Gloria Estefan: Thank you.

Marc Fest: I actually got a lot of questions from that Internet mailing list.

Gloria Estefan: Oh, the CONGA list?

Marc Fest: Yeah. And they told me at least ten times, that I’m the luckiest man in the world [meeting with you].

Gloria Estefan: Of course, look whom you’re hearing it from...

Marc Fest: Of course, they told me to tell you how much they love you.

Gloria Estefan: I know, I lurk on that list.

Marc Fest: Yes, they told me that you’re an "only reader."

Gloria Estefan: Yes, I don’t want to interfere with it.

Marc Fest: But I promised them to ask that one question: whether you would still read the list...

Gloria Estefan: Yes, of course.

Marc Fest: And the other question: whether you will continue to answer their emails.

Gloria Estefan: Yes, as a matter of fact I was getting ready to write a letter to the CONGA list to thank them, because they send me an album for my birthday with their pictures, which is really cool, because you know, for a long time you see their names and you wonder what these people are like. It was really a great gift. One of the people put it together. So I’m getting ready write them, in fact today or tomorrow, a nice letter.

Marc Fest: I was impressed with how much love there is. I find it hard imagining the same kind of love felt by fans for, let’s say, a star like Madonna or Michael Jackson. It’s a very warm love that’s out there for you. How does that feel for you?

Gloria Estefan: They’re great people. It’s fantastic. I love that. I mean, it’s funny to me to see, because I rarely rread interviews, or anything, and I stumbled upon because a lot of my fans from all over the world had told me about them. And I had answered questions for them before. And I really wasn’t into the Internet not a long time ago, but now I’m very much involved since we got it in the office. I’m using it a great deal. And it’s a great thing, because they [the fans] are what it’s all about. The only reason that we are still around doing what we do is because of your loyal fans that follow you years later in a career that spans many years, because you always have your peaks and valleys on radio and even in the public eye you can’t always be at the top of the charts, and these people are great, they’re really true.

Marc Fest: Do you know some of them by name?

Gloria Estefan: Oh, yes, yes. I could mention many names. Screen names that they use, they often don’t use their real names. I met a few of them on the tour this year. I was just in Latin America and I met Ande from Chile and many people from Argentina. I just met Jairo on South Beach the other day. In Europe as well. So I’ve been able to meet several of them.

Marc Fest: Just a note about the publication that this [interview] is for. It’s a telvision guide with seven million readers, it’s Germany’s biggest television guide. I think it has the biggest circulation of any magazine in Germany. And I like that its called "Hoerzu", which means Oye [just like her latest song]...

Gloria Estefan: That’s a coincidence.

Marc Fest: That a nice little thing to use for the story. Well, I listened to all your CDs and of course, I’ve already known many of your songs...

Gloria Estefan: How long have you lived here?

Marc Fest: One and a half years.

Let’s talk about your new album. Could you describe it in your own words?

Gloria Estefan: OK. Sure. It’s a big party. It’s a celebration. It’s definitely still fusion [of Latin and disco styles] because that will always be our sound. A bit retro, obviously, from the seventies and its feelings. Trying to capture the feeling of the seventies. It was very explorative and liberating timeand music was very up and positive, we still didn’t have the really heavy things like AIDS and the repercussions of all the drug use of the 70s. So it was a very free and explorative time and since it’s the last album in this millenium for us I wanted it to be really a celebratory and positive feeling album, so that it just makes you feel good, you know, what music did for me, all my life.

Marc Fest: I think it’s a great dance album.

Gloria Estefan: It’s high tempo all the way, great energy, great for working out.

Marc Fest: I can already see all the people in the clubs here getting off on it.

Gloria Estefan: I really had a ball doing it, I had a really good time. It’s supposed to be some retro things, like the first single, "Heaven is what I feel" and "Don’t let this moment end" are supposed to sound like they could have been from the 70s.

Marc Fest: Some songs reminded me of Donna Summer.

Gloria Estefan: Right. That’s the idea. That last dance certainly was a classic disco thing, to begin slow and then kick in into the high gear. Well, I’m sure you missed that first disco era, but it was really fun fun times. And at the same time there are songs like "Oye" or "Don’t release me", like "Luky Girl" that look forward, that have that Latin fusion, they’re very fresh sounding. It’s nothing that you would have heard back then. That’s more ahead rather than back.

Marc Fest: Do you have a favorite song on that album?

Gloria Estefan: It’s hard to pick. "Oye" is one of my favorites. "Touched by an angel" was written for Emily, my daughter, so that’s special for me. I love "Don’t stop", its "Rain in May" kind of energy about it, but really cool vamp and the instrumentaion is spectacular, great Tony Maran (sp.?XXXX) track.

Marc Fest: My favorite is "Cuba Libre".

Gloria Estefan: That’s so personal that I rarely mention that, because it’s really a very personal song for me.

Marc Fest: I don’t remember right now... Did you write the lyrics and melody of that song?

Gloria Estefan: Yes, Emilio started it. He wrote the hook alone, then he went to Kike Santander who did the musical bed for it, like cords and things, and then he gave it to me and I wrote the lyrics and the melody for the verses and for what was left of the course.

Marc Fest: I really like it. And of course, it’s a very political song.

Gloria Estefan: [Laughs], yeah... in a way. Definitely a social commentary.

Marc Fest: They told me on CONGA [the internet mailing list] "Don’t ask her a political question, she’ll get mad".

Gloria Estefan: [Gets mad] I don’t get mad! [Laughs]. Why did they say that? I don’t get mad. I get a lot of questions everywhere. I can’t avoid it for some reason, even though my music is totally apolitical. Social commentary gets through. "Oye mi canto" was written for the Cuban people.

