we forget about mrs. estefan

gloria estefan was a one-woman latin explosion in u.s. pop music during the 1980’s. her 1985 hit, “conga” (from the appropriately-titled album, primitive love) introduced north america to a sound that was old hat in certain parts of the u.s. and caribbean. the only other latina with consistent pop success during that time was lisa lisa, but she didn’t fuse elements of latin music the way estefan did. lisa lisa was pop/r&b, in huge part because she was produced by full force. estefan was pop without compromising her musical roots, which were also influenced by folk, soft rock, soul and jazz.

i remember seeing a photo of her and celia cruz in an issue of rolling stone when i was 10 years old. a blurb accompanied the picture, basically saying that cruz was estefan’s main influence. i had never heard of cruz until that point, but seeing her and estefan in that photo laughing side by side, let me know how proud estefan was to show cruz off to an audience that didn’t have a clue who she was.

estefan rarely gets credit for this, but she also helped make miami a hotbed of hipness. the city is now often mentioned in the same sentence with l.a. and new york as a place where celebrities buy property and sunbathe. simply calling her band the miami sound machine helped create a new musical curiosity about a city that had mostly been known for its political history.

“rhythm is gonna get you” was unlike anything on the radio when it was released in 1987. it’s the perfect example of how estefan was unashamed to use afro-cuban and indigenous rhythms in what became a huge pop hit for her.

the hits kept coming for estefan clear through the early ‘90s, even her 1993 spanish-language album, mi tierra earned her a grammy.

unfortunately, hers was all but erased from the list of names credited for the so-called latin explosion of the late ‘90s. however, estefan’s prolific and diverse body of work rivals that of madonna, whitney houston and the other singers who were in direct competition with estefan during the ‘80s and whose careers took interesting turns during the ‘90s.