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By Belinda Goldsmith
For Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan, the vision of nurses around the world risking their lives to fight COVID-19 with limited resources brought back memories of how she breastfed her invalid father as a teenager in Cuba.
At the family home in Havana, Estefan spent five years until she was 16 helping care for her father, whose multiple sclerosis was attributed to exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. He died under care in 1980, at the age of 50.
Estefan, 63, moved to the United States and became one of the most successful Latin crossover stars with hits like “Conga”, “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” and “Dr. Beat,” but said never he had forgotten to deal with his father’s ill health.
“(It was) all hands to work. It was hard and very difficult for me as a child, ”Estefan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a video call from her home in Miami Beach.
“The family has to take care of the family and there was no one else.”
His younger sister trained as a nurse when she was 40 years old and now works in a hospital in Miami. Women make up 90% of the world’s nurses.
So when her husband, music producer Emilio Estefan, suggested a star-studded fundraiser for Nurse Heroes, a new foundation created by a group of philanthropists to help nurses in America, she jumped at the opportunity.
Estefan, who has sold more than 100 million records, will join an artist roster on November 26 at Thanksgiving for a concert to raise funds for Nurse Heroes to pay for the continuing education of nurses and their children.
Other performers include the Black Eyed Peas, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Carole King, Pitbull, Stevie Wonder, Josh Groban, and the Estefan singer-songwriter daughter Emily.
“It is primarily to honor and thank our nursing heroes because they are heroes,” said Estefan, the seven-time Grammy-winning singer whose life is featured in the musical “On Your Feet!”
“These people risk their lives, the lives of their families, for all of us, for the common good.”
More than 2,000 healthcare workers, including more than 220 registered nurses, have died from COVID-19 in the United States, according to the National Nurses United, among approximately 240,000 deaths nationally, the highest worldwide figure.
The nation’s largest nurses union has blamed government failures for the number of deaths, with many nurses left without proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and a lack of reporting or effective action on worker infections. Of the health.
The Nurse Heroes Live! The concert will be an event broadcast live by Whoopi Goldberg with appearances by Oprah Winfrey and Billy Crystal.
It will feature performances from studios from around the world as well as a choir of 50 nurses from healthcare provider Northwell Health, and Taylor Swift will donate a signed guitar for auction to benefit the Nurse Heroes Foundation.
The Nurse Heroes initiative will also feature the “Women Who Dared” art collection donated by philanthropists Sandi and Bill Nicholson, which is described as the largest private collection of works by female artists.
The collection is part of a year-long fundraising initiative and art contest launched in appreciation of Nurse Heroes.
Estefan said that the coronavirus pandemic had been terrifying for everyone, including nurses and other front-line workers.
“Everyone has been scared and this pandemic has really wreaked havoc,” he said.
“I wanted to do everything possible to be a part of celebrating these incredible human beings who have been on the front lines of this pandemic.”
