Gloria Estefan and Rita Moreno Photo : Brent N. Clarke/FilmMagic ( Getty Images )

This is it—the official announcement from Netflix that Gloria Estefan, who performs the updated One Day At A Time theme song, is joining the cast for season three. And here’s a more musical version of this news, straight from the Grammy winner and lead singer of the Miami Sound Machine herself:




Estefan has landed a plum, if challenging role: She’s set to play Mirtha, “the baby sister and archnemesis” of Lydia (Rita Moreno), which means she’ll be doing her best to upstage her big sister. If you’ve seen how Moreno captures the spotlight in her role as the Cuban-American grandmother, you’ll know how daunting Estefan’s task is. But the Havana-born artist won’t have any trouble grasping the immigration and refugee storylines that have made One Day At A Time such a poignantly pertinent series. Estefan’s own family fled to Miami during the Cuban revolution.


One Day At A Time was renewed for a third season back in March; there’s currently no word on when the new episodes will drop, but in the interim, the ODAAT writers have been raising funds and awareness to #KeepFamiliesTogether.