Let It Loose: A Gloria Este-FAN Podcast
Let It Loose: A Gloria Este-FAN Podcast is the first fan-led podcast dedicated to the life, legacy, and music of Gloria Estefan. Lifelong Este-FANS Carlos, Rob, and Wes dive deep into 50 years of hits, history, live performances, and personal stories. They’re celebrating the songs and the cultural impact behind them. Each week, they revisit career-defining moments and spotlight fans whose lives were shaped by Gloria’s music. If Gloria soundtracked your life, this is your place.
Let It Loose: A Gloria Este-FAN Podcast
Live For Loving You with Becky Fajardo Cabrera
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We're BACK!! For the premiere of Season 2, we're having a birthday bash with none other than someone who's known Gloria longer than anyone else-- her sister Becky! Join as she lets it loose with us and shares memories, stories, jokes, and so much more!
Let's hear from you-- Send us an email about anything Gloria related at LetitLoosePod@gmail.com.
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Hi everybody, it's me, Gloria Steph, and welcome to Let It Loose with Carlos, Rob, and West. Don't miss it.
SPEAKER_05Welcome back, everybody, to season two of Let It Loose. My name is Rob. I'm Wes. I'm Carlos.
SPEAKER_07And I'm Lauda.
SPEAKER_05And we're back. We are so back.
SPEAKER_04We made it to a second season.
SPEAKER_05It's season two. Uh, we took a little bit of a summer vacation, even though we've been working nonstop behind the scenes, uh, figuring out what season two was gonna look like. So we're really excited to uh finally be doing it.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely, absolutely. Before we get into it, uh how was everyone's summer? Fast. Yours was fast. Too fast.
SPEAKER_06Mine was fast. Isn't it always too fast, though? It really did fly. It did. I mean, it seemed like we just did the glory episode.
SPEAKER_05I went to Costa Deste. Oh beach. Right. At the very beginning of my summer, we we booked it very last minute because Jet Blue started doing uh direct flights to and from New York to that little tiny, like tiny rinky dinky airport in Vero Beach that looks like a diner. It's adorable. Uh so we booked it last minute. We stayed in Costa Deste. We barely left the resort because the resort is perfect, and every single person that I interacted with was incredible. I hope we we might do an episode about the glory of the Estefan properties because it was such a special uh experience. Um, aside from everybody talking, saying wonderful things about the Estefans, everybody in that resort was also saying wonderful things about our friend Troy. Oh yeah, he's VIP there. Absolutely. They were like, Oh, you're a fan, so you must know Troy. And I was like, I was just with Troy in Atlanta. So yeah, it was it was incredible.
SPEAKER_04It's funny because I remember I remember when you were planning this, or originally you were gonna go you were going to the cardozo in Miami. That was an idea, yeah. That was the idea, and I was like, I I think that'll be fun, but I felt that Costa de Este was more your pace. Um you know my vibe. I know your vibe, and I was like, I think you're really gonna enjoy it. And then, of course, once you booked it, I was like, oh shoot, I hope he enjoys it. What what if I'm leading him the wrong way? Um, and then as soon as I as soon as you started reporting back, I was like, yes.
SPEAKER_05By the way, if you're going to Costa Deste, go across the street to Vina Vino Vero. It's a wine bar and liquor store.
SPEAKER_04Um it's a it's a liquor store.
SPEAKER_05Liquor, I was meant to say like wine shop, but a massive liquor store. It's a store. It's a wine bar, liquor store. They do tastings. Uh the owner's name is Dana. She's fantastic, she's super chill. She has a psychic who works with her sometimes. Uh, it's right across the street from Costa, and we were there every day that it was open during our stay. So definitely go there and tell her that we sent you. Awesome.
SPEAKER_04Awesome. How about you, Wes? Anything exciting this summer?
SPEAKER_06Not really. Didn't do anything for summer other than you know, like work, work. Stuck around Cincinnati and Ohio stuff. Um, Cedar Point. Yeah, really, really didn't get out of town. A couple concerts, but and it was my other favorite Dave Matthews band, uh, as you all know. Yep.
SPEAKER_04I still need to make it out to one of their concerts.
SPEAKER_06Hey, it's coming up.
SPEAKER_04I know. Um, Friday. Yeah. Well, by the time that this episode airs, it's yeah. It'll be over. Done. Correct. So yeah. How about you, Laura?
SPEAKER_07I went to Tenerife.
SPEAKER_04Oh, that's right. You were our international correspondent.
SPEAKER_06And you did a great job. You did. You didn't do such a great job.
SPEAKER_07I had like a small reunion reunion with other fans. And it was very special for me.
SPEAKER_04No, don't don't play it down. It wasn't just a small reunion with other fans. Oh, I'm sorry, you had a small reunion with Gloria. Yeah, you did. You were out there having dinner with Gloria.
SPEAKER_07It was super nice with us, like always. And it was, I don't know, I was willing to go, but I had some things at home. So it was at the last minute call.
SPEAKER_04And literally the last minute. Literally the last minute. I woke up the next morning after you were kind of like back and forth. I was like, just do it. And the next morning you were like, it's booked. I'm going. I've got a pack.
SPEAKER_06Those are the funnest things, like last-minute trips, though. Those are the that you're not expecting to just go.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I I think that kind of opened the door a little bit for you as far as being more adventurous because you know that I yeah, I don't think that you've done anything this this crazy. I know that you've gone places, but something like what you did during the summer for Tenity Fair, but I think um you got bit by the bug now because I'm sure that this is not gonna be the last time that you do something like that.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, I used to do things like uh plan everything, have my list of things ready.
SPEAKER_06You are a planner, you are definitely a planner. I can't say I am a like a super planner like like Laura, but um I'm not one that typically takes like trips by myself.
SPEAKER_05Well, because then all your friends are still there anyway. Like you're you're traveling by yourself, but when you get there, it's a reunion with people that you've known for years. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it is. Um, I I don't have anything exciting to re report because during my summer I threw out my back, like the old man that I am, so I was kind of out of commission for for most of it.
SPEAKER_06Um what to do and he wouldn't listen.
SPEAKER_04Listen, between you and Gloria, both of you guys had me, yeah, you were driving me insane. Go get an MRI, go get an MRI. I'm like, I'm not getting an MRI. I'm fine, we'll come back. But you know what? I don't I kind of I kind of felt that the it was the universe telling me to slow down because the four of us have been just firing on all cylinders from not even from the beginning of the year, from you know, late last year. And you know, be s there's a lot of work that goes into uh creating a podcast and um it just the all the details and planning, and you know, besides our regular day-to-day, I have 50 million children that I have to, you know, uh stay on top of. So it's um uh it was overwhelming, but not bad. You know, it we had a lot going on, and I think it it was just a moment where the universe was like, you're not gonna slow down unless I do something to make you slow down. So um that was that was my summer. So I think now that we've discussed our summers, I think I'm ready, and I've been waiting for this for so long. I am ready for a history lesson with Wesito.
SPEAKER_06Oh boy, take it away. All right, so I'm gonna try this season. I'm gonna try to stump you guys and see if you know if if you if you can answer. This one might be easy because well, you'll find out. So this week in Gloria History, we're doing the week of September 1st through the 7th. Gloria performed in one of the most iconic arenas in the world. You probably can figure that one out, obviously. Do you guys know what occasion it was for?
SPEAKER_05Okay, an iconic arena. Is it Wembley?
SPEAKER_04I was gonna I was gonna say Wembley.
SPEAKER_05The most iconic arena in the world. I think Wembley is pretty iconic ones.
SPEAKER_06The most iconic arena. Well, Madison Square Garden. Yes, and you live in New York City. What do you you should know this?
SPEAKER_05Madison Square Garden is not that great when you when that's your arena. Was this though? It's for the history of the revolution.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it was for the into the light tour. Okay, here, I'll give you, I'll give you the year. Yeah, because that was a hard one. Like you weren't you wouldn't be able to get that. So 2001.
SPEAKER_04What says like you guys are not true?
SPEAKER_062009.
SPEAKER_04Oh, this was for the Michael Jackson.
SPEAKER_06Oh, look at that. I'm impressed. Okay. I am impressed. Yes, that was great. Um, I think we may have talked about this last season. I I can't remember. But um it was filmed over two nights before um a TV special that later aired on uh I think CBS. Um, but she performed the first night, which I always wondered because you know, the first night was September 7th on a Friday, and the last night was September or uh September 10th on Monday. And we all know what happened the next day. So I always wondered, are you like, you know, what everybody wants to know where everybody was on September September the 11th.
SPEAKER_04And I was like, wonder if she was stuck in New York City like so many of the other ones, the other, you know, artists that I know I mean as soon as you mentioned it was at her concert, I immediately knew um which one it was. And uh specifically because it has my one of my favorite uh duets that she's ever done. The one with it is a great duet.
