30 Years Una Tradición | Emilio and Gloria Estefan

With the 30th anniversary of the Hispanic Heritage Awards around the corner, we’d like to share with you some of the past honorees and their many accomplishments. HHF honored Emilio and Gloria Estefan in 1993 with the Hispanic Heritage Arts Award.

Gloria Estefan is a talented Cuban-American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman.  She began her career as the lead singer in the group called “Miami Latin Boys”, which would later become known as Miami Sound Machine.  Gloria’s breakthrough came with the worldwide hit, “Conga” in 1985.  She has won multiple Grammy awards and has produced dozens of hits including “Rhythm is Going to Get You”, “1-2-3”, “Get on Your Feet”, “Here We Are”, “Oye!”, “Party Time” and many more.  She has also received many other awards throughout her legendary career, including Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year at the Latin Grammy Awards in 2008.

Emilio Estefan is a famed Cuban-American musician and producer, who has won 19 Grammy Awards throughout his illustrious career.  He also got his start with the Miami Sound Machine, along with his eventual wife, Gloria.  Emilio is known for shaping the careers of many superstars in the music industry, and has produced recordings for many Latino superstars including Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, Shakira, Celia Cruz, and of course, Gloria Estefan.

Together Emilio and Gloria Estefan have become more than household names in the music industry.  In 2015, the two were honored with the distinguished Presidential Medal of Freedom for their contribution to bringing the Latin sounds to the American mainstream and pop music.  That same year, Emilio and Gloria Estefan produced the Broadway hit musical, “On Your Feet!”, telling the story of their journey.

To sum up their legendary career, “As an artist, you dream about accumulating enough successful music to some day do just one greatest-hits album, but to reach a point where you’re releasing your second collection of hits is beyond belief,” said Gloria Estefan.

HHF was honored to present Emilio and Gloria Estefan with the HHA Arts Award in 1993, reining among the other prestigious honorees that have been honored the past 30 years. The Hispanic Heritage Awards are unique in that celebrities take the stage along with educators, innovators, community and business leaders, elected officials and others. At the HHA’s, celebrities are honored alongside physicians, scientists, educators, innovators, public officials, community and business leaders and even young leaders. Stay tuned as we announce Hispanic Heritage Award honorees and presenters in the weeks to come!