Marc Fest: "I want my Cuba free" you sing. That, you know, is more than just a commentary. It’s like "Tear down this wall" as Reagan said in Berlin, remember, before the wall came down? "Tear down this wall."

Gloria Estefan: Yes, that’s all we want.

Marc Fest: Yes, and you say, "I want my Cuba free."

Gloria Estefan: Hopefully, I mean. I know they play my music in Cuba and I know for fact they play this record because a friend of mine went there, and getting off the plane she heard "Heaven is what I feel". I think it might be a little more difficult to hear "Cuba Libre" being played, but if they start playing it, who knows, I would love that. It’s my wish for them.

Gloria Estefan: Do you have relatives in Cuba?

Gloria Estefan: I have very distant cousins of my mother that we still help out there in small ways, but not really any close family. She was my grandmother’s cousin, and she stayed – some children came to Miami, but other stayed back – so she stayed there. She has come to visit my mother and has gone back.

Marc Fest: Have you ever been to Cuba?

Gloria Estefan: Emilio and I went in 1979. There we went to get his brother and his children out. What happened was, he tried to get them through Marielm when they had the boat lift and at the last minute they crossed them off the list, so then – he’d been trying for 14 years to get his brother out and got stuck, because of military age, he got two babies – and we tried for years and finally in 1979 we were able to get him a visa through Costa Rica because of the president with whom we became friends through another person. And when he annouced he was going to leave the country, they made things very very difficult for him and his kids so we went. And at the time they had started what was called the "Community" where with a US passports and dollars you could go into these shops, they called them Diplo-Stores or whatever, and you could buy any american product, anything, but like a little can of peaches was 14 dollars, things like that, so we bought 4000 dollars worth of groceries so they could go into hiding, and they went into hiding until they left the country two months later. We were there a week. It wa really bad. And that was 79. So I can imagine how it must be now.

Marc Fest: So that’s a long time ago. I actually went there [this spring] on that flight that the archidiocese [of Miami] organized.

Gloria Estefan: For the pope?

Marc Fest: Yes, for the pope’s visit, because a friend of mine organized that flight. He’s with the arch diocese. And that was my first time in Cuba. For eight hours only.

Gloria Estefan: That was quick.

Marc Fest: It was pretty scary, actually. Landing, the pilot missed the runway the first time, because he’d never been there before... So, I read somewhere that somebody quoted you saying that you "miss having my own country". Did you say that? Do you miss your own country.

Gloria Estefan: I do miss it. And what is weird is I left when I was two. There is no reason for me to feel... You know what happens: my parents was the first generation of emigrants that left, and what happens is my mother was all alone here with me; my father went of to Bay of Pigs and left her a note. That was the only reason she knew. He didn’t tell her where he was going...

Marc Fest: It was all secret.

Gloria Estefan: Yes, it was very secretive. So... she clung very desperately to Cuban traditions and I was raised... My mother could have been Jose Marti, because she is super nationalistic and Cuba loving. We had a round trip ticket. We felt we would be here for a couple of months. That would be it. Then it would be over.

Marc Fest: Do you still have that return ticket?

Gloria Estefan: Yes. 21 dollars. Pan Am. It’s very dear to me. And my father’s bronze medal at the 52 Pan Am games, he played volley ball. But we... I was raised in a very Cuban environment. And I think what happens for some reason I think I have some unfinished businessin Cuba. I certainly don’t want anything from Cuba, because Miami is my home. For me leaving here would be like it was for my mother leaving Cuba.

Marc Fest: So you wouldn’t go back to Cuba once it opens up to permanently reside there?

Gloria Estefan: No, no, no. That would be very difficult for me. It’s a whole different way of life. But I want them to enjoy the same freedoms that I have. What bothers me is that 90 miles from our coast is the last bastions, like frozen in time, the last dictatorship, the longest-running now in history, and my own people... I can’t see where I was born. I performed in front of all kinds of audiences, all kinds of cultures, and that’s what the song talks about, except my own [culture]. I’ve never performed to a strictly Cuabn audience. There’s Cubans everywhere because everywhere I go there are Cubans, but it’s upsetting to me that the world being the way is now and everybody’s moved toward democracy – however you want to describe that democracy for your own people -... Because I also don’t think they can adopt the United States political system. That’s absurd. They have the opportunity to choose the best that works everywhere in the world and that works for them and their mentality, but it just saddens me very much... Sometimes I take a shower. One of the things that I like most is a nice, hot shower, and I know when I was there in 1979, there were three drops that would come out. You had to wait for the water, there was no hot water. A mother can’t bathe her baby, can’t feed it, you know, people are suffering there and that really bothers me. And that’s the only reason I want Cuba free. And to be immersed in my culture, too. Tob able to understand where I come from and be where I was born.

Marc Fest: I understand that. Especially as a German. We had this division between East and West Germany and I actually moved to West Berlin when the wall was still up. I was living on an island that was surrounded by a communist sea.

Gloria Estefan: And now you know how difficult it still is [in Germany]. Because now it’s reality, and you have two people [East and West Germans] that have two different ways of thinking, that have been raised completely different, and that’s what’s gonna happen in Cuba, too. It’s not going be like that Fidel’s dead and boom – great. As you know, there’ll be a lot of adjusting.

Marc Fest: In Germany they say the wall is still in many people’s heads. Do you expect something like that?

Gloria Estefan: Of course. You have to realize that the people who lived there under constant fear, they couldn’t even trust their own neighbors, in every neighborhood there was one family that was part of the committee, the communist, and would tell on you if they smelled something being cooked that wasn’t [proper] and there was a lot of bad blood, because of a lot of hatred brewing underneath and at the same time, they fear the Cubans that are outside of Cuba, thinking that we want to go back and create the Cuba that was before, which is ludicrous, that’s impossible, no place is the same 40 years later, it’s a different world and Castro has used that fear to keep a division between the exile community and the Cubans there. It’s a whole other way of thinking. The people there have been raised with blinders. They only know one thing.

