Gloria Estefan still holds iconic role in genre

The singer is touring to promote her new album, 'Unwrapped.'
By DAVE MASON
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Cuba must change before Gloria Estefan can live out one dream in particular.
"The one thing I want dearly is to give a performance in a free Cuba," the 46-year-old Havana native said in a recent phone interview. "I've never been able to sing to my own people.
"[Fidel Castro] has driven the country into the ground. I think they will have to look at options once he's out of power. It'll be a beginning for them. Castro keeps such a tight rein. They're very fearful of him."
Estefan said she realizes Cuba's nonviolent transition to a democracy likely will have to wait until Castro dies. Until then, she said, she can't perform in Cuba.
She and her parents fled the country when she was 16 months old. Her father led a U.S. tank division during the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, was imprisoned in Cuba and returned to his family in Miami after being released a year and a half later.
Paving the way
When Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine began performing in 1975, they were breaking new ground in the United States. Today, Estefan, who grew up in Texas and Miami and graduated from the University of Miami, is one of many Latin performers succeeding in the United States.
"What we call Latino music is a mix of so many different genres. Argentina has its own sound, for example," Estefan said. "[Latino nations] all have their own national musicians. They each have their own thing happening."
Estefan shows her love for diversity in her CD collection, which goes beyond Latin music. "I love Nine Inch Nails. Stevie Wonder inspired me. I liked Cat Stevens."
She calls "Unwrapped" a serious album about relationships. "I've become much more mature. Sometimes you get inspired. Much of my inspiration comes from life and from my daughter [Emily Marie Estefan, born in 1996]."
As the Hispanic population has grown in America, Latino music has grown into a cultural, commercial force. "The public has never been a problem; the audience has never been a problem," Estefan said. She explained that Latino musicians have faced the challenge of getting record companies to give them contracts.
Decent exposure
She credits the exposure on MTV and movies for opening doors for Latino artists. And the marketing has begun to catch up with the audience's love for the music, she said.
Estefan, born Gloria Maria Milagrosa Fajardo, has been married to Emilio Estefan Jr., her first and only boyfriend, since 1978. They also have a son, Nayib, a filmmaker who produced the DVD "Live and Unwrapped."
The entertainer praised this season's "American Idol" singers when she served as a guest judge on the night they performed her music, accompanied by the Miami Sound Machine.
"I don't judge; I said so [on the telecast]. I do not believe in judging," Estefan said. "Who am I to tell them? I'm not going to tell them, 'You sounded terrible.' That's the job for Simon [Cowell]. There's no way I'm going to discourage anyone when they're doing what they love."
But she said she doesn't see Cowell as mean.
"No, he's honest. I think the thing we love about him is he's saying what we're all thinking."