1	Music The duality of Alejandro Fernández; Camila’s big changes; Rodrigo y Gabriela keep it green. read more...
2	Books Legendary music producer Emilio Estefan shares his life lessons. read more...
3	Arts Franck de Las Mercedes’ project for peace. read more...
4	Film & TV Andy Garcia shares the big screen with his real-life daughter in his latest independent flick; an emerging documentarian confronts her past; Martha Higareda on DVD. read more...
5	Calendar Our monthly list of premier events. read more...
6	Picture This A new interpretation of the iconic Carmen. read more...

LATIN FORUM {books}

he did it his way

Legendary producer Emilio Estefan reflects on his journey through adversity to ultimate success in
his intimate new memoir.

As you wait to be connected to your conference call with Emilio Estefan you’re not all that surprised to hear that the hold music of choice is a shuffle playlist of his wife’s songs. This is, after all, the man who helped Gloria Estefan become a household name and you are, after all, on hold with Estefan Enterprises.
But the Grammy Award-winning producer behind some of Shakira’s and J. Lo’s top hits isn’t on the line, greeting you warmly, to discuss a new music protégé. Instead he’s ready to open up about the driving force behind everything he’s ever accomplished. He’s ready to talk about himself.
“In 35 years, this is the first time I do something for myself,” he says. “When you do interviews or meet people, they ask you ‘How did you do this record?’ or ‘How did you make this work?’” Invariably, the questions are about how he made something happen for someone else. “This is the first time in my life I do something for myself.”
Last month his first book, The Rhythm of Success: How an Immigrant Produced his Own American Dream, hit shelves. The foreword is written by super-producer and close family friend Quincy Jones, who is so close that he’s the godfather to the Estefans’ daughter Emily Marie. The book is touted by publishing house Penguin Books as a “motivational doctrine for those who want to make their most ambitious dreams come true.”
In between guidelines on how to start your own business and how to climb the corporate ladder by staying organized, Estefan peppers in personal stories like when he first met a young Gloria at a wedding and didn’t let her shyness discourage him from courting her to illustrate his main point: “Always believe in yourself and never give up.”
“It’s been 15 years that people have been asking me to write [a book.] It was the right time now because the next generation of immigrants and people who have been born in this country want to know how we did it,” says Estefan, a Havana native who, like many children, immigrated alone to the U.S. as Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba. “There was no Internet when [the Miami Sound Machine] came out. The media wasn’t as big as it is now, and for us it was so hard. There’s a new generation of Hispanics who are well-educated and born in this country who thought the music business would be easier for them but find that it’s not and [they] really want to know how to make it.”
The 240-page tome is an inspirational self-help book blended with an autobiography and memoir of sorts. Call it a fusion—much like the Latin-Anglo pop music fusion he created in the 1980s with The Miami Sound Machine and his current business, Estefan Enterprises, home to his many music, hotel, restaurant, artist management, real estate and television/film production deals.
“It took me three years to get the book together because it’s a lot more complicated than people know. You don’t want to waste a page and you want to make every page count,” Estefan says, adding that penning the book was at times a difficult process. “Thinking about a lot of the pain was hard, reliving when I left Cuba was hard, and when I said goodbye to my mother it was very, very hard. But I wanted people to know what it’s like when you get to this country and you start almost homeless and you just have to focus on the future.”
Estefan may delve further into writing about his arrival at Miami’s Freedom Tower and the first generation of Cuban Americans in the years to come. In the meantime, staying positive and true to your dreams are notes he hit throughout the pages of Rhythm, notes that he says are true to his own character.
“I’m a really persistent person with intuition, so when people tell me ‘You can’t do that,’ it makes me want to do it more,” Estefan says. “I think becoming a man when I was 11 years old makes you realize life isn’t always pretty, but you also have to know that when hard times come you need to be more creative.”
Estefan would know. When reggaeton stars like Daddy Yankee were beginning to rule the airwaves, for example, he was the first to ink a deal with hip-hop mogul P. Diddy to create a label for emerging Hispanic rap stars.
Estefan advocates not only self-assurance but also the flexibility to adapt to what life throws at you. “Maybe you used to be a pilot and you lost your job” Estefan says. “That’s when you figure out what other skills you have and you reinvent yourself.”