SPEAKER_05Uh James Ingram. James Ingram, yes.
SPEAKER_06The late the late James James Ingram, yes. He their vocals were phenomenal, as as you know, and they performed I Just Can't Stop Loving You, Michael's first single and number one hit from Bad.
SPEAKER_04So, all right, I listen, I'm ready to get stumped this season. So what I will say to you, Wes, is bring it. Yeah, bring it.
SPEAKER_06Yes, that one that one was a little well, it was a little hard. I had to give you the year, but you were you were great, you were right on it. So with that said, I have no pride.
SPEAKER_05I don't need to be I don't need to be right, but it's nice when I'm right. But it's nice to be right. It's nice when I'm right.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Well, Rob.
SPEAKER_04You know what time it is?
SPEAKER_05Time to play the music.
SPEAKER_04Time to cue the music. It's Gloria's birthday week, and we couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than with someone who has known her longer and better than almost anyone. She's had her front row seat to Gloria's incredible journey from their childhood and the early days of Miami Sound Machine to some of the biggest moments of Gloria's career. But today we're also getting to know the woman behind the title of Gloria Stefan's baby sister, Becky Fajardo Cabrera. Welcome to Let It Loose.
SPEAKER_02Oh, thank you.
SPEAKER_04Yay! We are so excited to have you here. We're so excited that we're starting off this new season with you. Um we uh I I know from what I hear, and I know that we've chatted in in the past, but from what I hear, you have a very wicked and warped sense of humor. Is that true? Very wicked and warped. Great.
SPEAKER_02Then you belong here, sister by the way.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, then you belong here. So how have you been? How has 2026 been treating you?
SPEAKER_022026 has been treating me well. Um, I am in the thick of wedding. My son is getting married on September 12th.
SPEAKER_05Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02Today we are literally two weeks away from our big day, and uh I am definitely in the thick of it. Um, it's been a great year. I I all sorts of wonderful things. We are getting a new daughter-in-law. I just became a family nurse practitioner, which was a big goal for a long time. Thank you, thank you. Um, life is good. Got to go to Spain with my sister and M and watch Em rock. You were rocking it.
SPEAKER_04I saw videos of you partying.
SPEAKER_02Oh no, it was it was I was decked out in my alien game. Like I was gonna support. I've never seen an alien party as much as that alien is. It was awesome, it was really, really fun. And I I missed the last two, and I I definitely have FOMO. So um, I was gonna make this one no matter what. Well, you've been a busy bee. Yeah, yeah, it's been a busy year.
SPEAKER_05But speaking of this year, you recently celebrated a big milestone in your marriage, 15 years. So we want to give you a little bit of an opportunity to shout out your hubby a little bit and talk about the life you've built together in those 15 years. So, what has that been like?
SPEAKER_02Oh my god, amazing! It it really feels like we got married yesterday, honestly. And that was one of the biggest things that we that kind of took us by surprise when we realized that this was our 15th year of marriage. Uh, to married for 15, together for 18. So it's it's quite an accomplishment. And yet it feels like it was yesterday, honestly. He still feels like my boyfriend, and that's a really, really great thing. Um, I know that some of you know him. I know that he reaches out to the fans a lot. Um, he is just a magnificent human being and the best uh thing that ever happened to me. Um, I was lucky to have met him. We were lucky to have met the way we met because I think now online dating, we met on match.com, and I think online dating has taken quite a different turn. I don't know. I'm just gonna go. Well, when it works, it works. Yeah, I feel so fortunate. You know, it's so funny because I I was talking to my son about this, and you know, the things that make marriages work and not work, and I said to him, It's always been very easy with dad. It's never been every relationship is a struggle, right? Every relationship has its has its struggles, has its things that need to you need to go through within your partner and within your friends and your family, every relationship has struggles. Absolutely, but when it works, it works. And you don't have to fight to make it work, and you don't have to have work more bad days than good days.
SPEAKER_04And you could tell, and you could tell that you're making it work because my god, the way that you guys look at each other when you're posting these videos and and pictures, I'm like, oh my god, look at them. Yeah, we really cutest.
SPEAKER_02Very, very lucky. He's a wonderful, wonderful human. Forget husband, yeah, he's a wonderful human, and uh, and I'm proud to be his wife.
SPEAKER_05I love that. Well, congratulations again. Um, all right, so let's let's dive in and let's start at the very, very beginning. You were born in Texas, yes, right? Um, and you can talk a little bit about what brought your family there, or if you have any memories of that life or even movies.
SPEAKER_02I actually don't have I I'm sorry to cut you off. I actually I have no Zoom Medicade. Um I have I actually do not remember Texas. Uh, I think my earliest memory, I I know my earliest memory exactly what it was, and it was my dad. We were in South Carolina already, so I would have been two or three.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um, my first memory is my dad like putting me into the car. Like I was wrapped in like a blanket, and I guess I was asleep, and he was putting me into the car, and I remember his face looking at my face. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_02That is my earliest memory that I have, and that I know was in South Carolina. Uh, I remember going to the park with my sister and making her carry me. I remember that. Um, unfortunately had to, like, she, I made her take me everywhere. So and she did, kind soul. So she was.
SPEAKER_04So Texas was how long? How long were you there?
SPEAKER_02Texas, I believe, and you know, we spoke about this the other day because my husband had asked me a question that I couldn't answer about my dad, and I called my sister. And um, she told me we were in Texas from the time that my mom was like eight months pregnant with me until I was like a year and a half old. Ah, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_04And then you went to South Carolina.
SPEAKER_02South Carolina, exactly. Got it.
SPEAKER_04Okay, got it.
SPEAKER_05And then your family made your way down to Miami from South Carolina.
SPEAKER_02When my dad was gonna go to Vietnam, we moved to South Carolina. Okay. And we moved in with my grandma. So, um, and that was, I believe, I believe when my dad went to Vietnam, I I was like five, but I think we left. My sister can answer this better than I can, but I think we left South Carolina when I was like three and a half, maybe three and a half, and then we got to Miami and he was with us for a little bit. I think he went to Missouri to train, and then from there he went to Vietnam. But from there on, we were living with my grandma, and then all I remember is like my dad coming back from Vietnam and everything that ensued from there.
SPEAKER_05Totally.
SPEAKER_02So from Texas childhood memories. I'm gonna assume that it was because they were kind of not great.
SPEAKER_01Got it.
SPEAKER_02You know what I mean? Like as a child, I think we tend to remember the things that were better. I have to say that my mom and my sister really I got the I got the better end of it. You know what I mean? Like my mom and my sister really tried to make it as normal as possible for me.
SPEAKER_04So you did you did Texas, South Carolina, South Carolina to Miami, Miami, and then you never left Miami.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Okay, got it.
SPEAKER_05Those are the apartments from the La Vicina video, is that that place?
SPEAKER_02No, I never lived there.
SPEAKER_05Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02The apartment from La Vicina Video was when my mom and my sister came from Cuba. Okay, they they were living with my aunt, and this is what we were talking about the other day, so I can tell the story exactly as it went. They were living with my aunt. Um, my mom and my sister came. No, my dad came first on the ferry, and he was living with my aunt, and then my mom and my sister came, and they all were living with my aunt, and that, you know, as went as well as living with relatives works. Um, so my mom went and found the the the apartments from La Vicina video, and they moved there, and then my dad left to um Bay of Pigs, I think. Okay, yeah, okay. Yes, Bay of Pigs.
SPEAKER_05Sorry, Wes, I cut you off with your question.
SPEAKER_06No, no, you're good. You're good. So you grew up in a family filled with so much creativity and music. What was the environment like for you? And did you ever feel that same pull toward music or the arts?
SPEAKER_02I mean, we sang a lot in my house, and I think I don't know if you guys have ever heard, well, yeah, you've heard them because they were part of the play. Um, there was a lot of singing, there was a lot of guitar playing. I actually did play the guitar as well in uh my school band and choir for seventh and eighth grade. My sister was our teacher. So, you know, my friends now are like, wow, we had Gloria Stefan as our choir teacher and you know, and our guitar teacher in eighth grade. But it was because she was my sister, you know, she was and she was so good at everything she did. Um, what I don't have is the public eye bug. I don't like to be in the public eye.
SPEAKER_03Got it.
SPEAKER_02So um that it never occurred to me that I would want to sing in public. I did sing with her in the very beginning because my cousin was always pregnant, and my cousin was her the person the partner when she sang in the beginning.
SPEAKER_04So we're talking about mercy.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so every pregnancy that when she got too big, I would fill in. So I did quite a few things. I did regines in New York, I did the the Liga contra Cancer, yeah, and I was like This is new. This is brand new information.
