This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

Spanish naming customs denotes the personal appellation practiced in Spain and most Spanish-speaking countries, consisting of a given name (simple or composite) followed by two family names (surnames). The first surname was traditionally the father's first surname, and the second the mother's first surname. This order may now be reversed, under gender equality law.

In most situations, the practice is to use one given name and the first surname only, the full name being used in legal, formal, and documentary matters. For differences in Hispanic American usages, see Hispanic American naming customs.

Naming system in Spain[link]

Currently in Spain, people bear a single or composite given name (nombre) and two surnames (apellidos). A composite given name comprises two (not more) single names; Juan Pablo is considered not to be a first and a second forename, but a single composite forename. Traditionally, a person's first surname is the father's first surname (apellido paterno), and the second one is the mother's first surname (apellido materno). However, gender equality law has allowed surname transposition since 1999,^[1] subject to the condition that every sibling must bear the same surname order recorded in the Registro Civil (civil registry), but there have been legal exceptions. From 2013, if the parents of a child are unable to agree on order of surnames, an official decides which is to come first.^[2]

For example, if a man named Eduardo Fernández Garrido marries a woman named María Dolores Martínez Ruiz and has a child named Eduardo, there are several legal options, but their child would most usually be known as Eduardo Fernández Martínez.

Each surname can also be composite, the parts usually linked by the preposition de (of) or by a hyphen. For example, a person's name might be Juan Pablo Fernández de Calderón García-Iglesias, consisting of a forename (Juan Pablo), a paternal surname (Fernández de Calderón) and a maternal surname (García-Iglesias).

Forms of Address[link]

A man named José Antonio Gómez Iglesias would normally be addressed as Señor Gómez instead of Señor Iglesias, because Gómez is his paternal surname. Furthermore, Mr. Gómez might be informally addressed as (i) José Antonio, (ii) José, (iii) Pepe (nickname for José), (iv) Antonio (Anthony), or (v) Toño (nickname for Antonio).

Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez is sometimes incorrectly referred to in English media as Mr. Márquez, when it should be Mr. García Márquez or, simply, Mr. García.

In rare instances, when the first surname is very common, someone may be referred to primarily by their maternal surname. For example, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (elected for terms as Prime Minister of Spain in the 2004 and 2008 general elections) is often called simply Zapatero, the name he inherited from his mother's family, since Rodríguez is a common surname and may be ambiguous. The same occurs with Spanish Socialist leader Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba.

In an English-speaking environment, Spanish-named people sometimes hyphenate their surnames to avoid Anglophone confusion or to fill-out forms with only one space provided for last name, thus: Mr. José Antonio Gómez-Iglesias. A practical option to spare an explanation is using a single surname composed of two separate words.

Forenames[link]

Parents choose their child's given name, which must be recorded in the Registro Civil (Civil Registry) to establish his or her legal identity.^[3] With few restrictions, parents can now choose any name; common sources of names are the parents' taste, honouring a relative, the Roman Catholic calendar of saints nomina (nominal register), and traditional Spanish names. Legislation in Spain under Franco legally limited cultural naming customs to only Christian (Jesus, Mary, saints) and typical Spanish names (Antonio, Laura, et al.). Although the first part of a composite forename generally reflects the gender of the child, the second personal name need not (e.g.José María Aznar). At present, the only naming limitation is the dignity of the child, who cannot be given an insulting name. Similar limitations applied against diminutive, familiar, and colloquial variants not recognized as names proper, and "those that lead to confusion regarding sex";^[4] however, current law^[5] allows registration of diminutive names.^[6]

Spanish provincial surname concentrations: Percentage of population born with the ten most-common surnames. (Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística 2006)

María and José[link]

Girls are often named María,^[7] honouring the Virgin Mary, by appending either a shrine, place, or religious-concept suffix-name to María. In daily life, such women omit the "Mary of the ..." nominal prefix, and use the suffix portion of their composite names as their public, rather than legal, identity. Hence, women with Marian names such as María de los Ángeles (Mary of the Angels), María del Pilar (Mary of the Pillar), and María de la Luz (Mary of the Light), are normally addressed as Ángeles (Angels), Pilar (Pillar), and Luz (Light); however, each might be addressed as María. Also, parents can simply name a girl "María", or "Mari". Nicknames such as Maricarmen for María del Carmen, Marisol for "María (de la) Soledad" ("Our Lady of Solitude", the Virgin Mary), etc. are often used.

It is not unusual for a man's formal name to include María, preceded by a masculine name, e.g. José María Aznar (Joseph Mary Aznar). Equivalently, a girl can be formally named María José (Mary Joseph), and informally named Marijose, Mariajo, Majo, Josefa, Josefina, Fina, Pepa, Pepi, Pepita, Marisé or even José in honor of St. Joseph. María as a masculine name is often abbreviated in writing as M. (José M. Aznar), Ma. (José Ma. Aznar), or Mª (José Mª Morelos). It is unusual for any other names than the religiously significant María and José to be used in this way, although in Mexico Guadalupe, a female name, is relatively often used for men.

Registered names[link]

The Registro Civil (Civil Registry) officially records a child’s identity as composed of a forename (simple or composite) and the two surnames; however, a child can be religiously baptized with several forenames, e.g. Felipe Juan Froilán de Todos los Santos. This is usually a royal and noble family practice, and has no legal significance.

Absence of maiden names[link]

In Spain, upon marrying, the woman does not change her surnames to adopt her husband’s because Spanish naming customs do not include the maiden name concept. Thus, when Leocadia Blanco Álvarez marries Pedro Pérez Montilla, she retains her original name Leocadia Blanco Álvarez. It is not infrequent that the first time a common Spaniard meets a foreign couple with the same surname (following English naming customs) he/she is puzzled thinking they are brother and sister, or that it is a big coincidence.^{[citation needed]}

In chapter V, part 2 of Don Quixote (1605, 1615), Teresa Panza reminds her husband Sancho that, properly, she should be addressed as Teresa Cascajo, by her surname, not her marital surname: “Teresa I was named in baptism, a clean and short name, without addings or embellishments, or furnishings of dons and dans; ‘Cascajo’ was my father; and I, as your wife, am called ‘Teresa Panza’, but laws are executed”.^[8]

Rarely, the husband's surname can be added after the woman's surnames using the particle "de".^{[citation needed]} Leocadia Blanco Álvarez, married to Pedro Pérez Montilla, can be addressed as Leocadia Blanco de Pérez or as Leocadia Blanco Álvarez de Pérez . This format is not used in everyday settings and has no legal value; it is used rarely and only in situations where the relationship to the husband is being stressed.

Surname distribution: the most common surnames, by residential Spanish province

Generational transmission[link]

In the generational transmission of surnames, the paternal surname’s precedence eventually eliminates the maternal surnames from the family lineage. Contemporary law allows the maternal surname to be given precedence, but most people^{[citation needed]} observe the traditional paternal–maternal surname order. So the daughter and son of Ángela López Sáenz and Tomás Portillo Blanco are usually called Laura Portillo López and Pedro Portillo López, but also could be called Laura López Portillo and Pedro López Portillo. Regardless of the surname order, all children's surnames must be in the same order when recorded in the Registro Civil.

Patrilineal surname transmission was not always the norm in Spanish speaking societies. Prior to the mid-eighteenth century,^{[citation needed]} when the current paternal-maternal surname combination norm came into existence, Hispanophone societies often practised matrilineal surname transmission, giving children the maternal surname, and, occasionally, giving children a grandparent's surname (borne by neither parent) for prestige — being perceived as gentry — and profit, flattering the matriarch or the patriarch in hope of inheriting land. As with Catalan names, the Spanish naming customs include the orthographic option of conjoining the surnames with the conjunction particle y (meaning "and"), e.g. José Ortega y Gasset, or Tomás Portillo y Blanco, following an antiquated aristocratic usage.

Not every surname is a single word; such conjoining usage is common with doubled surnames (maternal-paternal), ancestral composite surnames willed to the following generations — especially when the paternal surname is socially undistinguished. José María Álvarez del Manzano y López del Hierro is an example, his name comprising a composite (two-word) single name, José María, and two composite surnames Álvarez del Manzano and López del Hierro. Other examples derive from church place-names such as San José. When a person bears doubled surnames, the means of disambiguation is to insert y between the paternal and maternal surnames.

In case of illegitimacy — when the child's father either is unknown or refuses to legally recognise his son or daughter — the child bears both of the mother's surnames.^[9]

Occasionally, a person with a common paternal surname and an uncommon maternal surname becomes widely known by the maternal surname. The artist Pablo Ruiz Picasso, the poet Federico García Lorca, and the politician José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero are examples. With similar effect, the foreign paternal surname of the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Hughes Galeano (his father was British) is usually omitted. (As a boy, however, he occasionally signed his name as Eduardo Gius, using a hispanized approximation of the English pronunciation of "Hughes".) Such use of the second last name by itself is colloquial, however, and may not be applied in legal contexts.

