When I wrote "Words Get in the Way" my husband and I had just had a horrendous argument . . . . [After it was an international hit] My husband said, … - Gloria Estefan

When I first came to Miami [in 1959], you'd see signs like "No Children, No Pets, No Cubans." We were a major threat. We lived in a very small apartment behind the Orange Bowl, where all the Cubans lived. All the men (including my father, Jose Manuel Fajardo) were political prisoners in Cuba, and it was purely women and their kids. There was one car the whole community bought for $50, and the one lady that could drive would take everybody to the supermarket and the Laundromat.

Then [after Castro dies and her triumphal return to Havana], at last, I could sing for my people.

We want the disaster victims to know we have not forgotten them. I'm here with help.