Gloria Estefan said in an interview last week that she'd love to return to her birthplace in Cuba to perform a concert, but will not do so until it is "truly free."
Gloria and her husband Emilio Estefan spent last weekend at the 2015 People en Espanol Festival in Manhattan, where they watched a naturalization ceremony and gave multiple interviews.
During the event, the singer was asked by one festival-goer if she would ever play a concert on the island.
"I would like to, but not with this government," she answered in Spanish.
"I'll go to Cuba when it's truly free — and not just open to foreigners — to celebrate with the Cuban people a new beginning," she continued.
Estefan, who was at the festival to promote her new Broadway musical, "On Your Feet!," made it clear that even though the U.S. and Cuba may be improving relations, she will not visit so long as the current oppressive Communist regime is in power.
Elsewhere during the festival, Estefan recalled her father's naturalization from decades ago.
"Well, I remember because my dad was in the U.S. Army and we went to Winnipeg, Canada, because he had to step out of the country [as part of the naturalization process], and we couldn't go to back to Cuba, as he was a Bay of Pigs veteran," the Grammy winner explained,
according to People magazine.
"So we went there and I remember it as a wonderfully fun trip. I was a little kid and we made it like a little family vacation; a couple days in Canada for my dad to finally get his naturalization papers."
Variety reported in mid-October that Estefan's biographical musical "On Your Feet!" has pulled in a whopping $140,000 per performance in New York, "a great tally for a brand new musical."
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