Castilian and Álavan surnames[link]

Where the Basque and Romance cultures linguistically cohabit, the surnames denote the father's name and the (family) house; thus the Romance patronymic and the place-name are conjoined with the prepositional particle de ("from", "provenance"), thus in the name José Ignacio López de Arriortúa, the composite surname López de Arriortúa is a simple surname, despite Arriortúa being the original family-name. This is a possibly confusing usage because the Spanish López and the Basque de Arriortúa are discrete surnames in the Basque and Romance cultures.^{[citation needed]}

Nominal conjunctions[link]

The particle “de” (of)[link]

In Spanish, the preposition particle de (“of”) is used as a conjunction in two surname spelling styles, and to disambiguate a surname. The first style is in patronymic and toponymic spelling formulæ,^[10] e.g. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Pedro López de Ayala, and Vasco Núñez de Balboa, as in many conquistador names.^[11]

Unlike in French, the Spanish spellings of surnames containing the prepositional particle de are ambiguous without a preceding patronymic, an orthographic style common to noble surnames, thus, the lower-case spellings de la Rúa (“of the street") and de la Torre (“of the tower”) and the upper-case spellings De la Rúa and De la Torre are equally correct.

Without a patronymic

Juan Carlos de Borbón. Unlike in French, Spanish orthography does not require a contraction when a vowel begins the surname, but de el (“of the”) becomes del, e.g. Carlos Arturo del Monte (Charles Arthur of the Mountain).

The patronymic exception

The current (1958) Spanish name law, Artículo 195 del Reglamento del Registro Civil (Article 195 of the Civil Registry Regulations) disallows a person’s prefixing the de particle to his or her surname — the exception is the clarifying addition of de to a surname (apellido) that might be misunderstood as a name (nombre);^[12] thus, a child would be registered as Pedro de Miguel Jiménez, to avoid the surname Miguel being mistaken as the second part of a composite name, as Pedro Miguel.

Bearing the de particle does not necessarily denote a noble family, especially in Castile and Alava, the de usually applied to the place-name (town or village) from which the person and his or her ancestors originated; however, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the usage of de spread as a way of denoting the bearer’s noble heritage to avoid the misperception that he or she is either a Jew or a Moor. In that time, many people, regardless of their true origins, claimed the right to use the particle, e.g. Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, et al.; moreover, following that fashion, high nobles, such as Francisco Sandoval Rojas, called himself Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas. During the eighteenth century, the Spanish nobility fully embraced the French custom of using de as a nobility identifier, however, commoners also bore the de particle, which made the de usages unclear; thus, nobility was emphasised with the surname’s lineage.

The particle “y” (and)[link]

In the sixteenth century,^{[citation needed]} the Spanish adopted the copulative conjunction y (“and”) to distinguish a person’s surnames; thus the Andalusian Baroque writer Luis de Góngora y Argote (1561–1627), the Aragonese painter Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828), the Andalusian artist Pablo Diego Ruiz y Picasso (1881–1973), and the Madrilenian liberal philosopher José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955). In Hispanic America, this spelling convention was common to clergymen (e.g. Salvadoran Bishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez), and sanctioned by the Ley de Registro Civil (Civil Registry Law) of 1870, requiring birth certificates indicating the paternal and maternal surnames conjoined with y — thus, Felipe González y Márquez and José María Aznar y López are the respective true names of the Spanish politicians Felipe González Márquez and José María Aznar López; however, unlike in Catalan, the Spanish usage is infrequent.

The conjunction y avoids denominational confusion when the paternal surname might appear to be a (first) name; hence the physiologist Santiago Ramón y Cajal might appear to be named Santiago Ramón (composite) and surnamed Cajal, like-wise the jurist Francisco Tomás y Valiente, and the cleric Vicente Enrique y Tarancón. Without the conjunction, the footballer Rafael Martín Vázquez, known as Martín Vázquez (his surnames) mistakenly appears to be named Martín rather than Rafael, whilst, to his annoyance, the linguist Fernando Lázaro Carreter occasionally was addressed as Don Lázaro, rather than as Don Fernando.

Moreover, when the maternal surname begins with an i vowel sound, written with either the vowel I (Ibarra), the vowel Y (Ybarra archaic spelling) or the combination Hi + consonant (Higueras), Spanish euphony substitutes e in place of y, thus the example of the Spanish statesman Eduardo Dato e Iradier (1856–1921).

Denotations[link]

To communicate a person’s social identity, Spanish naming customs provide orthographic means, such as suffix-letter abbreviations, surname spellings, and place names, which denote and connote the person’s place in society.

Identity and descent[link]

h. (son of): A man named like his father, might append the lower-case suffix h. (denoting hijo, son) to his surname, thus distinguishing himself, Juan Gómez Marcos, h., from his father, Juan Gómez Marcos; the English analogue is “Jr.” (son).

–ez: Spanish surnames ending in -ez originated as patronymics denoting "the son of"—Fernández (son of Fernando), González (son of Gonzalo)—yet not every such surname is patronymic, because in many Spanish dialects the Spanish-language letters z and s are pronounced alike, leading to the same word being spelt with either "s" or "z". In Hispano-American Spanish, the -ez spellings of Chávez, Cortez (Alberto Cortez) and Valdez are not patronymic surnames, because they are variant spellings of the Iberian Spanish spelling with -es, as in the names of Manuel Chaves González, Hernán Cortés and Javier Valdés. For more on the -z surnames in Spanish see Influences on the Spanish language.

Foundlings[link]

Anonymous foundlings were a naming problem for civil registrars, but such anonymous children were often named toponymically, after the town where they were found. Because most foundlings were reared in church orphanages, they were often given the surnames Iglesia or Iglesias (church[es]) and Cruz (cross). Blanco (connoting "blank" here, rather than the more usual "white") was another option. A toponymical first surname might be followed as second surname by Iglesia or Cruz.

Foundlings often were surnamed Expósito (Lat. exposĭtus, "exposed", connoting "foundling"), which marked them, and their descendants, as of low caste and social class, people without social pedigree.^{[citation needed]} In the Catalan language the surname Deulofeu ("made by God") was often given to foundlings. In 1921 Spanish law allowed the surname Expósito to be changed without charge.^[13]

Foreign citizens[link]

In Spain, legal and illegal foreign immigrants retain use of their cultural naming customs^[14], yet upon becoming Spanish citizens, they are legally obliged to assume Spanish-style names (a name and two surnames).^{[citation needed]} If the naturalised person is from a one-surname culture, the actual surname is duplicated;^{[citation needed]} therefore, the English name “George Albert Duran” becomes the Spanish name “George Albert Durán Durán”, yet the law optionally allows him to adopt his mother's maiden name (her surname), as his maternal (second) surname. Formally, Spanish naming customs conflate his name “George” and his middle-name “Albert” to the composite name “George Albert”, and his sole surname, “Duran”, is duplicated as his paternal and maternal surnames.

Flamenco artists[link]

Historically, flamenco artists seldom used their proper names. According to the guitarist Juan Serrano, this was because Flamenco was considered disreputable and they did not want to embarrass their families: 'We have to start with the history of the gypsies in Spain. They gained a bad reputation because of the minor crimes they had to commit to survive. They did not have any kind of jobs, they had to do something to live, and of course this created hostility. And Flamenco was the music of the Gypsies, so many high society people did not accept it — they said Flamenco was in the hands of criminals, bandits, et cetera. And the girls, that maybe liked dancing or singing, their parents said “Oh no, you want to be a prostitute!”.'^[15]

This tradition has persisted to the present day, even though Flamenco is now legitimate. Sometimes the artistic name consists of the home town appended to the first name (Manolo Sanlúcar, Ramón de Algeciras); but many, perhaps most, of such names are more eccentric: Pepe de la Matrona (because his mother was a midwife); Perico del Lunar (because he had a mole); Tomatito (son of a father known as Tomate because of his red face); Sabicas (because of his childhood passion for green beans, from niño del las habicas); and many more.

Spanish hypocoristics and nicknames[link]

Many Spanish names can be shortened into hypocoristic, affectionate "child-talk" forms using a diminutive suffix, especially -ito and -cito (masculine) and -ita and -cita (feminine). Sometimes longer than the person’s name, a nickname usually derives via linguistic rules.^[16] The usages vary by country and region; these are some usual names and their nicknames:

Spain's other languages[link]

The official recognition of Spain's other written languages — Catalan, Basque, and Galician — legally allowed the autonomous communities to re-establish their vernacular social identity, including the legal use of personal names in the local languages and written traditions — banned since 1938^[17] — sometimes via the re-spelling of names from Castilian Spanish to their original languages.

Basque names[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The territories under the influence of Basque culture, mainly the Basque Country and Navarre, usually follow Spanish naming customs. A bilingual Basque-Spanish speaker will not necessarily bear a Basque name, and a monolingual Spanish speaker can use a Basque name or a Basque hypocoristic of an official Spanish name.

