For me, there's still a lot of room to grow; I'm just happy that I have so much more to give.

I was a teacher for a long time. I taught at a community college: voice, theory, humanities. And nowadays, music education is a dying thing. Funding is being cut more and more and more.

And my career, the things that have happened have happened because of my music education background.

I might be a Cuban American, but I'm also an Afro-Cuban American.

So, when I got the contract for my album, even though it was an English record, my manager insisted on making sure we would record in Spanish as well, and it worked out really well for me.

I grew up speaking both languages, and for me that's really important.

Having a college degree gave me the opportunity to be... well-rounded. Also, the people I met at the university, most of them are still my colleagues now. People I've known for years are all in the industry together.