SPEAKER_04And and Becky, what I'll say this, you know, one of the reasons, one of the many reasons that we wanted to have you here is because you know, whenever we look back at interviews like behind the music or you know, the you've that you've been a part of, it's always very specific to you know, certain you know, events, uh the bus accident, or you know, um, we talk about uh they talk about your dad and you, you know, Phil, but we never get to hear this side. And you know, we know how important you are to Gloria, and uh equally, you know, you are as important to you know to to us, you know. So we want to get to know you. So you sharing these stories is is pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_02So I just wanted to say thank you. Um, you're very welcome. I was 17 years old, I was a senior in high school or junior in high school. No, a senior in high school, and you know, I was going to regines in New York and performing, and and I my my mom that particular trip sticks in my memory because I didn't have anything to wear. Like I was gonna be in front of an audience, and I was a 17-year-old. So I had this purple strapless jumpsuit, and my mom had this really expensive fabric that she had bought for my sister's wedding to like make like a shawl type, you know, close th that my mother would wear because my mother could get away with those things. And um, I took that fabric thinking, oh, I can tie it here and make a dress, and I can tie it here and make a belt. And I spent the whole weekend making outfits out of that one fabric. Um it was pretty challenging. Uh, but it was very cool. And we, you know, she did all the singing. I harmonized here and there. Our voices have the same timber. So it was, even though I couldn't really sing like she could, we could get away with. You know, harmonizing and doing that kind of thing. I still love to sing, I just don't like to sing in public. And I smoked for a long time, so that kind of ruined that. Not anymore. Not anymore, nurse Wesley.
SPEAKER_06I don't smoke anymore. Well, you learn, you at least stop now. So you were speaking about your mom because you were the younger daughter. Um, did you and your mom have a different kind of relationship than um my sister and her?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. We were always at odds. Really? I think I'm more like my mom than I care to admit. So um, so we we we butted heads a lot. My sister was my sister was kind of my mom. You know what I mean? My mom was so busy being a mom and providing and taking care of my dad, and that my sister was the one, my sister was the one that I shaved my legs with for the first time. My sister was the one that picked me up the first time. No boys asked me to dance and at the party, and I wanted to cry. Um, you know, she literally on my confirmation day was like, You're not walking down that aisle with those hairy legs, go shave your legs. And I'm like, mom doesn't let me. And she was like, Here, go shave your legs. I sliced and leg open because of course I didn't oh no. Yeah, she was my confirmation sponsor. Like, she was she was she is everything the center of my universe. Yeah, she is the center of my universe, and um hard because when you when you're a kid and they have that place in your life, it's different as you become an adult, your the nature of your relationship changes, and you realize, oh, okay, well, maybe she's not as perfect as I thought she was, or maybe you know, because you kind of I don't know if it happens to you guys, but you kind of idolize your parents and you put them in a up here in a little pedestal, and they're not perfect, and by by all by all means, they make mistakes and they and they do things that are disappointing sometimes. And and because she was on that pedestal for me, my mama was like, I whatever with you, like, but my sister was on that pedestal for me. So as the dynamic of our relationship changed, and we became adults and we became friends instead of her. I mean, I'm still kind of scared of her.
SPEAKER_05Let's not yeah, let's not get crazy, but it it plateaus a little bit, it equals out as you get older, it equals out as you get older, exactly.
SPEAKER_02And she's more my friend. And I mean, she is she is my person, she's that person that I talk to every day, several times a day. You know, good morning. If I haven't spoken to her all day, it's really weird, you know, like that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_04She's your person. Going back to your mom, is there is there something you do today, maybe a saying, a habit, or everything I do today is my mother. But you're like, oh my god, I become my mother.
SPEAKER_02It is horrifying. Really? Every, every, I mean, how horrifying and not, and I say that in jest. My mother was an amazing human being. But everything I criticize my mother for, I am now doing. The things that were, my mom was a stickler for did you send a thank you note? Did you write a handwritten note? Did you call and say thank you? Did you, you know, did you put your napkin on your lap? Like she was really meticulously polite and educado. You know what I mean? Like that was just her thing. And now I find that I noticed all those same things with my thank, thankfully, my kid followed in my footsteps and is really careful and meticulous about being grateful and about you know doing the right thing. But all those things that were never important to me all of a sudden are like super important to me. And her her dichos and her phrases like La veje peo que comunismo, that comes out of my mouth every day. And she's absolutely right, La Veje is peo que comunimo. And um, you know, those she is very much a part of my life, every day of my life, every day. Like we she's it's been nine years now, and it feels like it was yesterday. Well, you know, my grandmother's favorite was my sister, hands down.
SPEAKER_07And um, but Gloria siempre mentioned Cuba and mantienes and Estados Unidos.
SPEAKER_02Okay, no, no, no. My hermana, so you locked up. But you had a matrimonio anterior that during cinco minutes. Do I do this in English or Spanish? Whatever. Whatever you're yeah, whatever you've got to do. So I'm gonna do it in English because it's easier. Um I was married for five minutes to a horrible human in 1999.
SPEAKER_04I know the story.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, unfortunately. Um yeah, he was Cuban and he had not seen his mother in 10 years. So for our honeymoon, he asked me if we could go to Cuba. And I, of course, every alarm and bell went off in my head because I was like, they will kill me if I go to Cuba. My family will kill me. They already didn't love him. So, you know, which should have been the number one red flag, but you know, of course, love is blind. Um, so I went to Cuba for our honeymoon. I went from here to Vegas, Vegas to Cancun, and Cancun to Cuba. When I landed in Cuba, that I got to the hotel, he gave his name at the of course I did everything under his name, like you know. When I land when we got to the hotel and he gave his name, they said, No, you don't have a reservation. And yeah, and I said, Rebeca Fajardo, and she goes, Oh yeah, you have a reservation. They knew exactly who I was already. Yes, they knew exactly who I was. Two days later, I got a call from my business partner at the time, and she said, Jordan Levine from The Herald just called, and she knows you're there, and she wants to know why you're there. And does your family know you're there? Yeah, it was a shit show. Oh my god, it was terrible. And then all I could think about the entire two weeks that I was there was oh my god, what is gonna happen when I get home?
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Two weeks is crazy.
SPEAKER_06Two weeks. My mother's a long time.
SPEAKER_02My mother met me at the airport, picked me up at the airport with a stuffed animal that was holding a balloon that said, just married in one hand, and in the other hand, was the article that had been printed in the Herald about me being in Cuba trapped with a bow. Is that my mother now? Uh-huh. Yeah. So my sister was furious, and she and I said, Listen, the reason that I didn't disclose what I was doing was because I didn't want them to be put in a bad position. But what she explained to me was that I put her in a worse position because now they were asking her if she knew I was in Cuba, and she had to lie. Yeah. I mean, she she had to say no, I didn't know. So she wasn't lying, but they thought she was lying. So yeah, it was a bad choice, and I regret it every day of my life. I don't regret having met my mother-in-law because my ex-mother-in-law, because she was a beautiful human. And uh I gave her two weeks of a lot of love. I bought her a refrigerator and an air conditioner, and and we we spent $10,000 making sure that they had everything they needed. They're not to blame for the horrible human that she birthed. Right. Um, she was a good person, and I'm glad that I did it, and I remained not close to her, but with in contact with her until the day she died. And uh, and I'm glad I did because she she deserved it. But yeah, that was a terrible, that was a terrible situation. And then something else nobody knows. I was already divorced, it must have been like 2001. I had a friend who was very good friends with Ricky Martin, and he decided to take him to Cuba to see his family. I was on the plane. We landed in Cuba and a hurricane hit.
SPEAKER_05Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Oh no. Oh my god. So we were stranded in Cuba when everybody thought I was in Puerto Rico. So never again, never again. Oh my god. And uh yeah. They were both they were both well-intentioned, they were both well intentioned, but they ended up both being a bit of a shit show.