Some Basque-language names and surnames are foreign transliterations into the Basque tongue, e.g. Ander (English: "Andrew"; Spanish: Andrés), Mikel (English: "Michael"; Spanish: Miguel), or Ane (English: "Anne"; Spanish: Ana). In some cases, the name's original-language denotation is translated to Basque, i.e. Zutoia and Zedarri denote the Spanish Pilar (English: "Pillar"). Moreover, some Basque names, such as Xabier and Eneko (English "Xavier" and "Inigo") have been transliterated into Spanish (Javier and Íñigo).

Recently, Basque names without a direct equivalent in other languages have become popular, e.g. Aitor (a legendary patriarch), Odei ("cloud"), Iker ("to investigate"), and Amaia ("the end"); finally, other Basque names, without a current direct Spanish meaning, are unique to the Basque language: Eneko, Garikoitz, Urtzi. Basque names, rather than Spanish names, are preponderant^{[citation needed]} in the Basque Country, countering the Spanish-name imposition of the Franco régime requiring only Spanish names; after Franco's death and the democratic restoration, many Basque adults changed their Spanish names to the Basque equivalent, e.g. from Miguel to Mikel.

A source for modern Basque names is Sabino Arana's Deun-Ixendegi Euzkotarra ("Basque saint-name collection", published in 1910). Instead of the traditional adaptations of Romance names, he proposed others he made up and that in his opinion were truer to the originals and adapted to the Basque phonology. For example, his brother Luis became Koldobika, from Frankish Hlodwig. The traditional Peru (from Spanish "Pedro"), Pello or Piarres (from French "Pierre"), all meaning "Peter", became Kepa from Aramaic כיפא (Kepha). He believed that the suffix -[n]e was inherently feminine, and new names like Nekane ("pain"+ne,"Dolores") or Garbine ("clean"+ne, "Immaculate [Conception]") are frequent among Basque females.

Basque surnames usually denoted the patronymic house of the bearer; e.g. Etxebarria —"new house", from etxe (house) + barri (new), denotes "related to a so-named farmhouse"; in the same way, Garaikoetxea — "house in the heights", garai ("height") + etxe ("house"). Sometimes, surnames denoted not the house itself but a characteristic of the place, e.g. Saratxaga — "willow-place", from saratze ("willow") + -aga ("place of"); Loyola, from loi ("mud") + ola ("iron smithery"); Arriortua —"stone orchard", from harri ("stone") + ortua ("orchard"). Before the 20th century all Basquemen were considered nobles (indeed, some Basque surnames, e.g. Irujo, were related to some of the oldest Spanish noble families), and many of them used their status to emigrate with privileges to other regions of the Spanish Empire, especially the Americas, due to which some Basque surnames became common to the Spanish-American world; e.g. Mendoza — "cold mountain", from mendi ("mountain" + hotza ("cold"); Salazar — "Old hall", from sala ("hall") + zahar ("old"). Until 1978, Spanish was the single official language of the Spanish civil registries and Basque surnames had to be registered according to the Spanish phonetical rules (for example, the Spanish "ch" sound merges the Basque "ts", "tx", and "tz", and someone whose surname in Standard Basque would be "Krutxaga" would have to write it as "Cruchaga", letter "k" also not being used in Spanish). Although the democratic restoration ended this policy, allowing surnames to be officially changed into their Basque version, there still are many people who hold Spanish-written Basque surnames, even in the same family: a father born before 1978 would be surnamed "Echepare" and his children, "Etxepare". This policy even changed the usual pronunciation of some Basque surnames. For instance, in Basque, the letter "z" maintained a sibilant "s"-like sound, while Spanish changed it; thus, a surname such as "Zabala" should be properly read similar to "sabala" (Basque pronunciation: [s̻abala]), although in Spanish, because the "z" denotes a "th" sound ([θ]), it would be read as "Tha-bala" (Spanish pronunciation: [θaˈβala]). However, since the letter "z" exists in Spanish, the registries did not force the Zabalas to transliterate their surname.

In Biscay and Guipuzcoa, it was not common^{[citation needed]} to take a surname from the place (town or village) where one resided, unless one was a foundling. Basque compound surnames were created with two discrete surnames, e.g. Elorduizapaterietxe — Elordui + Zapaterietxe, Mariñelarena — Mariño + la arena; a practice denoting family allegiances or the equal importance of both families. This custom sometimes conduced to incredibly long surnames, for compound surnames could be used to create others; for example, the longest surname recorded in Spain is Basque, Burionagonatotoricagageazcoechea", formed by Buriona+ Gonatar + Totorika + Beazcoetxea.

Finally, the nationalist leader Sabino Arana pioneered a naming custom of transposing the name-surname order to what he thought was the proper Basque language syntax order; e.g. the woman named Miren Zabala would be referred to as Zabalatar Miren— the surname first, plus the -tar suffix denoting "from a place", and then the name. Thus, Zabalatar Miren means "Miren, of the Zabala family". The change in the order is effected because in the Basque tongue, declined words (such as Zabalatar) that apply to a noun are uttered before the noun itself; another example of this would be his pen name, Arana ta Goiritar Sabin. This Basque naming custom was used in nationalist literature, not in formal, official documents wherein the Castilian naming convention is observed.

Catalan names[link]

The Catalan-speaking territories also abide by the Spanish naming customs, yet usually the discrete surnames are joined with the word i (“and"), instead of the Spanish y, and this practice is very common in formal contexts. For example, the current president of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia) is formally called El Molt Honorable Senyor Artur Mas i Gavarró. Furthermore, the national language policy enumerated in article 19.1 of Law 1/1998 stipulates that "the citizens of Catalonia have the right to use the proper regulation of their Catalan names and surnames and to introduce the conjunction between surnames".

The correction, translation, and surname-change are regulated by the Registro Civil (Civil Registry) with the Decree 138/2007 of 26 June, modifying the Decree 208/1998 of 30 July, which regulates the accreditation of the linguistic correctness of names. The attributes and functions of Decree 138/2007 of 26 July regulate the issuance of language-correction certificates for translated Catalan names, by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Institute of Catalan Studies) in Barcelona. Nevertheless, there are Catalan surnames that conform to neither the current spelling rules nor to the traditionally correct Catalan spelling rules; a language-correction certification can be requested from the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, for names such as these:^[18]

• Casas to Cases
• Farré to Ferrer
• Gabarra to Gavarró
• Jufré to Jofré
• Mayoral to Majoral
• Perpiñá to Perpinyà
• Pijuan to Pijoan
• Piñol to Pinyol
• Roselló to Rosselló
• Verdugo to Berdugo

Catalan hypocoristics and nicknames[link]

Many Catalan names are shortened to hypocoristic forms using only the final portion of the name (unlike Spanish, which mostly uses only the first portion of the name), and with a diminutive suffix. Thus, shortened Catalan names taking the first portion of the name are probably influenced by the Spanish tradition. The influence of Spanish in hypocoristics is recent since it became a general fashion only in twentieth century and specially since Francisco Franco's dictatorship; example Catalan names are:

Galician names[link]

The Galician-speaking areas also abide the Spanish naming customs. Main differences are the usage of Galician given names and surnames.

Galician Surnames[link]

Most Galician surnames have their origin in local toponymys, being these either Galician regions (Sanlés < Salnés, Carnota, Bergantiños), towns (Ferrol, Noia), parishes or villages (as Andrade). Just like elsewhere, many surnames were also generated from jobs or professions (Carpinteiro 'carpenter', Cabaleiro 'Knight', Ferreiro 'Smith', Besteiro 'Crossbowman'), physical characteristics (Gago 'Twangy', Tato 'Stutterer', Couceiro 'Tall and thin', Bugallo 'fat', Pardo 'Swarthy'), or origin of the person (Franco and Francés 'French', Portugués 'Portuguese').

Although many Galician surnames have been historically adapted into Spanish phonetics and orthography, they are still clearly recognizable as Galician words: Freijedo, Spanish adaptation of freixedo 'place with ash-trees'; Seijo from seixo 'stone'; Doval from do Val 'of the Valley'; Rejenjo from Reguengo, Galician evolution of local Latin-Germanic word Regalingo 'Royal property'.

