​Miami’s Beloved Gloria Estefan Defends Jubilation Over Castro’s Death

MIAMI, FL — While Miami’s celebrity scene has for the most part kept their feelings on the down low following the death of former Cuban President Fidel Castro late Friday, singer Gloria Estefan took to social media over the weekend with a defense of the raucous celebration that’s been raging in her adopted city.

“Although the death of a human being is rarely cause for celebration,” she penned on Instagram and tweeted, “it is the symbolic death of the destructive ideologies that he espoused that, I believe, is filing the Cuban exile community with renewed hope and a relief that has been long in coming.”

Estefan and her husband, Emilio, are not only successful entertainers in this city which is also home to Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez, Lenny Kravitz and Enrique Iglesias, the Estefans are beloved figures here with a network of local businesses, including hotels and restaurants.

Perhaps they are best known for the star-studded concert they organized to help the city recover following the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

For this, and their love of all things Miami, President Obama last year awarded the Estefans the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“And although the grip of Castro's regime will not loosen overnight,” Gloria Estafan penned, “the demise of a leader that oversaw the annihilation of those with an opposing view, the indiscriminate jailing of innocents, the separation of families, the censure of his people's freedom to speak, state sanctioned terrorism and the economic destruction of a once thriving and successful country, can only lead to positive change for the Cuban people and our world.”

The singer closed with a wish for Cuba’s future.

“May freedom continue to ring in the United States, my beautiful adopted country, and may the hope for freedom be inspired and renewed in the heart of every Cuban in my homeland and throughout the world.”

Photo of Gloria and Emilio Estefan by World Red Eye