Marc Fest: It’ll be hard to get rid of that kind of thinking.

Gloria Estefan: Of course, and the young people are going to want to leave. Because they don’t want to stay there.

Marc Fest: Even though it’s a beautiful place.

Gloria Estefan: I know it’s a beautiful place. But to them it means something different than what it means to us when we go over, to the tourists it’s a different Cuba.

Marc Fest: Do you have a hunch when things might start to happen?

Gloria Estefan: As good as anybody else’s. I think he [Castro] needs to be out of there. I think there is going to be no serious change until he is gone.

Marc Fest: In Germany things turned out to happen much faster than anybody thought. I sometimes expect something like that to happen in Cuba, too.

Gloria Estefan: I wish. But you don’t know. The people are so much in day-to-day survival, they can’t organize. He gets rid of the dissidents right away, out of the country. I mean, when the pope asked him to release those dissidents he did under the condition that they would leave. He didn’t leave them in the country because these were people that were gathering... Evertime somethings gathers force it gets cut down.

Marc Fest: Do you have strong feelings towards Castro as a person?

Gloria Estefan: Not really. I can’t have the feelings that my mother’s generation had, because they lived that. I’m very cynical because I’m a Cuban and I know how he thinks and what bothers me is that the rest of the world gives him so much credit when they don’t really know what’s going on in Cuba. The men’s crazy. He’s crazy. He’s like Howard Hughes, he’s run berserk.

Marc Fest: If you he were to say "All right. I resign. I was wrong." Would you forgive him and say I’ll meet with you?

Gloria Estefan: Meet with him? For what? I don’t need to meet with him. He just needs to go away. I wrote that song ["Go away" ?xxxx] for him, but he didn’t listen to me. "Go away" that was on the "Greatest Hits", it’s all political satire. I wish he would, that would be the best for the Cuban people, obviously, with no violence and no bloodshed. But he’s not going to do that, because he’s got that ego that’s made him stay this long and that makes him thumb his nose at the US and everything else. He’s just not gonna go.

Marc Fest: How easy was that decision for you to not sing for the pope when he was in Cuba?

Gloria Estefan: It was the only decision because I sang for the pope at the Vatican, so that had been done. My going there would have turned a beautiful spiritual thing into a political thing because I thought it was fantastic that the pope was going. He had told us when I saw him in 1995 that he was going to Cuba. And I thought that was fantastic. He’s the pope. He’s the representation of Christ on this Earth. He has to turn the other cheek, he has to reach out, regardless. But me going there would have been very political. And why would I want to turn a beautiful thing into a political thing. They would have used it, I would have asked for mermission from the Cuban government, which I’m not about to do, and it just would have been a slap into the face of my father and everything he fought for. I really don’t have any desire to see that man. So it would have been very ugly.

Marc Fest: How does it feel being called "Miami’s inofficial mayor"?

Gloria Estefan: I hope not, after all the [scandalous] mayor stuff that’s been happening here, all the political stuff.

Marc Fest: But that’s why they call you that. People look at them [the politicans], and they see so much corruption and then they look at you, and they feel trust.

Gloria Estefan: It’s politics. Politics.

Marc Fest: Do you feel comfortable with that [people’s opinion of you]?

Gloria Estefan: Sure. They call you so many things. "Latin Queen", and all that stuff. People love to categorize and put names on people.

Marc Fest: The Miami Herald called you "the most famous exile cuban in the world"...

Gloria Estefan: ...yes, the most famous next to Castro. Well, that may be true, because so many people know me in so many countries and, I swear to God, I was in Latin America and they asked me so much about Castro I felt like he was on tour with me. I feel like Castro is one of my backgrund singers. We could be doing a duett any moment now, Castro and me, you know, one of these fighting duets, it’s too funny to me. I wonder if they ask him about me as much as they ask me about him. But I don’t think so.

Marc Fest: I wonder what Castro says about you. Do you know? Has he ever made a statement?

Gloria Estefan: No, he’s not gonna make that kind of statement.

Marc Fest: Sometimes he’s quite easy-going, it seems...

Gloria Estefan: He’s crazy, but he’s a smart man. Easy-going? I don’t think so. Who else could talk for seven hours and say absolutely nothing? He gives speeches that are that long.

Marc Fest: They all used to do that in the communist countries.

Gloria Estefan: It’s insaaaane. It’s a megalomaniac thing, that’s what it is. Who the hell can listen to the sound of their own voice, that’s all that is, no body else is listening, everybody else is going arrrghhh.

Marc Fest: Sort of the antithesis of what you do. People listen to you for hours...

Gloria Estefan: But I try to make them feel good. I’m not driving them crazy preaching to them, telling them what to do and what not to do.

Marc Fest: It’s a big difference.

Gloria Estefan: Politics is a sick thing.

Marc Fest: Different topic: your son just moved out? How does that feel?

Gloria Estefan: I’m a mommy. What can I tell you? It’s good because he needs to know real life. He’s had a very fantastic life. I’ve given him everything that anybody could possibly ask for, and I’m not talking about material things. So he’s ready and he’s always been very independent and I’ve nurtured that in him so I cannot feel bad that he feels ready to move out on his own. But, you know, you worry, but I worried the same when he was living at home and he was out, it’s no different. So I, at least in this way, I know that he is getting a very valuable education, that he needs for life.

Marc Fest: Is he staying in the area?

Gloria Estefan: Yes, he’s going to the university of Miami. He’s near to the school. He’s got a job.

Marc Fest: Is he staying on the Beach [Miami Beach]?

Gloria Estefan: No, he moved closer to UM [University of Miami]. But he has a job on the Beach, he’s working for Ocean Drive Magazine, assisting the Editor. So he comes by and we talk every day. Several times. He’s been very good about that always. He calls me. We keep in contact.