Specially relevant are the Galician surnames originated from medieval patronymics, present in local documentation since the 9th century, and popularized from the 12th century on. Although many of them have been historically adapted into Spanish orthography,^[19] phonetics and traditions, many are still characteristically Galician; most common ones are:

• Alonso (medieval form Afonso, from the Germanic name Adefonsus): Spanish 'Alfonso', 'Alonso'.
• Álvarez (from médieval Alvares, from the Germanic name Alvarus).
• Ares (from the name Arias'): Spanish 'Arias'.
• Bermúdez (medieval form Vermues, from the Germanic name Veremodus + suffix -ici-).
• Bernárdez (from the Frankish name Bernard + suffix -ici-).
• Vieitez, Vieites (from the name Bieito, from Latin Benedictus + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Benítez'.
• Diz, Díaz (from the name Didacus + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Díaz'.
• Domínguez (medieval form Domingues, derived of the name Domingo, from Dominicus, + suffix -ici-).
• Enríquez (medieval form Anrriques, from the Frankish name Henric + suffiz -ici-).
• Estévez (medieval form Esteves, from the name Estevo, derived of Stephanus + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Estébanez'.
• Fernández (medieval form Fernandes, from the name Fernando, derived from the Germanic name Fredenandus + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Hernández'.
• Froiz (medieval form Froaz, from the Germanic name Froila 'Lord' + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Flores'.
• García (medieval form Garçia, from the name Garcia).
• Giance (from the name Xian, old orthography Jiam, derived of Latin Iulianus + suffix -ici-), with no Spanish equivalent.
• Gómez (medieval form Gomes, from the name Gomes).
• González (medieval form Gonçalves, from the Germanic name Gundisalvus + suffix -ici-).
• López (medieval form Lopes, from the Latin nickname Lupus 'wolf').
• Lourenzo, Lorenzo (medieval form Lourenço, from tha Latin name Laurentius).
• Martínez, Martín, Martís (from the Latin name Martinus + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Martínez'.
• Méndez (medieval form Meendes, from the name Mendo, from Menendus + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Menéndez', 'Méndez'.
• Miguéns (from the name Miguel, derived of Michael + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Miguélez'.
• Núñez (medieval form Nunes, derived from the name Nunnus + suffix -ici-).
• Paz, Paes, Pais (from the name Paio, derived from Pelagius + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Peláez'.
• Pérez (medieval form Peres, from the name Pero, derived of Petrus, + suffix -ici-).
• Raimúndez (from the Frankish name Raimund + suffix -ici-).
• Rodríguez (from the name Rodrigo, from the Gemanic form Rodericus + suffix -ici-).
• Rois (from the name Roi, nickname of Rodrigo + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Ruíz'.
• Sánchez (medieval form Sanches, from the name Sancho, derived from Latin Sanctius + suffix -ici-).
• Sueiro, Suárez (medieval forms Sueiro, Suares, from the name Suarius, with and without suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Suárez'.
• Vázquez (medieval form Vasques, from the name Vasco, from Velasco, + suffix -ici-): Spanish 'Velázquez'.
• Yanes (medieval forms Eanes, Ianes. from Iohannes, Yohannes + suffix -ici-): Spanish Eáñes 'Yañez'.

Galician Given names and nicknames[link]

Some common Galician names are:^[20]

Ceuta and Melilla[link]

As the provincial Surname distribution map (above) indicates, Mohamed is an often-occurring surname in the autonomous Mediterranean North African cities of Ceuta and Melilla (respectively registered 10,410 and 7,982 occurrences),^[21] due to immigration from Morocco.^{[citation needed]} Hispanophone Muslims use the Spanish "Mohamed" spelling for “Muhammad”. As such, it is often a component of Arabic names for men; hence, many Ceutan and Melillan Muslims share surnames despite not sharing a common ancestry. Furthermore, Mohamed (Muhammad) is the most popular name for new-born boys,^[22] thus it is not unusual to encounter a man named Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed: the first occurrence is the name, the second occurrence is the paternal surname, and the third occurrence is the maternal surname.^[23]

See also[link]

Spain portal

• Nobility particle
• List of personal naming conventions (for other languages)
• Name for general coverage of the topic
• Portuguese names
• French names
• Gitano surnames
• Basque surnames
• Hispanic American naming customs
• Philippine names
• Spanish-Moors surname

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

• (Spanish)Hispanic Heraldry – Information about Hispanic surnames.
• (Spanish)Nombres de Niñas – List of names in Spanish, with list of most popular names.
• (Catalan)Catalan Society of Heraldry – Information about Catalan surnames.
• Territorial distribution of surnames (Data from the Register on 1 January 2006) and several Excel tables about name and surname distribution by age and province, from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain).

Isaac Albéniz at the piano, 1901

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (Spanish pronunciation: [iˈsak alˈβeniθ]) (29 May 1860, Camprodon – 18 May 1909, Cambo-les-Bains) was a Spanish pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms. However, many of his works have been transcribed by Miguel Llobet and others for guitar, and many of his pieces such as Asturias (Leyenda), Granada, Sevilla, Cadiz, Cordoba, Cataluña, and the Tango in D are amongst the most important pieces for classical guitar.

Life[link]

Albéniz with his daughter, Laura

Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz (a customs official) and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz was a child prodigy who first performed at the age of four. At age seven, after apparently taking lessons from Antoine François Marmontel, he passed the entrance examination for piano at the Paris Conservatoire, but he was refused admission because he was believed to be too young.^[1]

His concert career began at the young age of nine when his father toured both Isaac and his sister, Clementina, throughout northern Spain. By the time he had reached 12, he had made many attempts to run away from home. A popular myth is that at the age of 12 Albéniz stowed away in a ship bound for Buenos Aires. He then made his way via Cuba to the United States, giving concerts in New York and San Francisco and then travelled to Liverpool, London and Leipzig.^[2] By age 15, he had already given concerts worldwide. This over-dramatized story is not entirely true. Albéniz did travel the world as a performer, however he was accompanied by his father. As a customs agent he was required to travel frequently. After a juxtaposition of Isaac's concert dates, on his alleged adventure, and his father's travel itinerary it is apparent that they were traveling together. After a short stay at the Leipzig Conservatory, in 1876 he went to study at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels after King Alonso's personal secretary, Guillermo Morphy obtained him a royal grant.^[3] Count Morphy was highly praising of Albéniz, and Albéniz would later dedicate Sevilla to Morphy's wife when he premiered it in Paris in January 1886.^[3] In 1880, he went to Budapest to study with Franz Liszt, only to find out that Liszt was in Weimar, Germany.

In 1883, he met the teacher and composer Felip Pedrell, who inspired him to write Spanish music such as the Chants d'Espagne. The first movement (Prelude) of that suite, later retitled after the composer's death as Asturias (Leyenda), is probably most famous today as part of the classical guitar repertoire, even though it was originally composed for piano and only later transcribed. (Many of Albéniz's other compositions were also transcribed for guitar, notably by Francisco Tárrega). At the 1888 Universal Exposition in Barcelona, the piano manufacturer Erard sponsored a series of 20 concerts featuring Albéniz's music.^[1]

The apex of his concert career is considered to be 1889 to 1892 when he had concert tours throughout Europe. During the 1890s Albéniz lived in London and Paris. For London he wrote some musical comedies which brought him to the attention of the wealthy Francis Money-Coutts, 5th Baron Latymer. Money-Coutts commissioned and provided him with librettos for the opera Henry Clifford and for a projected trilogy of Arthurian operas. The first of these, Merlin (1898–1902) was thought to have been lost, but has recently been reconstructed and performed;.^[4] Albéniz never completed Lancelot (only the first act is finished, as a vocal and piano score), and he never began Guinevere, the final part.^[5]

In 1900 he started to suffer from Bright's disease and returned to writing piano music. Between 1905 and 1908 he composed his final masterpiece, Iberia (1908), a suite of twelve piano "impressions".

In 1883, the composer married his student Rosina Jordana. They had three children, Blanca (who died in 1886), Laura (a painter), and Alfonso (who played for Real Madrid in the early 1900s before embarking on a career as a diplomat). Two other children died in infancy.

Albéniz died on 18 May 1909 at age 48 in Cambo-les-Bains of Bright's disease, and is buried at the Montjuïc Cemetery, Barcelona.

Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, former mayor of Madrid, and Cécilia Attias, the former wife of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, are two of Isaac Albéniz's great-grandchildren.

Work[link]

Early works[link]

Albéniz's early works were mostly “salon style” music. Albéniz's first published composition, Marcha Militar, appeared in 1868 -a number of works written before this are now lost.^[6] He continued composing in traditional styles ranging from Rameau, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt until the mid-1880s. He also wrote at least five zarzuelas, of which all but two are now lost.

Middle period – Spanish influences[link]

During the late 1880s, the strong influence of Spanish style is evident in Albéniz's music. In 1883 Isaac Albéniz met the teacher and composer Felipe Pedrell. Pedrell was a leading figure in the development of nationalist Spanish music. Gilbert Chase, in his book The Music of Spain, describes Pedrell’s influence on Albéniz: “What Albéniz derived from Pedrell was above all a spiritual orientation, the realization of the wonderful values inherent in Spanish music"^{[page needed]}. Felipe Pedrell inspired Isaac Albéniz to write Spanish music such as the Suite española, Op. 47 noted for its delicate, intricate melody and abrupt dynamic changes.