SPEAKER_07Okay, volviendo a Consuelo. Yes, um Gloria suele hablar de que tu abuela Oh wait, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02You asked me if I felt Cuban, I 100% feel Cuban. My husband is my husband was born in Kamaway, he left Cuba when he was six. I tell him, I'm Cuban American, and he says, No, you're not. You're American Cuban. You were born in the United States. And he said, Yeah, I am not American. I am Cuban. And in my job, because I work in Miami, uh, I deal with a lot of just recently arrived Cubans, and every single one of my patients will say to me, De qué part of Cuba tu eres? And I'm like, no, no, you're of padding cubano. No puede ser, no puede ser que tu hablas el español muy bien. Because my mama English in the casa. Exactly. So everybody thinks I'm Cuban even though I'm not. I'm sorry, Laura, go ahead. My hermana had a juvent very difficult. Obviously she's very successful now, right? But she had a really tough, tough childhood. My mother really depended on her, not as a child, but as another adult in the house. And she didn't have a lot of fun. She had a lot of work. So I was very happy to see what music did for her. Music provided an escape, it provided uh a portal almost to go through for her. And and yes, it was very easy to see early on that this was gonna be what it was what it ended up being for her. Um, as far as my grandmother, we we I love my grandmother to death. We definitely had a connection because she raised us. Um, but it was a different connection than my sister. My grandmother, and I always tell this story, my grandmother, I would open the refrigerator and there would be Diet Coke, which and I don't drink it anymore, unfortunately, because of my uh gastric sleeve surgery, but um before it was a staple in my diet. And I would be like, I Abuela, comprate diet coke, it's on a pati, okay, Abuela. Do you know what I mean? Like, yeah, that kind of thing. She was her favorite, she was the one that raised her. They they were kindred spirits. I don't have any ill feelings toward my grandmother. On the on the contrary, my grandmother loved the hell out of me and was very much a part of my upbringing, but it was a different relationship than she had with my sister. And if you ask my cousin, Lourdes, my cousin Lordis will tell you that my grandmother hated her. And it wasn't at all. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because because she really felt she was my sister's age, so she really felt the difference between the way my grandmother treated her and the way my grandmother treated my sister. You know what I mean? So I don't think that was the case either. You know, I mean, I don't think any grandparent can hate their their grandchildren, but um, but my my cousin Lourdes is quite traumatized by that, didn't really realize that until recently. And she'll be like, right, Becky, right? That Awila was mean to us. And I'm like, yeah, no, Awella was not mean to me. I mean, she did she did try and keep the diet coke from me, but she also did other wonderful things, you know. And I lived with my grandmother, so it was different. Lourdes never really lived in the same city with my grandmother. But my grandmother would do things like when Lourdes came with her husband, she they're still married today, but when Lourdes came with her husband to to show her the engagement ring, she he had given her his grandmother's ring. Palo Cuano is like Le Regalata se trate. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_05Oh interesting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like it's not, it's not the handing down the ring in the Cuban thing is not really the same thing that it is in the American tradition. And she was like, Oh, you're gonna marry this guy who has an earring, and like she was very critical of hers. So that I guess was I don't know, difficult for her to deal with.
SPEAKER_04Becky, speaking of cousins, it something that I've always wondered, Mercy. Was Mercy from mom's side or dad's side?
SPEAKER_02My father's side, father's side, okay. Yeah, so my mom only had one brother, the Uncle Grape, was his name. We called him Uncle Grape. He didn't like that. Um Uncle Grape was 10 years older than my mother, and consequently, not there wasn't, you know, much, it wasn't like they were like, you know, super unidos. He was married and had one child, Lourdes, which was my sister, is my sister's age, very much a part of our life. I'm the I'm the godmother to one of her two children, very much a part of our life now. Well, and when we were growing up, they lived in West Palm Beach, and it we never saw them. They came down, but there wasn't like you know, Rose. Like my uncle would pick up my sister and take them on vacation and leave me behind, by the way. They went to Disney World and left me behind.
SPEAKER_03No, exactly.
SPEAKER_02Yes, they went to Sea West and left me behind. According to them, it's because I was too little and it would be a problem and they would have to manage me and blah blah blah, but not funny. That's what would happen with them. But there was no, like, you know how you have that day-to-day with my father's side, it was different because my father was one of six children. His older brother died uh when they were when they were young, but his other he had two sisters and two brothers that were very much a part of our life. Not one of his brothers was in jail for years, he's my fatherino, but um, but the rest of them, we kind of all grew up together. So those are the cousins that we grew up with.
SPEAKER_04Got it.
SPEAKER_02Okay. You understand? And Mercy was one of them. Mercy was my father's sister's daughter, and she had a mercy, was my sister's age, and she had a daughter named Rosie, who was my age.
SPEAKER_03Ah, okay.
SPEAKER_02Then my then my father's other sister, Amelia, had two kids, Grace and Tony. Grace was my age, Tony was between us and my sister.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_02The other two, the but the cousins were younger because they were younger brothers and sisters. Sure. Got it. Okay.
SPEAKER_05Okay, so let's fast forward a little bit to the early days of Miami Sound Machine. So Gloria starts performing with Emilio, and that eventually becomes Miami Sound Machine, but she always tells that story about the first rehearsal that her whole family joined her for that.
SPEAKER_02Like, was there kind of do you have any memories from like the very early days of I completely remember that day because the apartment was this big, and he had the shortest shorts I've ever seen on a man on in my life. And literally, it was like a tiny little apartment. I I mean, every time that I drive down that street, I think about that apartment because it was right, it was it was such a big day in our lives. You know what I mean? My sister showed up with me, my grandmother, and my mother into this apartment in a complex with a full band in the living room. So it was very, very uncomfortable. And we and she went to, you know, try out. Yeah, I totally remember that day. Like if it was today, and I was and the famous short shorts.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So he he made the Hoochie Daddy shorts famous before he was wearing Daisy Duke.
SPEAKER_02He was wearing Daisy Duke before Daisy Duke. Yeah. Wow. So my sister was, she was just out of high school, so she was 17, probably turning 18. So I was 12. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Was there a moment where you started to realize that this was becoming something bigger than just rehearsals in an apartment or what the early days were like?
SPEAKER_02I definitely, I definitely started to feel the magnitude within the first few years of high school. I was 12. I was in eighth grade when she started. I started Lourdes, and she was still very much a local band. They were, but they were starting to, you know, really like make a name for themselves. And then one day when I was in school, some girl came to me and said, Hey, you know that band, Gloria Stefan? No, uh, Miami Sound Machine. Yeah. You know the girl? Yeah, she's my sister. And I was like, really?
SPEAKER_04Well, this is not you saying this, this is someone telling you.
SPEAKER_02Someone telling you somebody telling me.
SPEAKER_04And you were like, Hold, hold on.
SPEAKER_02So I whip out my little wallet with pictures. You remember how we used to have wallets with like little pictures in them? And I whip out my little wallet and I'm like, this girl? And she's like, Yeah. And I'm like, Well, that's my sister, so I'm not really sure who you are. Yeah, that's when I realized, oh no, yeah, this this is this is this is going somewhere else. Yeah, that's that's awesome.
SPEAKER_04So you ended up uh eventually joining her team, right? Um, so how did that come about? Like what was your role and what was the experience like working alongside your sister?
SPEAKER_02It was wonderful, but so um I graduated from high school at 17. My dad dies my junior year of high school, right? I was a candy striper. I I know Wes will know what that is. Um maybe not, maybe I'm too old for maybe you're too young for the candy.
SPEAKER_06It was before my time, but yeah, I remember my mom worked in the world, yeah.
SPEAKER_02So candy stripers were uh volunteer nurse volunteers that worked at the hospital, and they wore these little red and white outfits, which I still have and still fits and looks very cute on me. And I I was gonna be a nurse, like that's what I want. Well, I was the one that would, you know, band-aid all my dolls, and you know, that's what I was gonna do. But the candy striping uh foray made me sad because what you do as a volunteer is you feed the old people, you change their beds, you know, all the things that were nobody's there to take care of them. It was what is now uh HCA in Miami, which is a huge hospital, but it was a community hospital named American. I did that until my senior year of high school. My dad dies my junior year of high school, and I'm gonna go to college. And I'm like, my mom's like you're gonna do nursing, and I'm like, I don't think so. I don't want to do that, I don't want to go to the hospital. I was already sad. So I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I started community college, really kind of lost, and you know, in retrospect, I now know that there was a lot on my plate. My mom had just lost my dad as well. And when my mom lost my dad, I think because she had been that had been she had been so hyper focused on that, she kind of like threw her hands up in the air and decided, okay, now I'm gonna live, which I I get as an adult, but I was still 16 years old, 17 years old, you know, and I still needed kind of guidance. I I started community college, kind of lost, not knowing what I wanted to do, and then I met a boy in my first like week, like these two guys. We were sitting at a table, and these two friends of mine like split like this, and there was this boy between them, and I was like, oh, all the music came up and the stars and the thing. And then I spent the next six months sitting in the cafeteria looking at them like this without going to class. I had been in Lourdes where everything was like super regulated, and like I was used to a very strict background, and this was like you I didn't know that you could just not go to class. Like, you know, I was it was a disaster. So, of course, six months into it, a year into it, I'm no longer there. My mother is up my ass, trying, like, you know, you need to do something. You can't just, my sister just got married, she's off on her own. I'm by myself, I'm a little lost. I decide, oh, I'm gonna go to beauty school. Oh, I drive by this beauty school in Miami, and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go to beauty school. I don't know why I was gonna go to beauty school, but okay. I figured it was something I could finish. So I went to beauty school to prove that I could finish something because the whole time my mother was like, you know, the whole kandanga that your parents give you when you're not doing what they want you to do. And uh I went to beauty school and finished, graduated from beauty school. My license is a cosmetologist. And right when I graduated from beauty school, Naeeb was like six, maybe. Yeah, I want to say like six. I'm I was like 19. Let me see. I Naeeb was born when I was 16. No, so I was older, I was like 21, maybe. Um my sister, Naeeb, tells my sister, I don't want to go on the road. And my sister was like about to embark on a big tour. I want to say it. No, it wasn't let it loose because on let it loose, I was already there. The tour before let it loose. My sister says, Well, what do you mean you don't want to? No, I don't want to go on the road. I want to stay here, I want to go to school. I, you know, I don't want to disrupt my friends. I I want to be here. So Emilio says to me, Oh no, so my sister says to me, Well, you just finished beauty school. Do you want to go on the road with me as my assistant? Like, do you want to do my hair and makeup? And I was like, Okay. Sounds like a plan. And and you know, I was a young girl who was getting the opportunity to travel with a bunch of musicians. Like, who says no to the room? Why not? Exactly.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So I went on the road and I became her assistant. And uh I never wanted to come home.