Marc Fest: Has raising your daughter Emily been different from raising your son Nayib?

Gloria Estefan: Well, they’re two completely different human beings. Wholly different personalities. Different sexes. Different time in life. Every child is their own world. But it’s even harder... Because he at least saw the growth [of the Estefan success]. When he was born and he was little we were still in the other house and we weren’t as famous, so he saw, very clearly, the steps, which is great, because he’s heading that same way. He knows very clearly what fame is about. She’s been born pretty much a little princess, and it’s harder you have to really every moment... but I did that with him as well... make clear the important values in life, and the fact that we’re very fortunate to have what we have, we should enjoy it. They have a responsibility because they have the ability to help many people. I did that with him since he was very young. I’m very happy how he is in that way. He not conceited, he is super nice kid, deals with everybody, from whatever walk of life, very loving and everybody always says to me that they...

Marc Fest: Thats great. You hear of a lot of celebrity kids that don’t go that way.

Gloria Estefan: Yes. He’s got a wonderful heart. And I feel bad, because the tabloids, they mess with him all the time. Ever since he got expelled in High School.

Marc Fest: He called up parents, [posing as the Highschool principal] and said their kids were gay, or so?

Gloria Estefan: No, but see, that’s all not true. Because he’s like, been growing up around gay people in our lives, friends, people that work with us, he has absolutely no homophobia of anything. What he told the parents was that the kid was going to be expelled for throwing food in the cafeteria, but that’s not a juicy enough story to print, so whoever gave the story to begin with - that was very private, but they were going to sell the story and so they had to make it more dramatic. He’s a prankster. He changes his voice. He fools me all the time.

Marc Fest: He’s a fun-loving guy.

Gloria Estefan: Yeah, he’s very mischievous. His father is the same. His father does it still. I mean, he called a friend of ours in Santo Dominingo, because she rented a home there and Castro was there, so she was all fraked out thinking that her phones were tapped, so my husband calls her and says "This is the Cuban Embassy. We’d like to invite you to a party for Fidel. We’ve heard you’re a big supporter"... And she’s going beserk on the other side, screaming and yelling and he’s got the little old’lady voice that he was using. That’s my husband. So imagine the kid. What can I expect?

Marc Fest: Your daughter – do you see yourself in her?

Gloria Estefan: She looks exactly like me when I was a baby. Exactly. People see her and freak out. I don’t see it as much in her face. When I look at pictures it’s uncanny. And she has my same personality. Kind of timid. Very different from my brother who was never shy. Not for a minute. She loves music and she says she’s gonna be a movie star, but at the same time she hates cameras... She reminds me a lot of me.

Marc Fest: She’s three years old now?

Gloria Estefan: She’ll be four in December. But she’s going on fourty. She’s very mature.

Marc Fest: Going on fourty, you say? Actually , your younger sister [Rebecca] said that about you once, that you as a kid were like a mature soul in a small kid’s body...

Gloria Estefan: I’ve gotten younger through my life. But I had a lot of hardships as a child. But I remember being very little and feeling very old, feeling very very mature.

Marc Fest: One hardship was taking care of your dad?

Gloria Estefan: Yes. That was tough.

Marc Fest: That was from 11 to 16 years of age?

Gloria Estefan: Yes, because then at 16, he was put in a hospital, because he no longer could be cared for at home, he was just too far down. But he was tough. That makes you grow up quick. Plus I had my younger sister and my mother worked all the time, so when I came home from school I was pretty much in charge there until my mom came home and usually that was very late. She worked during the day and went to school to get her teaching credentials. But it was very valuable for me, because I didn’t know what was going to happen in my future and after when I had that accident I had so much knowledge about the spine and muscles and things, so that helped me in my recuperation because it was what I went through with my father. I think also it gave me a really good idea what’s really valuable in life and what’s worth it. So it’s helped me deal with fame with no problem.

Marc Fest: You’ve got that re-enforced several times. Through that experience with your father, I’m sure also through the accident, something like that sets the priorities straight.

Gloria Estefan: Sure does. But I already had them pretty straight. That actually, gave me really good way to live my life, it gave me a [sense of] not wasting a moment and I became much more expressive to everyone: my family, my friends, even through my music. I think if you listen to the albums before "Into the Light" and even then after there’s changes because I’ve become more and more free. The accident had a lot to do with that. I experienced a lot of love from everybody, free love and power of prayer. I realized how strong we are, how much is in our control.

Marc Fest: I read in one place that you said you believe in that thoughts can make reality.

Gloria Estefan: Yes.

Marc Fest: It’s almost a mystical concept.

Gloria Estefan: It’s mystical now to people, but I think it’s scientific as well. I mean, I studied psychology and you could power an electric train with brainwaves, so it’s mystical but it’s also part of the physical nature of reality.

Marc Fest: I can relate to that. It’s like when I look for a parking space I start sending out parking space vibrations...

Gloria Estefan: Exactly. And how many times... We all have known when somebody’s [going to be] on the phone... We’ve all had unique communications with other people that has no other explanation other than a spiritual, mental connection, you know, it’s like a phone ringing. What’s so incredible to believe about thoughts when we can pick up a phone without a cord and talk to somebody at the other side of the world. It’s weird to people now, but it’s not strange to me.

Marc Fest: You talked about these premonitions you had, about the accident, and being in a wheelchair suddenly, or also, about the jet ski incident. So do you often have the ESP-like experiences? You know, all that reminded me of a book by Isabell Allende.

Gloria Estefan: : Oh, "The House of Spirits?"

Marc Fest: : Yes. I got that kind of feeling [like in that book]. Are you an ESP person?

Gloria Estefan: : Everybody has it. Everybody.

Marc Fest: : But to different degrees...