In addition to the Spanish spirit infused in Albéniz’s music, he incorporated other qualities as well. In Pola Baytleman’s biography on Albéniz, she discerns four characteristics of the music from the middle period as follows:

“1. The dance rhythms of Spain, of which there are a wide variety. 2. The use of cante jondo, which means deep or profound singing. It is the most serious and moving variety of flamenco or Spanish gypsy song, often dealing with themes of death, anguish, or religion. 3. The use of exotic scales also associated with flamenco music. The Phrygian mode is the most prominent in Albéniz’s music, although he also used the Aeolian and Mixolydian modes as well as the whole-tone scale. 4. The transfer of guitar idioms into piano writing".^{[page needed]}

Following his marriage Albéniz settled in Madrid and produced a quantity of music in a relatively short period.By 1886 he had written over 50 piano pieces.^[7] The Albéniz biographer, Walter A. Clark, says that pieces of this period received enthusiastic reception in the composer's many concerts. Chase describes music from this period,

“Taking the guitar as his instrumental model, and drawing his inspiration largely from the peculiar traits of Andalusian folk music – but without using actual folk themes – Albéniz achieves a stylization of Spanish traditional idioms that while thoroughly artistic, gives a captivating impression of spontaneous improvisation... Cordoba is the piece that best represents the style of Albéniz in this period, with its hauntingly beautiful melody, set against the acrid dissonances of the plucked accompaniment imitating the notes of the Moorish guslas. Here is the heady scent of jasmines amid the swaying palm tress, the dream fantasy of an Andalusian “Arabian Nights” in which Albéniz loved to let his imagination dwell.^{[page needed]}”

Later period[link]

While Albéniz's crowning achievement, Iberia, was written in the last years of his life in France, many of its preceding works are well-known and of great interest. The five pieces in Chants d'Espagne, (Songs of Spain, published in 1892) are a solid example of the compositional ideas he was exploring in the “middle period” of his life. The suite shows what Albéniz biographer Walter Aaron Clark describes as the “first flowering of his unique creative genius”^{[page needed]}, and the beginnings of compositional exploration that became the hallmark of his later works. This period also includes his operatic works – Merlin, Henry Clifford, and Pepita Jiménez. His orchestral works of this period include Spanish Rhapsody (1887) and Catalonia (1899).

Albéniz on his own music[link]

Perhaps the best source on the works is Albéniz himself. He is quoted as commenting on his earlier period works as,

“there are among them a few things that are not completely worthless. The music is a bit infantile, plain, spirited; but in the end, the people, our Spanish people, are something of all that. I believe that the people are right when they continue to be moved by Cordoba, Mallorca, by the copla of the Sevillanas, by the Serenata, and Granada. In all of them I now note that there is less musical science, less of the grand idea, but more color, sunlight, flavor of olives. That music of youth, with its little sins and absurdities that almost point out the sentimental affectation…appears to me like the carvings in the Alhambra, those peculiar arabesques that say nothing with their turns and shapes, but which are like the air, like the sun, like the blackbirds or like the nightingales of its gardens. They are more valuable than all else of Moorish Spain, which though we may not like it, is the true Spain.”^{[citation needed]}

Impact[link]

Albéniz’s influence on the future of Spanish music was profound. His activities as conductor, performer and composer significantly raised the profile of Spanish music abroad and encouraged Spanish music and musicians in his own country.^[1]

In transcription, Albéniz's works have become an important part of the repertoire of the classical guitar. Asturias (Leyenda) in particular is heard most often on the guitar, as are Granada, Sevilla, Cadiz, Cataluña, Cordoba and the Tango in D. Gordon Crosskey and Cuban-born guitarist Manuel Barrueco have both made solo guitar arrangements of the full eight-movement Suite espanola. Selections from Iberia have rarely been attempted on solo guitar but have been very effectively performed by guitar ensembles, such as the performance by John Williams and Julian Bream of Iberia's opening "Evocation." The Doors incorporated "Asturias" into their song "Spanish Caravan"; also, Iron Maiden's To Tame a Land uses the introduction of the piece for the song bridge; and more recently, a guitar version of Granada functions as something of a love theme in Woody Allen's 2008 film Vicky Cristina Barcelona

In 1997 the Fundación Isaac Albéniz was founded in his name to promote Spanish music and musicians and to act as a research centre for Albéniz and Spanish music in general.^[1]

In film[link]

A film, Albéniz, based on his life, was made in 1947. It was produced in Argentina.

List of selected works[link]

Opera

• The magic opal
• Henry Clifford
• Pepita Jiménez
• Merlin
• Lancelot (unfinished: 1st act complete)

Zarzuela

• Cuanto más viejo. Lost music.
• Catalanes de Gracia. Lost music.
• El canto de salvación. Lost music.
• San Antonio de la Florida.
• La real hembra.

Works for piano

• Tres suites antiguas (Three ancient suites) (1885–1886).
• Chants d'Espagne, Op.232
• Suite española, op. 47 (Spanish suite). With 8 pieces: Granada, Cataluña, Sevilla, Cádiz, Asturias, Aragón, Castilla and Cuba.
• Suite española, op. 97. 4 pieces: Zaragoza, Sevilla, Cadix-gaditana, and Zambra granadina (1883–1888) (1889).
• España, Op.165. 6 pieces: Preludio, Tango, Malagueña, Serenata, Capricho Catalán and Zortzico.
• Doce piezas características (Twelve characteristic pieces) (1888).
• Recuerdos de viaje (Travel memories), Op.71. 7 pieces: En el mar, Leyenda, Alborada, En la Alhambra, Puerta de Tierra, Rumores de la caleta, En la playa (1886–1887).
• Iberia. Suite for piano with 12 pieces in 4 books ("quaderns"):
  • 1º quadern: Evocación, El Puerto, El Corpus Christi en Sevilla.
  • 2º quadern: Rondeña, Almería, Triana.
  • 3º quadern: El Albaicín, El Polo, Lavapiés.
  • 4º quadern: Málaga, Jérez, Eritaña.
• La Vega.
• Navarra, finished by his pupil Déodat de Séverac.
• Azulejos, unfinished: finished by Enrique Granados
• Rapsodia española (Spanish rhapsody) (1887)

Other works

• Cristo, oratorio.
• 2 concertos for piano and orchestra: Concerto Fantastico, 1st, 1885–1887; 2nd concerto (1892), unfinished.
• Rapsodia española (Spanish rhapsody), for piano and orchestra (1887).
• Catalonia, symphonic poem (1899).

Symphonic versions of Iberia have been arranged by Enrique Fernández Arbós, Carlos Surinach, and Peter Breiner. There is a piano and orchestra version of Rapsodia española by Cristóbal Halffter.

Media[link]

	Suite española Op. 47 – 1. Granada (Serenata) Performed on a piano by Guillermo Gonzalez Courtesy of NAXOS Suite Española, Op. 47 – 5. Asturias (Leyenda) Performed on a guitar by Gordon Rowland.
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

Bibliography[link]

• Isaac Albéniz, Chants d”Espagne, G. Henle Verlag, Berlin, 2004.
• Pola Baytelman, Isaac Albéniz: Chronological List and Thematic Catalog of His Piano Works, Harmonie Park Press, Michigan 1993.
• Frances Barulich. Albéniz, Isaac. In Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, http://0-www.oxfordmusiconline.com.catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/subscriber/article/grove/music/00421 (accessed 7 March 2010).
• Gilbert Chase, The Music of Spain, Dover Publications Inc. New York, 1959.
• Walter Aaron Clark, Isaac Albéniz: A Guide to Research, Garland Publishing Inc. New York & London, 1998.
• Walter Aaron Clark, Isaac Albéniz: Portrait of a Romantic, Oxford University Press, New York 1999.
• Daniel Ericourt and Robert. P. Erickson, MasterClasses in Spanish Piano Music, Hinshaw Music, Chapel Hill North Carolina, 1984.
• G. Jean-Aubry, “Isaac Albéniz 1860–1909,” The Musical Times, Vol 58 No. 898, Musical Times Publications Ltd., December 1917 pgs 535–538.
• Torres, Jacinto: "Las claves Madrileñas de Isaac Albéniz", Imprenta Artesanal de Madrid, 2009
• Torres, Jacinto: "Integral para voz y piano", TRITÓ Edicions, 1998

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Mallorca interactive hypermedia (Shockwave Player required) at the BinAural Collaborative Hypertext
• The Life and Music of Isaac Albéniz
• Biography and List of Works by Albéniz
• Isaac Albéniz i Pascual
• Albéniz Foundation
• Albéniz Asturias arranged for Accordion

Articles[link]

• En torno a Isaac Albéniz y su "Iberia" by Antonio Iglesias, Antonio Fernández-Cid (ref)

Sheet music[link]

• Facsimiles (La Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes)
• Free scores by Isaac Albéniz at the International Music Score Library Project
• Free scores by Isaac Albéniz at the Werner Icking Music Archive
• Tango, arranged by Mischa Elman for violin and piano (from the Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection)

Photos of Albéniz[link]

• Photos (Gallica)

Recordings by Isaac Albéniz[link]

• Improvisación nº 1, Improvisación nº 2, Improvisación nº 3 (ref – La Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes)
• L'escola pianística catalana (Enregistraments històrics) (la mà de guido , LMG3060)
• The Catalan Piano Tradition (VAI Audio, 1001) OCLC 36488795 and 4914327
• Rollos de Pianola (Obras de Albéniz, Granados, Turina, Ocón, Chapí, Alonso y Otros) (Almaviva, DS – 0141) ASIN B000GI34D6

Rosalía Mera
Born	Rosalía Mera Goyenechea 1944 Matadero-A Coruña, Spain
Residence	Liáns, Ourense, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Known for	Co-founder of Inditex
Net worth	$3.5 billion
Children	Sandra Ortega Mera, Marcos Ortega Mera

Rosalía Mera Goyenechea (born 1944) is one of the richest people in the world. She began designing gowns and lingerie in her home with her then-husband, Amancio Ortega Gaona. The couple parlayed their work into a multi-billion-dollar corporation, Inditex, and the Zara line of clothing stores. Despite her divorce from Ortega, Mera retains a 7% stake in the company.