SPEAKER_04I think that was the tour where, if I'm not mistaken, uh, wasn't that Let It Loose where Naive stayed? So Naive stayed, I think Was it Let It Loose?
SPEAKER_02I think it was Let It Loose, but it was after Let It Loose, right? After, yeah. So Naive Let It Loose.
SPEAKER_04It was Let It Loose. So you, I mean, you're traveling with her now, like at you know shit is getting real.
SPEAKER_02Shit is getting real. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're on a bus. It's a huge deal. And I'm on a bus with all these guys and my sister, and like we're it was it was, it was wonderful. It was wonderful. I, of course, am a pretty bright girl. So by the time that we finished, you know, like I started as her assistant, and then Emilio was like, Oh, well, can you do this? And can you do this? And can you do this? And by the time that I was done, I was doing everything, um, which was kind of overwhelming. And um, you kind of lose your identity and your life, and that becomes your life.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh, and it was that was that that's what ended up being the challenge was that in the beginning it was super, super cool, and I did it for a long, long time. So by the end, I was like, I want to be home on Halloween and hand out candy, and I and I want a relationship, and I can't have one because I'm on the road, and you know, all sorts of things come into play that you don't realize in the beginning.
SPEAKER_06Did that create a different dynamic for you and Gloria? And what was it like to, you know, could you separate the celebrity from the sister?
SPEAKER_02My sister has never been a celebrity for me.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_02Never. She's always been my sister. Um I I can tell you that my sister standing here on the edge of the stage with me from and my sister putting her foot on the other side of that line are two different people. I can tell you that. But with me, she's always been my sister. There's never been, I've never felt the celebrity aspect of it. I've never felt um that she was bigger than life, or bigger, too big for me, or yeah, I've never felt that. Just like I've never felt jealousy with her ever in my life. I am so happy that life turned out the way it did for her because she deserves it. And she was a she's a wonderful human being, and she suffered a lot as a kid, and she didn't have all the things that normal kids have. So I was thrilled that that this is who what she got. Do I think you kind of sell your soul a little bit to the devil? I do.
unknownSure.
SPEAKER_02Celebrity changes everything, and uh, it changes everything for everybody around you, too. Because I mean, one of the things that one of the reasons, one of the funny stories that she tells is that my husband was terrified to meet her because I never told him who she was, I never told him who I was, and I made sure that my husband's not techie, so he wasn't gonna Google me. You know what I mean? Like he's not, he didn't know to do that. But I wanted to make sure that before he knew who I was, I knew who he was.
SPEAKER_03You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02Because it kind of changed everybody. The moment that people found out, just like at work, I never I you will never hear it come out of my mouth. Oh, my sister's lawyer step on ever. They find out by default. Yeah, somebody will tell them, then they'll come and they'll be like, is it true? Yeah, it's true. Why don't you say something? I'm like, Well, am I supposed to wear a necklace? Like, what?
SPEAKER_04But I think I think that's why so many people just not only love her, but just love the entire family because that's how you guys roll. That's how you know you guys are so humble. Um, you know, from from Gloria.
SPEAKER_02You can't lose the you can't lose the point.
SPEAKER_04And that's a beautiful thing, but a lot of people do lose it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, um, yeah, I'm telling you, I always tell her that she's a better person than I am because she's so gracious to everyone, she's so gracious, and nothing ever bothers her. And you know, they're they're pulling at her, and I'm like, Urgr, in the back, right? Because I have a completely different personality than she does. Yeah, and she's like, no, it's okay, and let me sign the 957th autograph, and you know, but she really genuinely feels that way. She's not doing that to like be a person, a persona, she's not, she really genuinely feels that way, which is wonderful and and you know terrible all at the same time.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, you were there, you were there for so many extraordinary moments, but also some incredible, incredibly difficult ones. When you think back to 1990 and the bus accident and everything that followed, what stands out most from for you for that period?
SPEAKER_02Well, let me tell you what stands out most. I left the road a month before that accident.
SPEAKER_06Oh wow. Oh, you would have been there.
SPEAKER_02I would have been there. I don't think there was uh yeah, there was uh a moment there where I was like, I can't do this anymore. I can't do this anymore. I need to go home. I need I you you don't serve your purpose when you are no longer happy do doing what you're doing. And I I just wasn't happy. I I I don't I can't explain to you what it was, but I just didn't feel like my own person. So I decided to stay home, and I was actually, you got I don't know if you guys know this story. Um, Frank Amadeo was the program director at Y100 at the time, and he and I were friends, and he always thought that I was funnier than I probably am, and he always thought that I would make a great morning host really for the morning. Oh, interesting. Yes, so I he when I went off the road, now I am desperately trying to establish a career because I'm now in my mid-20s, no, in my mid-30s, early 30s, and uh I don't have a job. So what am I gonna do? Right? Here I am again, mom. So glad I got that degree, right? I because she kept telling me how I didn't get the degree. Um, so I was the day of the accident, I had interviewed at Y100 for a job on the morning show.
SPEAKER_03Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_02I interviewed with Frank, and he was like, Oh, Rebecca, you know, you're just a natural. He would call me Rebecca. Frank called me Rebecca, and uh, you're a natural, this is gonna be great. I'm gonna bring you in as a writer first, and then we're gonna put you on the air. But this is gonna be great, blah, blah, blah. We did my interview, everything was great. I had driven to Hollywood in my roommates. My best friend Carmen lived with me at the time, and she had what we used to call the shitty Chevette. And I drove there to the Shitty Chevette because I didn't have a car because while I was on the road, I didn't have a car. And uh, all the way to Hollywood, which it really isn't that far, but in your mind at that time it was very far. So I leave the interview and I go sit with Julie Wilson, who was the uh had another position marketing person in there. And Julie and I were friends, and we were just shooting the shit. We were talking before I left. And Frank buzzes into Julie's office and he says, Julie, is Rebecca still here? And he she says, Yeah, she's here when we were talking. She says, Okay, stay there. Don't let her go. And he's the one that came in to tell me that she had had an accident that it had come in on the wire. Oh my god. And this wasn't it wasn't out yet. Look, I tell you, and I and I I want to cry, first of all. And I met ISO. Um, he said, I don't know what's happening. It just came in on the wire. There was an accident, she was in an accident. I don't have any news, I don't know what's happening. And at that time, news took a lot longer to travel.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02So I panicked and got in my car. By the time that I got in my car and started to drive home, now it's on the radio. Roy Estefan has had an accident and we have no information. And and I I was driving panicked and you know, like in traffic and trying to get back to Miami. I remember that I drew my my best friend worked at a market research company. I drove to the market research company. She was waiting for me downstairs. I had called her from there because there was no cell phones, and she was waiting for me downstairs, and I got out of the car and fell into a puddle of like yanto.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02And she got in the car and we drove to the studio. Well, by the time we got to the studio, you couldn't, you couldn't even like get through the street because there were so many cameras. And and wanted to get to my mom. I wanted to be able to call my mom, and I couldn't, oh my God, it was it was absolutely horrible. It was horrible. And uh we spent the rest of the day trying to get flights to Syracuse for me and my mom. And we left that night with very little information as to what was happening. We knew that she had broken her back, we knew that she was going into surgery, we knew we knew that she needed surgery, not that she was going into surgery. They wanted to do the surgery in Scranton, but she could not be done. And uh, and we we flew there with my cousin Betty, who also came with us, and went to the hospital. It was horrifying.