Gloria Estefan: : Yes, it depends on how you focus and how much you focus. As a child, it was very strong, and as I grew older you start forgetting because you become part of the world and the rat race as they call it. After the accident as well, I was thrown inside myself, for a year, where my body didn’t really function like it did [before], so it drew me very much inward and I focussed more and did a lot more reading. I’ve always searched a lot, my whole life, for answers to questions, because I’m analytical to death. I came to realize, yes, you can have premonitions as well but I also feel that we draw our fears to ourselves as well, because when you focus on something very much, be it positive or negative, perhaps you’re drawing that experience to yourself. And in the big picture, I don’t think there’s really a bad or good. I think, it’s just experiences that we have, all learning experiences, and those big fears that I had came to be. Now, was it premonition or was it that you so much think about an experience that somehow you go through it. I don’t know which answer it is. But either way I think it’s a combination ob both things, and I’ve been very careful about what I concentrate on.

Marc Fest: So ever since you concentrate on positive things and thoughts...

Gloria Estefan: Exactly. And the accident told me that as well. Because I... my only way to survive was only to think positively. I could not think negatively. Because I knew I wouldn’t survive if I did. You gonna have these thought [though], it’s only natural. Especially being a mother. Your mother will tell you. You have this incredible imagination of things that can happen. But I go, let me imagine good things. Let me imagine the opposite. Let me imagine good things happen. Can’t hurt.

Marc Fest: You just had your 20th wedding anniversary. Just a little while ago?

Gloria Estefan: Yeah, last week, the second of September.

Marc Fest: Congratulations! I read that Emilio was your first boyfriend....

Gloria Estefan: ... first and only.

Marc Fest: So...

Gloria Estefan: Coincidence. I didn’t plan it that way

Marc Fest: How old were you again when you met?

Gloria Estefan: I was 17.

Marc Fest: 17. Uhhh. So have you ever felt that you missed out on something? You know, some experiences? Ever?

Gloria Estefan: Never. And especially since I know all my friends’ experiences. And what they went through. And it was nothing that was so fantastic about them having all these terrible relationships and even after they found a good one a lot of them ended in divorce because sometimes, you know, it’s all about ego, and about putting yourself first. I didn’t imagine that I would [clears her throat] marry so young. I thought I wouldn’t marry to my 30s, because all the guys that were my age seemed very immature to me, because i had to go through so much, so young. And Emilio, I think, was destiny, that we meet, you know, it was meant to be, and it was very slow. We were very careful. We didn’t want to ruin the professional thing. He asked me to marry him in February. We got married in September, but we went together two years before then. And I knew that I wanted to be with him the rest of my life.

Marc Fest: What is your advise to other young girls that find themselves in a similar situation, as a 17-year-old?

Gloria Estefan: Well, I got lucky. We worked hard at it. Because it’s no fairytale. We’re two different people. And we worked very hard. But we fell in love with each other, before all of this [their success], and we know that we were in love with each other. I think, somebody asked me the other day, what would I want for my daughter, would I want her to be a virgin at marriage... And I think it has to do with sexuality. Whom ever you choose to have that sexual experience it should be someone you really feel strongly for. And that it’s going to be a loving experience and not just a sexual encounter. Because those things are empty. Just to have sex for the sake of having sex is absurd. I don’t think she has to be a virgin at marriage, necessarily, but I would talk to her a lot about making sure that she was deeply in love with that person and that she knew them very well before she took that final step of intimacy.

Marc Fest: What about the step of getting married at 17?

Gloria Estefan: Well, I got married at 21, which was still pretty young. It’s individual. Some people are ready at 21, some people are never ready, some people are ready at 30. Each individual is a whole different world. You should definitely make sure, though, that the feeling you have is not "Oh, I’m gonna get married and see if it works out and if it doesn’t I’m gonna get divorced. Because if you start with that feeling, then you don’t really believe that you want to be with this person for your whole life. You should think, at least at that moment that this is the person that you want to spend your whole life with. And then, if things happen, for whatever reason, OK. But if your mentality is different than that I don’t think you’re ready really to committ.

Marc Fest: When you look at your relationship with Emilio: you say it’s not always been easy, it’s work, too. What is the most important ingredient in making it work?

Gloria Estefan: Communication! And knowing that person deeply. And not letting things build up inside you that bother you. Just being open. You can be very firm in who you are. That’s good. Both people, in a relationship that’s really good, want the best for the other. If both people are concerned about the other person then they’re both taken care of. However, if you start thinking, I want this this way... You got to realize it, whenever you get married it’s two people. It’s no longer just what you want. Unless you’re ready to give and take and move on some issues then don’t do it because there’s no need. And nowadays, you know, there’s millions of ways, for women, to make a living and do things. It’s not like before, when it was "I got to get married or I’m just dead meat." So you should be ready to share and know that whatever decisions get made, it has to be a 50/50. It’s no longer what I want and "It has to be this way and you got to do it that way." You know, that’s a bad way to think.

Marc Fest: : I read that you got a phonecall from Al Gore to attend Clintons inauguration. Did you actually go and sing there?

Gloria Estefan: : Yes, we sang, not for a political thing. I sang for Bush as well. We just played for Gore. They had seevral balls. And he asked me specifically, so am I gonna tell the Vice President of the United States "no"?

Marc Fest: I’m bringing this up because of that other famous relationship, Clinton-Hillary. What do you think about his... scandal?

Gloria Estefan: It’s a circus. What can I tell you? I mean, it’s disappointing, I think to the young people, because what do you do? Of course, it’s private what two people do in their privacy, but, it’s like me expecting things that happen to me to stay private. They just don’t end up being that way. When you’re a public figure you got to think that your actions are going to have repercussions. And it’s not a good thing. What can I tell you? I firmly believe that someone’s sex life is their own personal thing. I also believe that sometimes the media in these years have gone beyond the scope of what they should be covering. But at the same time that doesn’t make it a right thing.

