Gloria Estefan is a musical icon. However, with her decades of success, the starlet has also had
her own overwhelming share of turmoil. Here is the tragic real-life story of Gloria Estefan.
She was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1957, when the country was governed by President Fulgencio
Batista, and her father was working as a bodyguard for the First Lady. But in 1959,
Fidel Castro overthrew the government, and Estefan's father was thrown in prison.
Three months later, he was released, and the family managed to escape to America.
But Estefan's father joined the CIA-backed Brigade 2506, a paramilitary group made up of
Cuban exiles living in Miami, which attempted to invade Cuba and overthrow Castro. Dubbed the Bay
of Pigs invasion, it failed, landing Estefan's dad back in prison — this time for two years.
Estefan told The Guardian,
"I remember rosaries and my mom dragging me to prayer groups because my dad was
a political prisoner in Cuba. […] At the beginning she would
tell me that my dad was working on a farm, but I knew he was in jail."
When he was released, the reunion was brief. Estefan's father joined the U.S. Army and was sent
to Vietnam, where he was exposed to the chemical weapon Agent Orange before he was discharged.
He developed muscular sclerosis and his health quickly declined. Despite barely knowing him,
Estefan became her father's primary caregiver when she was just 12. She told The Late Show,
"My Dad brought us here to be raised in freedom, and he fought for freedom."
Though she arrived in America when she was just two years old,
Estefan's parents instilled in her a deep love of her Cuban heritage.
Still, she's never been back to Cuba. In 2016, she told the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,
"I don't want to go and have a vacation in a place where the people that live
in that country can't enjoy the same things that I can as a Cuban exile."
In 1975, when Estefan was 16, her father's condition got so bad he had to be sent to a
veteran's home. Estefan told the Daily Mail that watching his decline had a huge impact on her.
"All through those years of looking after him, I dreaded being in such a helpless condition myself,
having no control over my life. I reacted against it by having complete control.
I made sure I was as strong as an ox."
She began doing daily workouts lasting over two hours, and embarked on a strict diet,
drastically changing her health - and her appearance - as she lost over 40 pounds.
"I transformed myself from a lumpy,
fat teenager with one big eyebrow and huge cheeks — both sets — to a very fit person."
Sadly, her father passed away in 1980 at the age of 47,
just two years after Estefan married fellow Cuban refugee Emilio Estefan.
In the mid 1980's, Gloria Estefan became one of America's biggest musical stars.
But both her career and her life nearly ended suddenly on March 20,
1990, when her tour bus was rear ended by a tractor trailer.
Estefan's husband only suffered minor cuts and bruises, while their young son broke
his collarbone. But Estefan, who had been asleep at the time, was flung violently
off her seat. The impact left her with a broken back and damage to her spinal cord.
Dr. Harry Schmaltz told Reelz in 2018,
"Another half an inch, she could have been permanently paralyzed."
In addition to physical pain, Estefan suffered emotional turmoil as the incident hit close to
home — even causing her to disappear for some time after her injury. In 2013, she told Oprah that she
had always been afraid of becoming paralyzed like her father and becoming a burden to her family.
"My dad was in a wheelchair, I had lived the experience, and so I was
very clear that I was going to do everything in my power…”
“Not to be in a wheelchair."
Although Gloria Estefan was assured she wouldn't be left paralyzed, doctors did warn that she would
likely have a decreased range of motion. Speaking with CBS News, Estefan recalled being told,
"'I'm hoping that you'll at least be able to walk gingerly,
but I don't think you'll ever be back on stage.'"
Estefan underwent a four hour surgery, with two eight-inch steel rods inserted in her
back as spine support. She then underwent six months of grueling therapy, telling Express,
"I was doing six to seven hours a day of rehab to try and prevent what they
said was inevitable – that I was going to end up in a wheelchair."
Instead of a wheelchair, Estefan willed herself back onto the stage.
Less than a year after her accident, Estefan performed at the American
Music Awards in a truly emotional comeback. As she told CBS News,
"It's like if I climbed Mount Everest and won the Pulitzer Prize."
But the problems weren't over. Besides the physical scars, she also faced emotional scars.
She and her husband tried to have another baby, but doctors told her that as a result
of the accident she probably wouldn't be able to have more children. Finally,
Estefan chose to undergo exploratory surgery in the hope that doctors could determine the issue.
Luckily, they did: the impact of the crash had caused one of her Fallopian tubes to shift.
They were able to correct it surgically, and in 1994, Estefan gave birth to a
daughter named Emily — who has since gone on to become a popular musician in her own right.
In September 1995, Gloria Estefan experienced tragedy yet again.
She and her husband were sailing on their 33-foot motorboat in the
waters off Miami Beach when two people on a jet ski crashed right into them.
Estefan immediately called 911, while her husband Emilio jumped in the water to help.
But it was too late. The jet ski pilot, 29-year-old Howard University law student
Howard Clark, had been killed almost instantly by the boat's propellers.
Florida Marine Patrol spokesman Capt. Mike Lamphear added,
"Mrs. Estefan tonight is very, very upset,
and she's doing the best she can to handle a terribly serious situation."
Luckily, Clark's passenger survived, providing one note of grace on an otherwise tragic day.
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