SPEAKER_04And like you said, you know, the I mean, we didn't have the access that we have now everything's you know, real time, right? You know, you can find out things and you can call someone and you text.
SPEAKER_02I mean, back then there was no, there was no, all we had was the bits and pieces that we were able to um piece together along the way. And it was every everything from like coming home to pack my bag, there was people knocking on my door, there was there was media trying to get interviews, and and I was like a mess. It was a mess. It was so then I I had left five minutes before, right? Because I had just come off the road. So we went to New York and we spent the whole rest of the time till she came home with her in New York. And by the time that we that she started to recover, I was the one organizing the flowers and organizing the people in New York. And so by the time that I came home, Emilo's brother, who was the one that was running the company at the time, said, You need to come, you need to come back. Like I I I need you to come back. And I and I went back and I was there for another hundred years.
SPEAKER_04Wow, wow, wow, yeah, yeah. I'm so sorry that you, I mean, of course, you know, no one it was terrible because I feel really guilty.
SPEAKER_02I feel like I should have been there, I feel like I should have been able to uh change it somehow, right? Right, but it was it was rough, it was rough, and I felt guilty for a long, long time. Oh, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, yeah, it was rough. It was rough a little bit of the carried to elegant that personally, what serious medal of honor?
SPEAKER_02The congressional medal of honor. Um to what my god, now all I want to do is cry. Um to watch my sister be awarded such an important um award forundancia by my favorite human of all time, because I adored Obama as a president, as a human, as a as everything. Um somebody that I respected immensely, honoring somebody that I respected immensely for me, and and to be able to presence that and witness it with my husband. Because now I wish my husband would have been along for the whole ride, because he would have so enjoyed the ride, you know. Yeah, I I feel terrible that that I had things that he didn't witness, you know, because and that's why when I went to Spain this year, I really wanted him to come with me because he's never seen that, like that, those 50,000 people, you know, he's never experienced that because he came in at the tail end of her big, big, you know. And I wanted him to experience that because it's something so amazing to experience. But he got to experience that with me, and every moment of that trip, every, every every second of that was so big. And I was so um proud of her. I was so proud of the way they spoke about her, and uh, it was just it was that was it. Congressional Medal of Honor was definitely I mean, everything she's done has been important to me, and so many things that she's done.
SPEAKER_04So many things that she's done.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I always I'm always like, okay, relax. Like, are you gonna when I became when I became a nurse? She was talking about something. She goes, maybe I'll go to medical school. I mean, do not go to medical school. You know, like not because I need to do, not because I I I always want her to be better than me. That's it's not about that. Like I said, I'm not I don't I don't have a jealous bone in my body. I want her to have better than me. Um, I mean, I think that everyone, when you love someone, you always want them to have things.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely, of course.
SPEAKER_02Um, but I mean, what hasn't she done? What isn't she capable of? What you know? No, exactly. Our Lady of the Rods.
SPEAKER_05She's our Lady of the Rods.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So uh we're we're starting to wrap up, but I I was curious, is there a song or an album of hers that you particularly resonate with, maybe because of like a memory attached to it or something that you that brings you back to that time?
SPEAKER_02There's so many. Destiny for me was a big album, even though it's the one that I decided to kill.
unknownThat's right.
SPEAKER_02Wasn't it the one I decided to kill?
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, you yeah, you did. Oh, you did too?
SPEAKER_02I did, but it was a destiny was a big album because it was around the time that I was getting divorced. So every one of those, that first time, remember, you know, I come from a Catholic Cuban family. We don't, there was no divorce in my family. So the moment that we realized that this was going bad and it was it was really quick, um, my mother like raced to the priest to get it annulled and like all you know, but it was it was a rough transition for me because I felt like a failure. And I felt like a failure in a family that doesn't fail. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. That was a big one for me. And um my favorite, favorite album is Mi Tierra.
SPEAKER_03Oh, nice.
SPEAKER_02That is my favorite, favorite album. I listen to, which I think is funny. I walk, and when I walk, I listen to Gloria, and I listen to Mi Tierra. Those are the two albums, and I think it's a little cheesy that I only listen to my sister while I'm exercising. But those are the two albums that for me, Mi Tierra is like in the middle of the street, like you know, it's it's my walking album, and so is Gloria. Those are my exercise albums, but every single one, my sister's music, and I think the reason that I and and it's funny because I said this to my husband the other day. The reason that my sister's voice, um, I find it so amazing because I mean I I am not unaware that there are singers out there that have bigger chops or big, you know, more range or whatever. But my sister's voice, I think, has something that touches your heart.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's something in the cadence of her voice, there's something in the timbre of her voice that just really touches you emotionally. Sasha has it too.
SPEAKER_05She can tell stories with her voice, and that's the difference.
SPEAKER_02Emily has it in a different way. Emily is a phenomenal artist. I'm her biggest fan, hence the alien outfit. But but Sasha has that thing that makes you want to cry when you listen to him.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I heard it, but I couldn't get oh, I was a mess during Smile. And that's a mess. I couldn't stop crying, but like ugly crying. Because I I heard number one, I heard him singing in the voice of a man who I had never heard before. And I heard him, and I felt him touch me the way she touches me.
SPEAKER_04You know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_04You know, Rob has mentioned this before that Gloria's voice just feels like home. Yeah, it's home.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Yeah, it does. And and that's how this all started for me, and I'll tell you. Um, Cuts Both Ways is it for me, because I was a little boy when that album came out.
SPEAKER_02Um, Cuts Both Ways, I think, is what I is what we was cuts both ways before Let It Lose? No. After it was the album after. You know about Cuts Both Ways, right? That they said on the radio, oh, and this song goes out to Gloria Stefans Bisexual Scissors, but I thought they had said bisexual sister, and I had a fucking heart. Excuse me. Yeah, I love it. I had a heart attack. Not because I couldn't be bisexual, because why are you saying that? You don't know me. Yeah, it was bisexual scissors. Sorry.
SPEAKER_06That's not even a good joke.
SPEAKER_02It's not even a good joke.
SPEAKER_06No, but but my dad's sorry, Wes, go ahead. No, my dad loved, love, love her voice and the horns. Like that's that's where I grew up with. And that was it for me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yep, yep. That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_02And it's just something that when you hear her voice, there's like something happy inside of you, you know? So it like it like makes your heart glow, like like the Grinch. Um That's the best way I can describe it. You know how that McGrinch's heart glows it grew three sizes.
SPEAKER_04You you both there's no doubt that you both are sisters because she mentioned the same thing when she was on the show. She made the same exact reference, yes.
SPEAKER_06The exact same reference. It's so funny. That is funny. So fans know a lot about Gloria Stefan as the artist. But you know Gloria in a way none of us ever will. What is something about Gloria, the sister, that you wish people would know about?
SPEAKER_02I I I think they already know this, but that she's the best sister that there could ever be. She uh she really takes that role on with pride. She um protects me and encourages me and um is my biggest cheerleader and has never lost sight of the fact that she's my sister, you know. And that's easy to lose sight of when you're when you're up there when you're you know on that perch that she's yeah, and it's such a beautiful thing, it's such a beautiful thing to see, you know, that that relationship that you both have. It really is, and and and you know, I'm I'm getting an endoscopy on Wednesday, and the lady, I'm on the phone with the lady, and she says, uh, who's gonna drive you? My sister. Can I have her name and her number? Gloria Stefan. Huh? Gloria Stefan.
SPEAKER_04She's like, Can I have her number?
SPEAKER_02Yes, Gloria Stefan. Gloria Stefan. You know, and she doesn't care who has her number because they I have to give her number to the lady that's setting me up for the endoscopy. You know, she wants you, want me to drive you? Like, I I have to tell her, my sir, it's okay. I can go by myself. You know what I mean? Like, it's yeah, she she's never lost sight of being my sister, and it's just us two. So that's very, very reassuring.
SPEAKER_04Well, it's funny because that leads us to this little game that we're gonna play now to see how well you know your sister.
SPEAKER_02How well do you know her?
SPEAKER_04How well do you know her? So basically, what we're gonna do is each of us has a question that we asked her. Um, and she responded. So we have voice messages from her with the answers. So Rob will start off, he's gonna ask a question, you're gonna answer however you feel that you know you how well you know her, and then we'll play her response. Okay, okay, all right, let's go.
SPEAKER_05So, on a typical Saturday together, what is Gloria drinking, eating, and what game are you all playing?
SPEAKER_02We're playing RQ. Is it alcohol? She's having a Cosmo.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_02What was the third one?
SPEAKER_05Eating. What are y'all eating?