Marc Fest: Do you think he should resign?

Gloria Estefan: God, I don’t know what to tell you. I have no clue at this point. Would it do good for him to resign? Then what do we get? We get Gore, and then now they’re gonna check him out for campaign finances. So he’ll be in a legal battle. Politics are disgusting. That’s what I think. You can print that, as far as I’m concerned. I just think politics have gotten totally out of control.

Marc Fest: Could you imagine taking on a political post?

Gloria Estefan: [Loud] In that machine? The way things are in politics now? No way!

Marc Fest: Maybe you could change it from the inside?

Gloria Estefan: For what? We have more power as private citizens. Honestly. I mean, when I had that boating accident, we had been trynig to get laws passed for years...

Marc Fest: And you did get them passed...

Gloria Estefan: But a minimal thing [licences required for boaters younger than 16 years]. It needs to be more extensive.

Marc Fest: I actually didn’t know that you could operate a motor boat without a licence [in Florida].

Gloria Estefan: You could buy a 60-foot motor boat without knowing what the hell you’re doing. And get out there, with that machine which is like a weapon, especially here in Florida, being on the water is like being on the road. And it’s all politics, too. The networks of good old boys that have been in politics forever. That don’t want to bother the boating industry... It’s absurd stuff. Because all we want is make everybody safe around the water. And the true boaters want that.

Marc Fest: I personally think nobody should be allowed to get on a boat without a licence.

Gloria Estefan: Of course not. Do you drive a car without a licence in the street? That’s absurd! And you could be, now, we’ve passed a law, you have to be 16, you have to get a licence...

Marc Fest: And it’s a $50 fine if you don’t have one which is still ridicilously low...

Gloria Estefan: Absurd. But most of the accidents aren’t the 16-year-olds. Most of the accidents are the 18 to 25-year-olds that are drinking.

Marc Fest: I know a lot of people like that.

Gloria Estefan: Of course. What should be, everybody should have to get a licence. There is a zero tolerance law right now. They can confiscate your boat if they catch you with alcohol or drugs. But at the same time, you know, how many people they don’t catch. That go out there without knowing what they’re doing? And that’s what happens most of the time. Just people that don’t now what they’re doing. Because once you take a safety course, at least you’re aware of the danger of a boat, of the fact whether or not you put a boat in reverse it’s still gonna drift for a long time. It’s not like a car where you slam on the brakes. Wet bikes have no brakes! They don’t even go ito reverse. So even if you stop gassing, which is what happened to the kid that had our accident, he had no clue... He wanted to cut in front of the boat and when he saw what was happening he stopped, then he couldn’t steer, and when he saw he couldn’t steer he gunned it and he himself took himself under water. And right in the path of the propeller. That’s another thing that passed from that law that when they rent you a cycle they have to give you a 20-minute training. Because these people don’t know. They go "I go on the water – what can happen?" You know, it’s very sad.

Marc Fest: So something good came out of this.

Gloria Estefan: Yes. That’s why I was telling you: as private citizens we have more power. Because as a politician – then all the other politicians oppose you, because you’re on the other side. And at least as a private citizen we were able to do something. It still took a lot. I had to go to Tallahassee [Florida’s state capital], I had to lobby and I had to work it, but at least we were able to do something. I mean, New Jersey has better laws for boating than Florida! They passed that law that everybody has to have a licence. Why can’t we do that here? Its’s absurd to me. Politics once again!

Marc Fest: I hate jet skis, by the way. As a swimmer. I always feel threatened.

Gloria Estefan: They’re very dangerous. And they would be cool if people would understand their power and their danger. But now they don’t.

Marc Fest: Do you have a lot of jet ski people coming close to your home on Star Island?

Gloria Estefan: Oh yes. Jet skis. Taxis. All the time. And those tour boats. They go by [laughs]. Now, there’s 15 of them, and they come by two, three times a day, so the other day it was funny, because I was coming out of my shower, naked, and I heard "This is Gloria Estefan’s home...". Jesus. Check out the windows... It’s too funny.

Marc Fest: Everybody wants to know about your film plans. Are there already concrete plans?

Gloria Estefan: I’m doing a reading tomorrow, as a matter of fact.

Marc Fest: Comedy?

Gloria Estefan: This particular one is not a comedy. But it’s something that I really like. I don’t want to jinx it. But my favorite, really promising script that we’re also working very hard on is a comedy, which is my dream role. And the only thing that I’ve learned now about films is that it’s not like an album that you plan, you write it, you do it and you produce it. Films are something that happens on the spur of the moment. Because a certain director wants to work with a certain actor who is not available for a while... So the film can be sometimes in development for ten years and then, all of a sudden, boom, it happens from one month to the next, because everybody says "go." And my life is very different from that. We sometimes plan things a year, two years ahead of time. So I’ve learned that, and it’s very hard to find the kind of role I’m looking for, because I don’t want a starring role, I don’t want to do a singing thing.

Marc Fest: : Why don’t you want a starring role?

Gloria Estefan: : Because that’s too much pressure to start.

Marc Fest: : So you want to start off somewhat easy?

Gloria Estefan: I want to ease in to it. Like Bon Jovi has done. Like Harry Connick has done. Even Madonna, although she did star in her first movie, but she was sort of playing herself.

Marc Fest: Do you have acting experience?

Gloria Estefan: I’ve been preparing. Definitely. All along. Taking acting classes.

Marc Fest: How’s that?

Gloria Estefan: It’s great fun for me. Because what’s great is, at this point in my career and in my life to find something that’s exciting and new and will evolve me into a different... I’m not gonna quit singing, because that’s who I am. But it’s nice to grow and to keep moving into different things.

