Dear Gloria Trevi:

I have not heard from you in a while but this year I finally saw you in “bailando por un sueno” (Spanish- for dancing with the stars). I still remember you as the beautiful wild haired girl with the ripped and colorful stockings, I loved your music when I was 9 years old, I would dress up in colorful tights and not comb my hair to look like you. I would sing along your songs while I watched you rip your clothes off and danced around in your underwear in children morning shows. I saw all your movies and bought the magazines that featured you on the cover, except the calendar you made, my mom saw it and said it was dirty, you were naked and only covered in cake, wearing nothing but little girl panties. I didn’t see you for a while after that, then you re-appeared on the news but you were crying and in handcuffs, they were accusing you of terrible things, such as kidnapping, rape and drug abuse. I didn’t want to believe it but I later realized that your manager was a pedophile and you were helping him recruit underaged girls to become his lovers with the promise of making them stars like you. On T.V. you said you loved your manager and would do anything for him, but your manager became the dad of your baby and the father of 6 babies with each of the different girls you recruited. You were in re-hab, you were in jail for years, you had a break down, you lied, you said the truth, you became a new born Christian, you were a fugitive, you re-married, you were freed and now your are back.

Gloria in her early career days, circa 1989

Gloria Trevi, you were one of the most influential and controversial women in the Spanish speaking world in the late 80′s and early 90′s, you were a superstar and changed the perception that women can be sexual, powerful and independent. Machismo is an arrogant and ignorant excuse to keep Latin American women under a patriarch grip and you broke that convention with you music and attitude, I admire you for your short but influential career. I’m happy to see you now as a mother, someone who is trying to help the less fortunate and although you are still singing, you will never be the old Gloria Trevi I knew, and that’s alright because I don’t want to be that Gloria Trevi.

Much love,

Glendy :3