan resigned from his job as director of Hispanic marketing at Bacardi in order to work full-time with the band. A little later he obtained a contract for them to record four albums with the Latin Music division of CBS, Discos.

Success was knocking at the door.

Today Gloria Estefan is a magnificent singer/songwriter & actress top 100 best selling music artists with over 90 million albums sold worldwide, 26.5 million of those in the United States alone. She has won seven Grammy Awards, placing her among the most successful crossover performers in Latin music to date.