Marc Fest: Andy Garcia... Is it going to be a film with him?

Gloria Estefan: I just met him last week. He came for the [wedding] anniversary party. And we talked about it. I would love to. It’s just a matter of finding the right project. He’s developing a film he’s been working on for ten years! And still it isn’t to the point where he can make it. I would love that. I was telling Andy "We could never have a love scene, because you are my friend [laughs], how would we do this. It would be too weird." We’re laughing about that.

Marc Fest: How long have you known one another?

Gloria Estefan: We met during Hurricane Relief [a fund raiser to help victims of hurricane Andrew]. He came here to the office to... Although we had actually met when I was 17 or 18 and in the band [Miami Sound Machine]. And we played at this thing in Key Biscayne. And he was there and he sat in with the band, but he then wasn’t a well-known actor of anything, and we met briefly. But then after his career [took off] we met for the hurricane aid. He came in and joined me for all the trucks, we went down south, and all that stuff down there. Great guy. Family man. Three girls.

Marc Fest: Where does he live?

Gloria Estefan: He lives, both, in LA and he has a home here in Key Biscayne.

Marc Fest: Do you hang out with some of the other famous people here, like Stallone or Madonna?

Gloria Estefan: We’ve seen Stallone on several occasions. We run into eachother all the time. Mostly high profile things. Madonna comes over to the house for dinner sometimes quietly and the babies play and stuff.

Marc Fest: Julio Eglesias? He lives on Star Island as well?

Gloria Estefan: Julio doesn’t spend more then 30 days [a year] in Miami. And no, he doesn’t live on Star Island. You know, they lie, on those tour boats.

Marc Fest: How about the Bee Gees?

Gloria Estefan: The live further on North Bay Road or something. Really nice guys.

Marc Fest: But on a private level it’s just Madonna?

Gloria Estefan: Yes, she comes by. But most of my friends are not in the industry. My close, close, friends who we go out to dinner with and schmooze are not in the industry, they’re usually... One of them is a Dr. XXXXX, he does a lot of things for the homeless. We all have very similar desires to help out. These things have joined us as friends, as very close friends. Terry XXXXX, she’s a woman who has a big advertising company. We’ve known her for years. Our real estate agent is my best friend.

Marc Fest: She was actually pointed out to me. Because I asked some people whom I could talk to who would know you... But she seemed to be out of town.

Gloria Estefan: She doesn’t like the fame part. She doesn’t like to be involved in that side of it.

Marc Fest: About that "fame part" and friends: is it harder to find friends once one is very famous?

Gloria Estefan: I would say I’m sure it is. But these friends that I have I knew from before. One of my close friends is one of my lawyers. I knew him since fifth grade, since grammar school...

Marc Fest: ...so you have that certainty and that foundation...

Gloria Estefan: ...exactly. And that makes it good.

Marc Fest: Does it still happen that you make new friends? Or is there a different quality to it [to new acquaintances]?

Gloria Estefan: You make new friends sometimes, but there’s not really time. You know, friends take time. Relationships take nurturing. Sure, we have a lot of people that we consider our friends. Very close friends [, though,] are these core people. Those are the ones that we spend the most time with. And then family, of course. Emilio’s niece is married, and we send a lot of time together. Her brother... It’s a very close-knit family.

Marc Fest: Do you have any other creative outlets, besides singing, acting? Like painting, writing...

Gloria Estefan: I don’t paint. Writing, I’m really interested in that. They’ve been hounding me about doing my autobiography. It’s a little early for that. Hopefully I have a little longer... I want to write it myself, though. And it’ll take me a good ten years. First of all because of the time factor. I’ve been thinking about, but I can’t even sit down to write anything. I’ve been writing a lot of stuff, like english language words for Shakira, Skakira is a new artist that Emilio is working on. She was on the cover of Time magazine International for women in rock. And Emilio just did her album. And she is an incredible writer. One of the best I have heard. Woman. Young. 21 years old. Super talented. But she doesn’t write in English, it’s in Spanish. And it’s a thrill for me to get her songs and try to make them in English what she has done in Spanish. That kind of thing I love. And I’m working on that as well. It’s a great challenge and it brings out a lot of things in me as a writer that Iwouldn’t have thought of to do. Like trying to bring to life her compositions in English is really thrilling for me. So I’m doing that too, now. Mainly that, and my autobiography that I’d like to get to eventually. But I’m still... If I’m dead then somebody else can do it and I won’t care. And then, you know, it’s still too early for me.

Marc Fest: One CONGA [the internet mailing list] member asked me to ask you if you still write songs in the shower.

Gloria Estefan: [Laughs]

Marc Fest: And I would get a laugh, they said. They know you well.

Gloria Estefan: They know me better than I know myself. They know stuff that I’ve called my office saying "Hey, the CONGA list said this is happening, why don’t you tell me?" This is absurd. How can I hear my own schedule form the CONGA list? [laughs]. It’s really funny. Sure, you get a lot of ideas in the shower. Because that’s the only place I’m really alone. You know, and I need to be alone. Most of my songs I’ve written between midnight and six in the morning. Just because everybody’s asleep and I have peace.

Marc Fest: Some [CONGA] member was pointing out – and I didn’t verify this – he said it seems like you wrote and composed more songs before the accident. Afterwards, many of the major songs were not done by yourself. He [who aksed the question] was wondering if that had to do something with the experience [of the accident].

Gloria Estefan: No, much of it had to do with the albums we made after that. Because... "Cuts both ways" is the one that I had the most music on, but it was also at the point in my career when I had more time to write. It’s turned out still to be our biggest selling album I think. 6 out of 10 are my compositions, I think. "Into the Light" – there was some things... Of course, the accident had a lot to do with the fact that I didn’t do a lot of writing, because I was in heavy, heavy, heavy rehab. Of course, I still did some songs, like "Coming out of the dark", "Nayib’s song", "Seal our fate". But it wasn’t the amount. After that one we had "The Greatest Hits" for which I wrote "Always Tomorrow", "Go Away". Two or three out of four songs that were new on that album. Then came "Mi Tierra", which I did a lot of cold writing on.