Mera also owns interests in a company which make fingerprinting identification kits for infants and another company (Zeltia) which carries out research into cancer fighting compounds of both synthetic and natural origin and particularly those bioactive compounds originating in the ocean.

She is also the president of the Paideia Foundation, a charitable organization. The foundation has become involved in Spanish media, most notably as a producer of the Internet-themed game show Terceira rede (Third Network). Her venture capital firm Rosp Corunna is also a share holder in Continental Prods, a Galician media company. She also has a share of Milou Films and of Tornasol Films.

External links[link]

• Inditex official web page
• (Spanish) Short bio

This Spanish biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Gloria Estefan
Background information
Birth name	Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García
Born	(1957-09-01) September 1, 1957 (age 54) Havana, Cuba
Origin	Miami, Florida, United States
Genres	Latin pop, dance-pop, pop, dance, EDM
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, actress, hotelier, restauranteur, writer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, percussion
Years active	1977–present
Labels	Epic (1977–2006) Burgundy (2007–2010) Crescent Moon / Verve Forecast (2011–present)
Associated acts	Emilio Estefan Miami Sound Machine Jon Secada Celia Cruz Lili Estefan
Website	gloriaestefan.com

Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan, known professionally as Gloria Estefan (born September 1, 1957) is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Known as the "Queen Of Latin Pop",^[1][2][3] she is in the top 100 best selling music artists with over 100 million albums sold worldwide,^[4][5] 31.5 million of those in the United States alone.^[6] She has won three Grammy Awards, and 4 Latin Grammys, and is the most successful crossover performer in Latin music to date.

Early life[link]

Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo was born September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba, to Jose and Gloria Fajardo. Her maternal grandfather, Leonardo Garcia, immigrated to Cuba from Pola de Siero, Asturias, Spain, where he married Gloria's maternal grandmother, originally from Logroño, Spain.^[7][8] Prior to the Cuban Revolution, her father was a Cuban soldier and a bodyguard to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The Fajardo family fled to Miami, Florida as a result of the Cuban Revolution and settled down there. Shortly after they moved to the United States, Gloria's father joined the US military and fought in the Vietnam War and moved to Houston, Texas, also having participated in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Gloria attended St. Michael-Archangel School^[9] and Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami. Her father became ill after returning from Vietnam and Gloria helped her mother, Gloria Fajardo, care for him. Her mother worked as a school teacher for the Dade County Public School system. Gloria Estefan graduated from college in 1979 with a B.A. in psychology, with a minor in French, from the University of Miami.^[10][11] When she was studying at the university, she worked as an English/Spanish/French translator at Miami International Airport Customs Department and, because of her language abilities, was once approached by the CIA as a possible employee.^[12][13] Estefan was raised Catholic.^[14]

Marriage[link]

Gloria Estefan receiving flowers for her birthday at her show in the Ahoy Rotterdam, September 1, 2008

Gloria became romantically involved with the Miami Sound Machine's band leader, Emilio Estefan, in 1976. As she later revealed, "he was my first and only boyfriend." She and Emilio married on September 1, 1978.^[15][16] They have a son, Nayib (born September 2, 1980) and a daughter, Emily Marie (born December 5, 1994). The family lives in the Star Island section of Miami Beach, Florida.^[16][17][18]

Career in singing[link]

Mid-1970s through the 1980s[link]

Starting in 1977, the Miami Sound Machine, (the Miami Latin Boys with Gloria Estefan), began recording and releasing various albums, 45s, and 12"s on the Audiofon Records label in Miami. The first album from 1977 was entitled Live Again Renacer and was released with two different covers. After several more releases on the Audiofon label as well as the RCA Victor label and Miami Sound Machine's own label MSM Records, the band was signed to Discos CBS International and released several albums, 45s, and 12"s beginning with 1980s self-titled album Miami Sound Machine. Growing in popularity in both the United States and around the world, the group would continue recording and issuing various works for Discos CBS International through 1985. In 1984, Miami Sound Machine released their first Epic/Columbia album, Eyes of Innocence, which contained the dance hit "Dr. Beat" as well as the ballad "I Need Your Love". Their more successful follow-up album Primitive Love was released in 1985 launching three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Conga" (U.S. #10), "Words Get In The Way" (U.S. #5), and "Bad Boy" (U.S. #8) became follow up hits in the U.S. and around the world. "Words Get in the Way" reached #1 on the US Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, establishing that the group could perform pop ballads as successfully as dance tunes. The song "Hot Summer Nights" was also released that year and was part of the film Top Gun.

Their next album, 1987's Let It Loose, went multi-platinum, with six million copies sold in the US. It featured the following hits: "Anything for You" (#1 Hot 100), "1-2-3" (#3 Hot 100), "Betcha Say That" (#36 Hot 100), "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" (#5 Hot 100), and "Can't Stay Away From You" (#6 Hot 100). "Can't Stay Away From You", "Anything for You" and "1-2-3" were all #1 Adult Contemporary hits as well.

In 1988, Estefan took top billing and the band's name changed to Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. Beginning in 1989, the group's name was dropped altogether. Estefan was credited as a solo artist, though the ever-changing line-up of Miami Sound Machine continues as her backing band to this day.^{[citation needed]}

In 1988, after the worldwide chart success of single "Anything for You", her Let it Loose album was repackaged as Anything for You. It became the band's first UK #1 album, selling over a million copies.^{[citation needed]} It was the biggest selling album of the year in The Netherlands, staying at #1 for 22 weeks.^{[citation needed]} The album also took top honors in Australia and Canada, launching Estefan to superstar status.^{[citation needed]}

1990s[link]

[edit] 1990: Cuts Both Ways, tour bus accident and surgery

In late 1989, she released her best-selling album to date, Cuts Both Ways. The album included the hit singles "Don't Wanna Lose You" (a Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit), "Oye mi Canto (Hear my Voice)", "Here We Are", "Cuts Both Ways" (#1 on the U.S. Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart) and "Get on Your Feet".

While touring in support of Cuts Both Ways on March 20, 1990, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, Estefan was critically injured, suffering a fractured spine when a speeding semi-truck crashed into the tour bus she was in during a snowstorm. She was taken to Community Medical Center's Intensive Care Unit and the next day was flown by helicopter to New York City, where surgeons at the Hospital for Joint Diseases ^[19] at NYU Langone Medical Center permanently implanted two titanium rods to stabilize her vertebral column. Her rehabilitation required almost a year of intensive physical therapy by Michael Klepper^{[citation needed]}, but she achieved a complete recovery. She returned to an international tour ten months after the accident.

[edit] 1991–1992: Into The Light and The Greatest Hits

Estefan returned to the charts with a concept album, Into the Light, in 1991. She performed "Coming Out of the Dark" for the first time on the American Music Awards in January 1991, receiving a standing ovation as she took the stage. "Coming Out of the Dark" reached #1 in the U.S. as a single a few months later. Other popular singles were "Seal Our Fate" and "Live for Loving You". The album peaked at number five on the Billboard album chart, becoming her highest debut; it also peaked at number two on the British albums chart. Eventually the album went platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. The Into the Light World Tour covered 100 cities in five countries and was seen by more than 10 million people worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

She followed up Into the Light with her first greatest-hits album, Gloria Estefan Greatest Hits. It was released in 1992, and included the U.S. hit ballads "Always Tomorrow" and "I See Your Smile" along with the international hit dance track "Go Away". Also in 1992, Estefan sang backup on fellow Cuban-American singer-songwriter Jon Secada's breakthrough single "Just Another Day". She spent much of 1992 in Miami, helping relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Andrew.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1993: Mi Tierra and Christmas Through Your Eyes

In 1993, Estefan released the album Mi Tierra, her first Spanish-language album. It peaked at number twenty-seven on the Billboard album chart and number eleven on the British album chart. The singles "Mi Tierra" and the romantic-tropical ballad "Con Los Años Que Me Quedan" and "Mi Buen Amor", climbed to number-one on the "Hot Latin Tracks" chart in the United States. The album sold over eight million copies worldwide, went multiplatinum in Spain (10×) and in the United States (16× Platinum - Latin field), platinum in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and gold in Switzerland and Australia, and won a Grammy Award for "Best Tropical Latin Album".^[20] That same year, Estefan released her first Christmas album, Christmas Through Your Eyes, the first album from Estefan to not be produced by her husband Emilio Estefan Jr. The collection included the singles "This Christmas" and "Silent Night".The album went Platinum in the United States.