SPEAKER_02Oh, uh, what would she be eating? Cuban food for sure. But if we're playing a game, I don't know, we're probably having marihuitas or corobedas or something to that effect. I don't know exactly what I don't know, I don't know exactly what we would be eating, but for sure she's drinking a Cosmo when we're playing Ramaky.
SPEAKER_05Amazing.
SPEAKER_01All right, so then hello, my lovely people at Let It Loose podcast. I love you all and I miss you. Some of the most fun I've had was doing our show together, but I know you have my sister on the hot seat. She might be breaking. So I shall get right to the questions. Let's see. Rob's question on a typical Saturday together, what is Gloria eating, drinking, and what game is she playing? Okay. If we're together for game night, then we're definitely drinking Cosmos that I made. Eating whatever. Usually uh that skinny popcorn is involved, but sometimes I told you we didn't know. Or just snackage. And what game is she playing? Rummikube, baby. We are lovers and everybody or whatever.
SPEAKER_02Whatever it's we have, and she likes that more than I do.
SPEAKER_04All right. All right, so the next question is my question, and it is Gloria is heading to a deserted island and can only pack three things. What's going in her bag?
SPEAKER_02Oh boy, her iPad. Okay, her dogs.
SPEAKER_03What would that third thing be?
SPEAKER_02What would she what would that third thing be?
SPEAKER_04Oh, Becky, if you only knew she it's the most random stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, I don't know what that third thing would be. All right. You ready for her answer? Yeah, weirdo. Here we go.
SPEAKER_01Hello, and now to Carlos's question. Gloria's heading to a deserted island and can only pack three things. What's going on in her bag? What's going in her bag? Uh, okay, usually they only ask me about one thing. So I'm gonna I'll I'll come up with a three. Let's see if Becky guesses the same thing. Number one, eyebrow pluggers. Because if not, when they rescue me, I will look like Bigfoot. Um, and if it's three other things, would the encyclopedia be considered one thing? If it's several books, but it is one thing, the encyclopedia, uh, or a very thick book. And number three, a medical kit, absolutely emergency kit, gotta have it with all my meds that I always take that I never really have to take, but I'm prepared in case anybody were to need anything. Yeah, that would be those three things.
SPEAKER_04Your sister would be the one to take an encyclopedia with a video.
SPEAKER_02First of all, are you a hundred years old? There's no encyclopedia. Second of all, for sure you would have taken your iPad because you would have been candy crushing when um when there was nothing else to do. But the pluckers, I should have thought about. And um the medical kit for sure, because we both take our medical kit everywhere. I think the Lord took my entire, I have a huge, of course, because I'm a nurse, medical kit with like rosefin and lidocaine and stitches and shit that I take with me everywhere just in case, because you know you never know. When we were leaving to Tenerife, I thought I pulled it out because it's a big thing like this, and I said, Oh no, this is this is too much. I'm only going for five days. And then I thought, hmm, you grabbed it, take it with you. Oh, yeah. Well, she needed my lidocaine patches, she needed all the stuff that I had in my bag because she threw out her back. So see?
SPEAKER_06All right, when you have the next rest. All right, so let's see here. Think about your teenage years with Gloria. It's the weekend. What records are she spending on the turntable?
SPEAKER_02Oh, Elton Johnny Good by Yellowbird Road. Uh4. I don't know who that is. But yeah, I remember the name of the album.
SPEAKER_03James Taylor. The Beatles, probably. I think that's pretty good. Let's see what she had to say. I know.
SPEAKER_01And now Wes's question. Think back to your teenage years with Gloria. It's the weekend. What records are spinning on the turntable? All right, it doesn't have to be the weekend. It would have been any day of the week. She would have caught me after school. Listening to, all right. Barbara Streisand, absolutely. Um amazing records of that time that she played. Well, me, that I played over and over. Um, Carol King, undoubtedly. By Yellowbrick Room, by um El Sir Elton John, not Sir at the time, but Elton John. Oh, and Songs in the Cube of Lights. Those were on repeat, and Becky was subjected to them incessantly.
SPEAKER_04All right. You got you got some right there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I hated that album, and she played it all the time. She also, by the way, tortured me and made me watch Creature Feature on Saturdays, which I hated, and to this day, I hate horror because of her.
SPEAKER_04That's amazing. Yeah. Laura, you're up next.
SPEAKER_07Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02In El Boletin, Gloria is the you know, she everything she does, she does so well. She is so polite and kind, and she, I mean, everything about her was wonderful. She was the best at everything. She's always been the best at everything.
SPEAKER_05Did we have the same sister? This is interesting. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_04Okay, final answer. Me neither. All right, so let's see what she had to say.
SPEAKER_02She's not gonna say anything about herself.
SPEAKER_01And now for the final question, Laura's question. Gloria is an estudiante excellent. It's good if she could control the other students in the class. She's a very good student and sound like a loco.
SPEAKER_04But well, let's see if you have Becky, what did they say about you on your report card?
SPEAKER_02I wasn't such a good student, but I was a big mouth, so they said that too. Yeah. I mean, I was a, you know, I I I'm actually a great I grab. I mean, I I graduated uh sumacum laudi from from nursing school. Like I'm a great student now. Yeah. Then I was undesatri. I just wanted to party. I wanted to party.
SPEAKER_06I can relate.
SPEAKER_04That's funny. So we actually have one uh one more question, uh surprise question, and this was from Gloria herself. Oh and she says, What was Gloria's favorite game to play with you when you were growing up? Monopoly. Monopoly? Monopoly, okay.
SPEAKER_02Okay, but it was Monopoly.
SPEAKER_04I think you're gonna be surprised with this one.
SPEAKER_02What was it?
SPEAKER_04Here we go.
SPEAKER_01Okay, my favorite game to play with Becky was sleep. Oh, yes, it was because every day she would come home from school, I was exhausted because I had to get up. And she wanted to play. So I would say, let's play sleep, and I would pretend to be asleep, yes, but she would put pins in my eyes. I don't know. She would do anything possible. She's absolutely right. Make me wake up from sleep. She would say, ding-a-ling-a-ling, it's morning. That I would wake up. But yes, my favorite game to play was sleep. It was her favorite game. Sorry, Becky. I mean, I'm I I should have played something much more fun with you.
SPEAKER_02No, she did. We played that.
SPEAKER_01That was the main game. Hopefully, you remember this. I love you. Love you. Bye.
SPEAKER_02Um, yes, she would do that to me when I got home from school. I had I just thought we were like really talking about a game. But she would tell me, I'm like, come on, Tata, let's play. Yeah, we're gonna play. We're gonna play sleep. No, I don't want to play sleep. Yes, we're gonna play sleep. So then, okay, let's play sleep. So we'd play sleep, and then I'd be like, ring a ling a ling, it's morning. And she would not wake up. She would not. She was a nightmare.
SPEAKER_04Listen, I love a game of sleep. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I don't play sleep, and I still don't nap. And my husband loves to nap.
SPEAKER_05I've learned to so when he naps. I can't. I've never been.
SPEAKER_02I can nap. I'm not a napper, and I don't like people that nap. Oh no!
SPEAKER_06I'm not a napper. I take back what I said. I take back what I said. I always feel like you wake up from a nap and you feel more tired than you do. You feel worse.
SPEAKER_02I think it's the nurse thing. That's why we don't like to nap because we're always like my husband always tells me, babe, you needed to re-energize. No, I can't. I feel more tired when I when I nap.
SPEAKER_04I can't.
SPEAKER_02I can't do it.
SPEAKER_04Well, listen, you actually did a really good job with answering these questions, though.
SPEAKER_02Sorry that I failed miserably at the game.
SPEAKER_04Oh no, no, no, no, no. I don't think so. Well, watch the destiny episode, and we could talk about who failed miserably playing the game. But she did, she did actually have a beautiful message that she wanted.
SPEAKER_01And finally, a message for my favorite sister, my only sister, my ride or die. Uh my sir, I am so, so proud of you. Thank you for first of all making me laugh until I cry or pee. One of the two. You're one of the funniest human beings I know, and I'm so lucky that we share that same sarcastic sense of humor because you know, mom didn't like it as well as she hated it. You remember, and I think we got it from daddy, but we didn't know him enough to really get to check out his sarcastic humor. I had it in snippets more than you, absolutely, when he would pull out the tiny violin when mom got super dramatic. I don't know if you remember that because we were very little, but uh you and I definitely share this uh very irreverent sense of humor. I am incredibly proud of your accomplishments, how you continue to grow every day, how you went for your dreams, despite the fact that most people would have thought at the time of your life where you became a nurse that it was too late. And, you know, I know I I talked to you a lot about it and and have always been behind you 100% and knew that you could do it, and now going for your doctorate. I am incredibly proud of you. Uh, anybody that goes into that AR is lucky to get you as a nurse because because you started late and were able to live a full life, and I'm so happy to have had you by my side on the road because you're family, and it made me feel like I still had home with me, besides my husband and and kids, of course. But you being my sister and the closest human to be to me, and to have you with me at those difficult but wonderful moments was spectacular. But to see you then take up your own dreams after you helped me with mine is something that I talk to everyone about. I am very, very proud of your accomplishments, of the family you've built. Um, and what can I say? I I hope till my dying day we are together. And uh beyond that, I'm sure. I love you mucho, mucho, mucho, and knowing you, you know me pretty well. Let's see how well you did on this test because I really was terrible at the game that we played before when I was on the show. I love you, I love you, I love you. I love you with all my heart.