Marc Fest: I love that album...

Gloria Estefan: Yes, that’s my favorite. Mi Tierra, I did a lot of cold writing. But there were so many good songs from other people... You know, I’m very democratic. I don’t put a song on just because I wrote it. If there’re great songs there, I’m not gonna waste my time doing more on my own, just to replace them. I love those songs. So I worked a lot with people there. And then "Destiny", I did a lot of writing and lyrics and things on that album. So it just depends. I like to work with other people. I really do like that. I don’t have to be the only one. I could sit there and write a bunch of songs, but that doesn’t mean I’d like them all enough to be on the album.

Marc Fest: If you look at your career. What effect did these tragic incidences have on your career?

Gloria Estefan: I think that that accident actually, although at the time it happened it really snipped it right there [makes a snipping sound]. Because, even though "Cuts both Ways" in the long run has been my best-selling album, because so many hits came out of it. When the accident happened, we were dead on radio as well. Because people don’t like to remember or be reminded of someone that is going through a very difficult relationship, or a difficult time in their life. You know, entertainers are supposed to entertain you, not remind you of their tragedies. So that’s why it was super important for me to make "Into the Light" super strong so people knew that I was fine. But I think it also gave them a broader view of who I was as a human being. It took them to a different level, because a lot of fans that I saw on that tour felt that I had inspired them to keep going in their life, because I was such a public thing and was able to come out of it, that it made them feel inspired to not give up in a lot of circumstances. I think it deepened an already strong relationship with people who knew me. And at the same time people who didn’t know me saw me as a human being rather than just an image or a singer. In the long run it [the accident] has been a good thing. I wouldn’t go through it again, but...

Marc Fest: You know, I have some friends here that are really getting all worked up about that language issue, like they say that the spanish-spaking community here doesn’t make enough of an effort to learn English. They think it’s a problem. What’s your take on that?

Gloria Estefan: I really think that if you live in this country you should try to speak the language. But what happens is a lot of people came here older, and there were so many of us, so many Hispanics, that came, that they were able to live their life without speaking English. And it’s very hard to teach older people languages.

Marc Fest: But what about young people...?

Gloria Estefan: But young people all speak English here. They go to school. On the contrary, kids are losing their Hispanic... They don’t speak Spanish well. I had to work really hard for my son to keep Spanish as a second language, because thank God, his grandparents don’t speak English and a couple of the house keepers don’t speak English, so he was forced to... And I also made sure he was bilingual. Some of his friends, they don’t speak Spanish. But what happens – we get a lot of immigration from other countries here of people coming from Nicaragua, from Colombia, who are already older and don’t speak English, and those people obviously don’t need to. You can live here your whole life, especially if you live in Hialeah [laughs] You could live your whole life without speaking English. That’s probably what they’re complaining about. And at the same time I still have to fight my record company to release "Oye" [as a single]. Because it’s in Spanish.

Marc Fest: You turned 41 this year? Just recently, didn’t you?

Gloria Estefan: Yes, the first [of September]. We got a lot of things then: the first is my birthday, the second is my son’s birthday.

Marc Fest: You look great.

Gloria Estefan: I feel great. I feel very strong.

Marc Fest: Do you sometimes think about aging? Especially as somebody in the limelight?

Gloria Estefan: I really don’t have a problem with age. I think each day your either older or dead. [laughs] And everybody has got to go through it. The only difficult thing is if your image of yourself is only that performer type thing, then you’re gonna be in trouble, because every age has an amazing lesson to be learned and incredible experiences that are a part of it. I loved my 30s, I love how I feel now at 41 as a women. The best I’ve ever felt. I’m fulfilled. Every aspect of my life is incredibly rich. You come into a certain peace and self knowledge that is not there in your 20s and 30s. I think it’s fantastic. Do you have limitations? You sure do. But there’s a million people coming up to you. And that’s the nature of the business. New music, new singers, new performers, new artists, that’s it.

Marc Fest: But there’re a lot of women, mostly blacvk women though, that sing well into their 60s... Do you expect to do that yourself.

Gloria Estefan: Yeahh. Not in the same way, of course, I mean, I don’t know about 60s... [laughs]. I look at Celia Cruz and to me she’s mind-boggling.

Marc Fest: I don’t know her.

Gloria Estefan: Celia Cruz is the queen of Salsa. She’s one of the biggest icons of Cuban music. She is 70 years old and you see her on stage and she is a ball of energy. Of course, black women, like you say, they don’t age the same. Their skin looks younger and everything looks younger on them, that’s the least of it. But I think as you grow older the way you express yourself only gets richer. You got to move. I can’t be shaking my body and do the Conga at 60. Come on. Shoot myself before that happens.

Marc Fest: Why not?

Gloria Estefan: Because [laughs] I told my sister if I ever get senile and walk arond in those chaps with long curly gray hair with my ass hanging to my ankles, please shoot me out of my misery. I told her I’ve given her permission. You got to evolve, that’s the bottom line.

Marc Fest: Would you ever do something like plastic surgery?

Gloria Estefan: I’d have a tough time with plastic surgery. Let me tell you, they’re some things that you can do nowadays that can help you out. But to cut into your face, you know, to have your ears on a table [laughs]... I like my face, and even my face as it’s aged, I like it. And I think I’d freak out if it was not that same face looking at me in the mirror. I can handle looking older, I can handle looking different. But that would be pretty tough on me. Take that kind of risk. You got to get older. You just have to! That’s the way of life.