{telling all}

The lives of Latino musical icons have often provided interesting fodder for writers. If Emilio Estefan’s story awakened your appetite for musical biographies, here are a few more you might like.

Garcia: An American Life
By Blair Jackson
The lead singer and focal point of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia was often dismissed as a serious musician because of his enormous cult following. In this 560-page tome, biographer Blair Jackson reveals the musician inside the cultural icon. (Penguin)

Ritchie Valens: The First Latino Rocker
By Beverly Mendheim
Although written in 1987, the story of Valens is timeless. In a relatively short biography at 160 pages, Mendheim digs deep into Valens’ past, dispelling lingering misconceptions and uncovering little-known truths about the legendary rocker. (Bilingual Review Press)

And a Voice to Sing With: A Memoir
By Joan Baez
One of the most famous American folk singers, Joan Baez details how she won hard-earned fame on her own terms. From dealing with discrimination in her teens to drawing on her Quaker roots for the source of her pacifism, Baez pulls no punches and lays her story bare. (Simon & Schuster)

top shelf

Consider stocking your bookcase with some of these new titles sure to inspire, inform and entertain.

The Art of Jaime Hernandez:
The Secrets of Life and Death
By Todd Hignite
People who know comics know Love and Rockets, the comic created by Los Bros Hernandez—Gilbert, Jaime and Mario. This tome focuses on the life and works of brother Jaime, whose contribution to the comic were strong Latina characters and complex story lines. Love and Rockets changed the comic landscape forever. One of the first alternative comic serials, and certainly one of the first to be created by and to feature Chicanos, it debuted in the early 1980s and introduced the comic world to mostly unknown cultures. After all, not many knew of a Latino punk scene, women wrestlers or the trials and tribulations of a Maggie the Mechanic.

El Monstruo:
Dread and Redemption in Mexico City
By John Ross
Poet, journalist and activist John Ross puts a microscope to life in Mexico City. Dubbed El Monstruo, the world’s most densely populated city is known for its crowds, smog and the giant gap between rich and poor—making it seem perpetually on the edge of disaster. Since 1985, Ross lived in the center of this federal district. Surrounded by volcanos, constantly threatened by earthquakes and riddled with crime, the city survives and its citizens live to tell its secrets.

Big Breakfast Diet:
Eat Big Before 9 A.M., and Lose Big for Life
By Daniela Jakubowicz, M.D.
At first, the book’s premise seems like a gimmick: Eat pizza and doughnuts as part of a big breakfast and still lose weight. However, delving deeper into Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz’ plan, The Big Breakfast Diet, it becomes apparent that her philosophy is based on bodily need. Yes, eating sweets and fats sounds indulgent, but, claims Dr. Jakubowicz, such a big meal first thing in the morning is also perfectly in sync with long-term weight loss, hormonal balance and circadian sleep/wake cycles. In her study, the Venezuelan-born endocrinologist put 94 obese and inactive women on an eight-month diet. Half of the women went on very low-carb diets and the other half went on The Big Breakfast Diet. After four months, the very low-carb dieters had shed an average of 28 pounds, while the Big Breakfast group shed about 23. After four more months, the low-carb group regained about 28 pounds, whereas the Big Breakfast group continued to drop weight. Based on this research, Jakubowicz formulated her diet on a top-down approach, with breakfast being the biggest and most indulgent meal, lunch smaller and more reliant on produce, and dinner being the lightest fare.
A light read, the book is part manual, offering a 28-day menu for promoting the best balance of fats, carbs and proteins and exercise.