Happy Birthday, Gloria Estefan! This Is Your Life.

Gloria Estefan turns 52 today! We love her for a whole mess of reasons, partially because we know our Cuban card would be immediately revoked if we didn’t. But her music is also a lot of fun, she’s been able to adapt to the times in terms of her music and her image without seeming untrue to herself, she overcame a terrible tour bus accident (and has a titanium rod in her back to prove it), she’s done so much for Miami (not the least of which includes lending the mainstream media a face and a voice for the Cuban exile community) and she - most important - she has big hair. 

So, in celebration of her stickin’ around  for 52 years, here are some of our favorite videos she has- both as a member of The Miami Sound Machine and solo - given us throughout her long career:

Dr. Beat

 This song never fails to remind us of being a preschooler and doing that stupid “cross one foot in front of the other while jumping and think you’re badass” move that all little kids do.

Conga

Every wedding in Miami must include this song. If not, the DJ is sacrificed at an intersection. We don’t make the rules, people.

The Rhythm Is Going To Get You

It’s got us! We just never learned what to do with it, much to the embarrassment of our relatives.

Oye Mi Canto

We have no idea what’s going in this video except wonder and eyebrows. And we love it.

Reach

Yeah. It’s cheesy. We know this. That doesn’t make us any less proud that this song was used as the official theme of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.

Click Below for a Gallery of Gloria over the Years