Also in 1993, Estefan collaborated with Frank Sinatra on his album Duets with the song "Come Rain or Come Shine".

[edit] 1994–1995: Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me and Abriendo Puertas

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, a cover album of some of Estefan's favorite songs from the 1960s and 1970s, was released in 1994. "Turn the Beat Around", the first single and a remake of Vicki Sue Robinson's 1976 disco classic, became another international hit, certified gold in the US. It also was used in the Sharon Stone film The Specialist.

1995's Spanish-language album Abriendo Puertas earned Estefan her second Grammy Award for "Best Tropical Latin Album". It spun off two #1 dance hits, "Abriendo Puertas" and "Tres Deseos", and two #1 Latin singles, "Abriendo Puertas" and "Más Allá".

In January 1995, the Miami Sound Machine performed at the Super Bowl XXIX halftime show, with Tony Bennett, Patti LaBelle, and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, in a program entitled "Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye", to promote the upcoming Disney theme park attraction.^[21]

[edit] 1996–1997: Summer Olympics and Destiny

The platinum-selling album Destiny, released in 1996, featured "Reach", the official theme of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. Estefan performed in the Summer Olympics closing ceremony, in front of an audience of two billion people worldwide, during which she performed the songs "Reach" and "You'll Be Mine (Party Time)".^{[citation needed]}

On July 18, 1996, Estefan embarked on her Evolution World Tour (her first tour in five years), which covered the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Australia, South Africa and Asia.

[edit] 1998: Back to dance: gloria!

Estefan rode the wave of the Disco revival in the U.S. during the late 1990s.^{[citation needed]} On June 2, 1998, she released her eighth solo album, (twenty-first overall), gloria!. The album is highly influenced by Disco music,^{[citation needed]} blended with Salsa music percussion and Latin flavour. To promote gloria!, she performed at the famed New York City discoteque Studio 54.^{[citation needed]}

The album peaked at #23 on the Billboard 200. The album reached Gold certification. The single "Oye!" peaked at #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play and the Hot Latin Tracks charts, and was featured in the 1998 Eddie Murphy film Holy Man. The other major hit single releases were "Don't Let This Moment End", which peaked at #76 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Heaven's What I Feel", which peaked at #27 on the Billboard Hot 100.

1999: "Music of My Heart"[link]

In 1999, Estefan performed a duet with *NSYNC on the single "Music Of My Heart", which was featured in a film in which she also appeared, Music of the Heart. The song reached #2 on the Billboard chart and was nominated for an Academy Award.^[22] She also released a Latin hit with the Brazilian group So Pra Contrariar called "Santo Santo", sang with Luciano Pavarotti in Pavarotti and Friends for Guatemala and Kosovo, and released the benefit album A Rosie Christmas..

She also made a couple of sporting event appearances. The first event was a performance with Stevie Wonder at Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami. She also sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at game three of the 2003 World Series in Miami between the Florida Marlins and New York Yankees.^[23]

2000s[link]

The next album Alma Caribeña (Caribbean Soul) was released in 2000. It was her third Spanish language album with a focus on caribbean rhythms. The album featured several Latin Hits as "No me dejes de querer", "Como me duele perderte", "Por un beso". The album features duets with José Feliciano and the late Celia Cruz. The album earned Estefan another Grammy Music Award in the cathegorie Best Traditional Tropical Latin Album in 2001. Greatest Hits Vol. II was released in 2001. It contained hits from 1993 to 2000, as well as three new songs and a remix of her first hit "Conga", retitled "Y-Tu-Conga". The song "Out of Nowhere" was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category for Best Dance Recording; another song from the album, "You Can't Walk Away from Love", was featured in the film Original Sin.

[edit] 2003–2004: Unwrapped

In 2003, Estefan released Unwrapped, her first English-language CD in five years. To promote the CD, she toured Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States. The video for the single "Hoy", had been filmed in Machu Picchu, Peru.^{[citation needed]} "Hoy" and "Tu Fotografía" both reached #1 on Billboard's Latin chart, and "I Wish You" reached the AC^{[clarification needed]} top 20.

On July 28, 2004, at the Trump Tower building, in a press conference hosted by Donald Trump, Estefan announced that her then-upcoming tour would be her final one.^{[citation needed]} The Live & Re-Wrapped Tour, was produced by Clear Channel Entertainment. It began in Hidalgo, Texas on July 30, 2004, and played in 26 cities; it featured Estefan's greatest hits, along with new material from Unwrapped.^{[citation needed]} The final concert of the tour took place in Estefan's hometown of Miami on the weekend of October 9 and 10, in front of a sold-out crowd, despite having been delayed for two weeks by a hurricane.^{[citation needed]}

2005: Mash-up hit with Mylo and the tributes[link]

On April 7, 2005, Estefan participated in "Selena ¡VIVE!", the tribute concert for Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the "Queen of Tejano", who was murdered in March 1995 on the brink of her attempt to cross over as an English-language performer. Gloria performed "I Could Fall in Love", one of Selena's posthumously released crossover hits. Also that year, Estefan appeared on the soundtrack for the television series Desperate Housewives, singing a song titled "Young Hearts Run Free".

In late 2005, the club mash-up "Dr. Pressure" was released, which combined Mylo's Number 19 hit "Drop The Pressure" with the Miami Sound Machine's "Dr. Beat". It reached #3 on the UK singles chart and #1 on the Australian dance chart, providing Estefan with her first top 40 hit and commercial radio airplay since 1996.^{[citation needed]}

2006: Compilations and the UK promo tour[link]

Gloria Estefan performs at an event to celebrate the United Through Reading program aboard the Nimitz class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), September 14, 2006

In early 2006, Estefan performed in Los Angeles at a tribute to singer Dionne Warwick. Estefan sang "Walk On By", one of Warwick's signature songs.^{[citation needed]}

In October 2006, Sony released a 2-CD compilation The Essential Gloria Estefan, featuring her hits from 1984 to 2003, Estefan made several radio and television appearances to promote The Essential Gloria Estefan including a December 9, 2006 appearance on ITV's The X Factor.^{[citation needed]}

Estefan also released two additional similar compilation albums that year for other markets. The Very Best of Gloria Estefan was released in Europe and Mexico, and was similar to The Essential Gloria Estefan, but also included as a bonus track "Dr. Pressure". This compilation was certified GOLD in Ireland.^[24] Oye Mi Canto!: Los Grandes Exitos, a collection of her Spanish-language hits was released in Spain. It included a bonus DVD, which included various music videos and television performances.^{[citation needed]}

2008–2009 highlights[link]

In 2008, Gloria appeared during the seventh season of American Idol, in the special charity episode "Idol Gives Back", performing her song "Get on Your Feet" along with Sheila E.. The performance was recorded and was released at the American iTunes store; the video of the performance reached the number twenty of the store's Top 100 videos, and the song became the most downloaded.^{[citation needed]} Estefan became the headliner of the new venue of the MGM Grand at Foxwoods Resort Casino. Her three-day shows were sold out.^{[citation needed]} She then headed to Canada to perform at the Casino Rama. In August, she started her "90 Millas World Tour". Gloria played concerts in London, Rotterdam, Belfast and Aruba. Gloria performed several concerts in Spain, specifically Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and Tenerife. Two of these concerts, in Las Ventas, Spain,^[25] and Rotterdam, The Netherlands, were free to the public.

Back in the states, Gloria performed a special concert at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to raise funds for the Education of South Florida.^[26] Gloria was a headliner for Bette Midler's "Annual Hulaween Gala" along with other special guests such as Kathy Griffin and a costume contest judged by Michael Kors. The event benefited the New York Restoration Project.^[27]

During the Thanksgiving season, Gloria Estefan appeared on Rosie O' Donnell's television special Rosie Live! singing a duet with O'Donnell titled "Gonna Eat For Thanksgiving", an alternate version of "Gonna Eat For Christmas" from on O'Donnell's album A Rosie Christmas.