SPEAKER_04How beautiful.
SPEAKER_01I feel exactly the same way.
SPEAKER_04It's awesome. It just speaks to once again the relationship that that you both have, and it's absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that is it makes me want to cry.
SPEAKER_05You're holding it together pretty well. That's right. I know.
SPEAKER_04So we have reached the point of the show where we're about to let it loose. So um, does everyone have something prepared?
SPEAKER_02Fine. Why am I the only one that doesn't have anything prepared? First, I failed at sleep, and now we're gonna go first. Me, either it's the nurses first.
SPEAKER_04Go first. So I'll I'll go first. So my let it loose, and it's something I was thinking about it, and no one here knows this, and I haven't even shared this with Gloria. But uh this whole podcast, you know, Wes, you approached me and asked, you know, if if we should do this. Um, and I said no, as everyone knows.
SPEAKER_02And why why did you say no?
SPEAKER_04I said no because well, you know, I joke around about being shy, but it was more of being intimidated, you know, because this is new territory, putting putting myself out there, you know. Um, that's always intimidating how people are going to receive, and you know, um uh people could be ruthless. I I I I feel you, I feel you, you know. So um but I owe that decision that I made, besides your sister telling me you should do it, besides everyone here telling me let's do it, it was you that uh prompted me to do this. And and uh we didn't even have a conversation. It was the one thing that I've noticed about you throughout the years is you are fierce, you are loyal, you are a protector, you are a protector. And I know how much your sister has done for all of us. And there was one day I was uh scrolling through social media, and you know, uh people could be extremely mean to celebrities, you know. Um and and I'm sure, you know, your your sister gets the good and then she has to deal with with the bad. And I and I know that she doesn't pay any mind to that, right? You know, she I on the other hand you on the other hand, I uh I saw I came across something and uh you just went to bat for your sister. And it just spoke to that loyalty, that that that protector side of you. And that's when it sparked. You know, at this point, everyone had already said you should do this, and I was still on the fence. And it wasn't until I saw that post where you were defending the hell out of your sister that I was like, you know what? If I could continue just rather showcasing her legacy and do a little bit from my part, then you know what? Maybe it's worth uh this whole, you know, this whole thing of me being intimidated. I just gotta put that to the side and just put myself out there to do something like that.
SPEAKER_02You know, why you're intimidated, you're wonderful.
SPEAKER_04Because she's done so much for for us, you know. So it was you that actually kind of sealed it. Uh you know, the very last minute, I was like, I'm gonna do this.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna tell you something. I I'm honored and touched that I was able to do that for you. But what you guys do for my sister and for her legacy, and you know, um, I don't know if you guys, I mean, I know you guys know, but being an artist is and and being out there in the public eye is a very difficult thing because it the age and progression of life is not kind to artists. Um people expect their their idols and their celebrities to stay in this, you know, bubble where they don't age and where they don't change and where they don't opinion, they don't have an opinion, and where you know everything is exactly as they know it. And it kind of breaks my heart to see how difficult it gets as we go along for her to just be the person that she is because she's always been the same person.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_02You know, if she doesn't defend Cuba, then she's a traitor. And if you do this, and then you're a terrible mother, and you're this, and you're you know, like it's just it's attack from everywhere. And now her platform is a little smaller than it was, it's not what she used to do. So the fact that you guys honor her legacy the way that you do, and and that you continue to speak about her the way that you do, is is incredibly touching and in and incredibly um fulfilling for a sister who just wants to protect her.
SPEAKER_04Oh thank you for protecting her. And you know, we we're gonna continue doing the same, so we're we're right there with you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely.
SPEAKER_05I'll go. Well, because mine mine kind of goes in line with mine's a little sassier than yours. Yours was very sweet, so thanks for setting me up for that. Um but usually I expect you to be the sassy one. Okay, but whatever. So, anyway, uh my let it loose is that Gloria Stefan is too humble. And let me explain that a little bit because there are artists out there with a lesser catalog, with less success, with less of a legacy, celebrating each and every milestone and announcement and putting out merchandise and put putting out all these money grabs for their fans, and the fans are grabbing them, right? My let it loose is that Gloria is so humble. She's leaving so much money on the table because we want to buy all the merch that doesn't exist. We want to buy all these things, we want to celebrate every milestone. And that's why we started this show to celebrate each and every deep cut, each and every single, each and every crazy outfit, all the things that we grew up idolizing, and we still want to celebrate that. So like there are people out there, there are fans out there who will design merch for you. Just start being a little bit fuller of yourself, just enough. I like that. No, I know.
SPEAKER_06And I I'll second that, Rob. Yeah, there's so many things that yeah, I'll go right off of that. And artists, and a lot of this has to do with the record companies too, because they they run everything. But um, people ask me all the time, they want more remixes, they want more event deluxe editions, they want more access to all of her incredible work. So um, yeah, that that's something that people would love to have, and she's just humble about, you know, humble and so humble, and it it's really impressive. Was that your let it lose, Wes? That was kind of my let it lose. Thanks for um I stemmed right off of yours. Uh-huh. Laura, you're up.
SPEAKER_07You can't have much illusion start here and for this conversation.
SPEAKER_02Conocerte por fin, exactly.
SPEAKER_07Casually, we have a contact in common that means maravillas de ti, so I tenía muchas ganas de conocerte. And the person se sienten cercanas. Me alegra muchísimo vivir este encuentro ando un poquito más andar y comprobar todas las cosas buenas que han hablado de ti and that, Gloria como tú, os parecéis muchísimo. No sé, gracias por todo.
SPEAKER_02Well then I let it lose will be I feel incredibly honored that you guys wanted to do this with me. But besides that, um I never really pay much attention to the people that are talking about her or her. Not that I don't pay attention to the fans, I just don't specify. I can't, I couldn't specify who people are. And this has given me the opportunity to know you guys individually, to know, to speak to you candidly about the person I love most in the world. I mean, other than my poor husband, who definitely, you know, she's first, she's just the way it is. Um, they're different places, they're different places. Um I thank you so much for the way you love my sister. And I couldn't be more grateful for the very important roles that you guys play in her life because she knows each and every one of you very well. And she is so grateful for the way you love her and the way that you continue to carry her name and her legacy. So, from now, from me, who has now become friends with each and every one of you, um, I hope that I continue to fill that that space for you and that you all feel comfortable enough, Wesley, to say hello, to to you know, send the text when you need to send one, to send me a message, to reach out because I'm happy, happy to be there and happy to play whatever role I can play in your lives.
SPEAKER_04That's all thank you so much. Thank you. You have no idea how much this meant, you know, to us to to do this, to start a new season, another that people are actually listening in, people are listening in 70. You know, we're I think we're up to like 70 countries around the world, thousands of downloads and streams, and and it's all because of the love that so many share for uh your sister, for your family, um, you included. So the fact that you took time out of your your day, I know, I know that you're busy, I know that you have a lot going on.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it's okay. This was this was I was happy to do it.
SPEAKER_04Happy to do it. We thank you so, so much. And um uh Rob, I think it's time for you to do the wrap up.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, uh I I can't thank you enough, uh Becky. It was an honor for us. I know you said it was an honor for you, but whatever. It was an honor for us. Uh, thank you so much once again. If you like this episode of Let It Loose, don't forget to rate, review, subscribe, give us five stars.
SPEAKER_02I think I'm I'm already subscribed.
SPEAKER_05Okay, great. So this week we are showering Gloria and Emilio because their anniversary and naive's birthday. It's a BSD Fun. A lot. So this week we are showering them with all the love all over social media. Engage with us and stay tuned next week for another episode. Thanks, everybody. Hasta luego!
SPEAKER_02Bye.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for listening to Let It Loose, a Gloria Estifan podcast. Let It Loose is produced by Carlos, Rob, and Wes with graphic design by Lara. Thank you to Gloria for bringing us all together. Subscribe, rate, and share the love. And join us next week for a brand new episode.
