MIAMI BEACH, FL — When singer Gloria Estefan arrived in Miami from Havana as a young girl in 1961, her grandfather took her to nearby Miami Beach nearly every day to see the turquoise waters of the Atlantic and gaze at the seniors passing time in rocking chairs along Ocean Drive.
Looking back, the seven-time Grammy Award winning artist told Patch those were her favorite memories of the Magic City in an extraordinary decades-long relationship with a diverse community that has brought Estefan her beloved husband Emilio and a career that sold 100 million albums worldwide, propelling her to become the most successful Latin crossover performer in the history of pop music with chart-topping hits like “Turn The Beat Around,” “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” “Don’t Want To Lose You,” “Words Get In The Way,” “Here We Are,” and “Conga.”
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“I think of those days when my grandfather would come with me, him and I alone, and spend hours on the beach walking around,” the singer told Patch in an interview Thursday. “Those memories are more alive to me than some of the ones that happened two years ago. It’s like this city is ingrained in me from day one. I love it.”
Estefan has returned the love to her adopted city many times over.
When Hurricane Andrew ripped apart South Florida in 1992, leaving hundreds of thousands without homes, Estefan and Emilio — a world-renowned music, television and film producer in his own right in addition to being Gloria’s inseparable music partner — jumped into action. They donated $100,000 for relief efforts and visited Red Cross shelters and a tent city in Homestead, according to an Associated Press report at the time. They turned the downstairs parking garage of their offices into a hurricane supply center with crutches, bottled water and other supplies before organizing a benefit concert that cemented their love affair with South Florida.
“There’s so many memories, obviously my wedding, my kids being born, my grandson being born. Those are the top,” she said looking back at her time in Miami and Miami Beach.
The couple were honored Thursday among the first six inductees of the Miami Beach Hall of Fame inside the city’s newly renovated Miami Beach Convention Center.
Fellow inductees included Norman Braman, the former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, and a major philanthropist, who has become a towering figure in Miami’s art scene after humble beginnings as the son of a Philadelphia barber, who graduated from Temple University.
Braman’s vision was integral to bringing the prestigious Art Basel show to Miami Beach in 2002. The event has become one of the single most important tourism drivers of the Miami area, drawing visitors from around the world.
“You deal with circumstances and you deal with the problems of life, the problems of your community and so forth,” he told Patch as to his philosophy with which he bases his philanthropic contributions. “The quality of government is still … my major concern — government that understands that the quality of life for the people who live in this community is the most important priority for them. Unfortunately, too many people just don’t understand that.”
Other inductees were Barbara Baer Capitman, who is credited with seeing the uniqueness of Miami Beach’s Art Deco buildings and working as an unpaid volunteer to create and sell the Art Deco Style to developers, politicians and hoteliers.
Morris Lapidus was inducted for designing some of South Florida’s “gaudiest, glitziest and most glamorous hotels” during the 1950s and 60s in a style dubbed “Miami Beach French.” Naturally, it was scorned by critics at the time, who referred to the creations as palaces of kitsch, including the iconic Fontainebleau, which combined 27 internal colors and boasted a staircase to nowhere that allowed guests to be seen as they emerged from a modest cloak room.
Former Mayor Matilde Bower, or “Matti” as she is known to Miami Beach residents, was inducted for a long career of “unselfish public service.” She was the city’s first woman to serve as mayor as well as city’s first Hispanic mayor.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber called the Estefans a “national treasure that just happen to live in our city.” He said all of the inductees in the inaugural class of honorees were selected by a committee, who had a hard time choosing from among so many great people who have called the city home.
“I think it was difficult but I think these firsts in some respects were obvious,” Gelber told Patch. “Every one of them has such obvious and clear contributions to our civic life.”
In the case of Gloria and Emilio, they have also been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and were given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama. That honor is the nation’s highest for civilians.
The Miami Beach honor is small by comparison, but special nevertheless.
“It’s home. To be a part of the growth of something is a beautiful, beautiful thing,” said the singer. “That’s all we ever wanted — to give back to the city that gave us so much — that opened its arms to us as immigrants and included us. It’s a very big honor for us.”
Gloria and Emilio were married 41 years ago this month. In the early years, they made it a point of regularly visiting Star Island, which was home to Miami’s rich and famous. Now they too call Star Island home.
“When we got married and we started getting bigger hits and we would drive by Star Island just to look — oh look at the houses on Star. This is so awesome — never imagining that we would one day live there,” Estefan shared.
In addition to all of the music, the couple serve as executive producers of the smash Tony-Award nominated Broadway musical, “On Your Feet” based on their lives.
They are far from done.
“I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire right now. I’ve got an album coming out,” Gloria Estefan said in the interview. “We re-imagined our songs in all Brazilian rhythms. We shot it with a documentary in Brazil.”
She said the music of Brazil as well as in her native Cuba has been influenced by African roots.
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“We have four new songs on there. Emilio has got the movie that he shot coming out in the fall or early spring,” she said.
Their Broadway show is now on tour in the United Kingdom and headed for Japan and Singapore in the near future..
Do they ever rest?
“I do. Him no,” Gloria confides. “I am very happy doing nothing. I’m just waiting to do nothing.”