• Gloria María Fajardo García was born September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba, to Jose and Gloria Fajardo.

• The family fled to Miami, Florida, during the Cuban Revolution

• Jose, Maria’s father, joined the US military during the Vietnam War.

• Her father had been a Cuban soldier and bodyguard of President Fulgencio Batista en Cuba.

• In the mid-1980s, Gloria Estefan was part of the group Miami Sound Machine.

• In 1984, Miami Sound Machine released their first Epic/Columbia album, Eyes Of Innocence

• Their more successful follow-up album Primitive Love was released in 1985 launching three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100:

" Conga” "Words Get In The Way” "Bad Boy"

• Their next album, 1987’s Let It Loose, went multi-platinum, with six million copies sold in the US. It featured the following hits:

"Anything For You" (#1)"1, 2, 3" (#3)"Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" (#5) "Can't Stay Away From You" (#6)

• In 1988, Estefan took top billing and the band’s name changed to Gloria Estefan and The Miami Sound Machine.

• In 1989, after the worldwide chart success of single "Anything For You", her Let it Loose album was repackaged as Anything For You.

• It became the band's first UK #1 album, selling over a million copies

• The album also took top honors in Australia and Canada, launching Estefan to superstar status.

• While touring in support of Cuts Both Ways on March 20, 1990, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, Estefan was critically injured, suffering a fractured spine when a speeding semi-truck crashed into her tour bus.

• Surgeons at the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases permanently implanted two titanium rods to stabilize her spinal column.

• Her rehabilitation required almost a year of intensive physical therapy, but she achieved a complete recovery

• In 1993 Estefan released the album Mi Tierra, her first Spanish-language album.

• The album sold over eight million copies worldwide, and went multiplatinum in Spain (15X) and platinum in the United States

• The platinum-selling album Destiny, released in 1996, featured "Reach", the official theme of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.

• Estefan performed in the Summer Olympics closing ceremony, in front of an audience of two billion people worldwide, during which she performed the songs "Reach" and "You'll Be Mine (Party Time)".

Film and television appearances

• In addition to her singing career, Estefan has appeared in two movies, Music of the Heart (1999) andFor Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000).

• Estefan made a cameo appereance with her husband Emilio Estefan Jr. on the smash-box office hit Marley & Me in 2008, her first movie role since 2000.

Investments:

• Gloria and Emilio Estefan also own a number of business establishments, including seven Cuban-themed restaurants located in Miami and Miami Beach.

• Part of the American Airlines Arena

• Disney World’s Downtown Disney in Orlando; Mexico City; and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

• They also own two hotels.

• The Estefans' estimated net worth as of 2007 was approximately $500 million,

Personal life:

• Gloria became romantically involved with the Miami Sound Machine's band leader, Emilio Estefan, in 1976.

• She and Emilio married on September 1, 1978.

• They have a son, Nayib (born September 2, 1980) and a daughter, Emily Marie (born December 5, 1995).

• The family lives in Vero Beach, Florida.

Awards:

• Seven Grammys.

• In May 1993, she received the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, which is the highest award that can be given to a naturalized U.S. citizen

• She has won the Hispanic Heritage Award

• Many more ……………….

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Estefan