In 2009, Estefan announced plans for her "farewell tour" of Latin America and South America.^[28] Estefan also completed a three-night concert series with Carole King entitled "She's Got a Friend" at the Foxwoods Resort Casino.^{[citation needed]}

The tour continued with a concert at Guadalajara in Mexico, as part of a program designed to improve tourism in Mexico,^{[29][clarification needed]} and a series of appearances at music festivals throughout Europe, including headlining at the Summer Pops Music Festival in Liverpool on July 27, 2009.^[30]

The same year, Gloria opened the "In Performance at the White House: Fiesta Latina 2009" with "No Llores". Also, at the end, Estefan together with Jennifer Lopez, Thalía, Marc Anthony, José Feliciano, performed a rendition of her Spanish-language classic, "Mi Tierra".^[31]

2010[link]

Gloria began 2010 with a charity single: she and her husband, producer Emilio Estefan, Jr., invited artists to record "Somos El Mundo", a Spanish-language version of Michael Jackson's song "We Are The World". The song, written by Estefan and approved by Quincy Jones, was recorded, and premiered during El Show de Cristina on March 1, 2010.^[32] All of the money from sales of the song went to Haitian relief.^[33][34]

On March 24, 2010, Gloria led a march down Miami's Calle Ocho in support of Cuba's Las Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White).^{[35][dead link]} Las Damas de Blanco is an opposition movement in Cuba that consists of wives and other female relatives of jailed dissidents. Since 2003, the women have protested the imprisonments by attending Mass each Sunday wearing white dresses and then silently walking through the streets in white clothing.

Late in the year, Gloria took part in Broadway's "24 Hour Plays" in which actors, writers, and directors collaborate to produce and perform six one-act plays within 24 hours to benefit the Urban Arts Partnership. She performed alongside actors Elijah Wood, Diane Neal, and Alicia Witt in the play I Think You'll Love This One, written by the 20-year-old winner of the Montblanc writers' project, Elizabeth Cruz Cortes.^[36]

[edit] 2011 Miss Little Havana

On April 7, 2011, Estefan made an unannounced appearance at auditions for The X Factor in Miami, and gave encouragement to the 7,500 participants gathered outside the Bank United Center for auditions.^[37]

In 2011, Estefan was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame along with Grammy and Emmy award winner Harry Connick Jr. Both singers performed at a special concert on June 17, 2011, with Thomas Wilkins as musical conductor. Proceeds from this event went to benefit the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute's education programs.^[38]

Estefan's new dance-oriented studio album, Miss Little Havana, was released in the United States on September 27, 2011, with the physical CD available exclusively at Target.^[39][40] Early on, Estefan had described the album as a project in the vein of her 1998 hit album gloria! Collaborating with her on the album were producers Pharrell Williams, Motiff, Emilio Estefan, and Drop Dead Beats.^[41]

One song from the album, "Wepa", premiered on May 31, 2011 at AmericanAirlines Arena in a special music video of the song for the Miami Heat. The Heat video was released on YouTube on June 1.^[42][43] The song went on sale for digital downloading at the iTunes music store on July 24.^[44]

Both "Wepa" and "Hotel Nacional" achieved number one on Billboard Latin Songs.

In the fall of 2011, Estefan began hosting Gloria Estefan's Latin Beat, a seven-part series for BBC Radio 2 in the United Kingdom that explores the history of Latin music.^[45]

Career outside of singing[link]

Film and television appearances[link]

Estefan has appeared in two films, Music of the Heart (1999) and For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000). Estefan made a cameo appearance with her husband in Marley & Me in 2008.

Estefan was cast to star as Connie Francis, a U.S. pop singer of the 1950s and early 1960s, in Who's Sorry Now?, based on Francis' life. Filming supposedly began in late 2008, according to Parade Magazine (March 23, 2008). Estefan, in an interview with www.allheadlinenews.com, stated the film would be released in 2009. As of December 2009, the film has been dropped as Connie Francis had irreconcilable differences with Estefan over the film's writer. Francis wanted to hire writer Robert L. Freedman, who had written the Emmy Award winning mini-series Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. Estefan refused to consider him, which according to Francis ended the project collaboration.^[46]

Estefan appeared in the ABC television special Elmopalooza, which aired February 20, 1998, in which she sang the song "Mambo, I, I, I". In April 2004, Estefan appeared on the Fox Broadcasting Company's program, American Idol as a guest mentor for the contestants' Latin week.^[47]

She recently confirmed that she would guest star on the Fox television series Glee, as the mother of cheerleader Santana Lopez.^[48]

Books[link]

Estefan has written two children's books: The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog (2005) and Noelle's Treasure Tale (2006). The latter book spent a week at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller list for children's books.^[49]

She also collaborated on a cookbook with her husband entitled Estefan Kitchen, which was published in 2008. It contains 60 traditional Cuban recipes.^[50]

Other business ventures[link]

The Cardozo hotel on Ocean Drive, in Miami Beach, Florida.

Gloria and Emilio Estefan own a number of business establishments, including seven Cuban-themed restaurants (Bongos Cuban Café). The restaurants are located in Miami; Miami Beach, Downtown Miami, part of the American Airlines Arena; Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida; Walt Disney World's Downtown Disney in Orlando; Mexico City; and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. They also own two hotels: the Costa d'Este in Vero Beach which opened in 2008,^[51] and The Cardozo in Miami Beach.

Gloria Estefan was appointed to the board of directors for Univision Communications Inc. in 2007, according to Hispanic Market Weekly. The Estefans' estimated net worth as of 2011 was approximately $700 million, according to an article in People en Español magazine.

In June 2009, Gloria Estefan and her husband bought a "very small" ownership stake in the Miami Dolphins.^[52][53][54]

Awards[link]

In addition to her seven Grammys, Estefan has received a number of other awards. In May 1993, she received the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, which is the highest award that can be given to a naturalized U.S. citizen.^[55] She has won the Hispanic Heritage Award, an MTV Video Music Award, two cable television ACE Awards and the 1993 National Music Foundation's Humanitarian of the Year award. The singer is the recipient of the American Music Award for Lifetime Achievement. She also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her husband, Emilio, a world-renowned music impresario, received a star adjacent to his wife's on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005.^[56]

Estefan holds an honorary doctoral degree in music from the University of Miami, awarded in 1993.^[57] She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami.^[58] In 2002, Barry University in Miami bestowed upon her an honorary law degree.^[59] Along with her husband, Estefan received an honorary doctoral degree in music from the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2007.^[60] She also delivered the commencement address to the 2007 graduating class.^[60]

In 2002, she received the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Medallion of Excellence for Community Service. The singer was Musicares Person of the Year in 1994. Gloria also founded the Gloria Estefan Foundation whose goal is to help those with spinal cord injuries.

She has been honored twice by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1992, she served as a public member of the United States Delegation to the 47th General Assembly to the United Nations.^[61]

Estefan received the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year award at the Latin Grammy Awards in November 2008 in recognition of her twenty-five year singing career. She is the first female singer to receive this award.^[62] She also received a Latin Grammy for "Best Traditional Tropical Album" for 90 Millas, and a Latin Grammy for "Best Tropical Song" for her single, "Píntame De Colores". This marked the first occasion for Estefan to ever win a Grammy award for a song (either Latin or non-Latin).^[63] On March 12, 2009, Estefan was honored as a BMI Icon at the 16th annual BMI Latin Awards. Her catalog boasts 22 BMI Latin and Pop Awards, along with 11 BMI Million-Air Awards.^[64]

In April 2010, Estefan and her husband received a star in the "Walk Of Stars" in Las Vegas for their contribution to music industry.^[65] On April 28, 2011, at the Latin Billboard Awards, Estefan was honored with the Billboard Spirit of Hope Award for her philanthropic work.^[66]

Discography[link]

Albums discography[link]

Studio albums

Singles discography[link]

Filmography[link]

Videography[link]

• Video Exitos (1986) L.D.L Enterprises
• Homecoming Concert (1989) CMV
• Evolution (1990) CMV
• Coming Out Of The Dark (1991) SMV
• Into The Light World Tour (1992) SMV
• Everlasting Gloria! (1995) EMV
• The Evolution Tour Live In Miami (1996) EMV
• Don't Stop (1998) EMV
• Que siga la tradición (2001) EMV
• Live In Atlantis (2002) EMV
• Famous (2003) (Video journal about making-of Unwrapped LP; included in CD package)
• Live & Unwrapped (2004) EMV

Books[link]

• The Magically Mysterious Adventures of Noelle the Bulldog (2005) ISBN 0-06-082623-1.
• Noelle's Treasure Tale: A New Magically Mysterious Adventure (2006)
• Estefan's Kitchen (2008)

Tours[link]

See also[link]

	Book: Gloria Estefan
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• Best selling music artists
• List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (U.S.)
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart
• Pop Latino

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gloria Estefan

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gloria Estefan

• Gloria Estefan Official Web Site
• Gloria Estefan at MySpace
• Gloria Estefan Mexico Official Site
• Gloria Estefan 90 MILLAS Spanish Forum
• Gloria Estefan receives her honorary Doctorate of Music along side her husband Emilio from Berklee
• Gloria Estefan at bmi.com