For the first time since she picked up a microphone at the age of ten, Destra Garcia will not be actively involved in Carnival activities. The heavily pregnant singer has decided to stay out of the festivities of next Carnival as she prepares to give birth to her first child, due in January–the height of the season.
It's going to be torture, she acknowledged, but her main focus these days is her unborn child.
"At this point I am not ready to make the child yet but I can't fathom performing the way I am accustomed. If I can't do it 100 per cent I can't do it at all, I will get frustrated," she said. Though she won't be on stage, at least before her baby is born, Garcia has already released her offerings for 2010, a pan song and her party tune called Fireworks. Asked if that is her Road March contender, Garcia replied: "We don't make Road March contenders, we make bad tunes." After missing out on the Road March title twice with Is Carnival and Bacchanal, Garcia said it's always a disappointment and she prefers not to focus on that again. Ensuring she has songs out there is important for her career however, especially since she won't be in the fetes to promote them.
Her band members, she said, are free to do what they want but after Carnival, the band will resume performing as usual. In the meantime, the singer will spend her Christmas preparing for the arrival of the baby, whose sex she is not going to reveal. She is renovating her home to make room for the baby and any other future baby. Oh yes, Garcia has plans for another child. "In about two to three years I will go again. I grew up with a lot of siblings so I don't want one child, I know what its like to have siblings. I am definitely going back," said Garcia, the eldest of four children. If nothing else, pregnancy has made her a very happy person. She laughs often, sometimes for no obvious reason.
"I can't stop smiling, I am almost giddy," she said, thankful that she hasn't experienced the nausea and morning sickness that her mother experienced with all of her pregnancies. "When I found out I was pregnant, I was waiting but nothing happened," she said, rattling off the things she hasn't enjoyed such as the swollen hands and feet, her spreading nose and the baby's vigorous movements. "I feel like I have a snake in my stomach. I'll be having a conversation and the baby will just pop out on one side. I sing Bacchanal and I making a bacchanal in my belly." Garcia said she has always wanted children and as a young girl, envisioned herself with three–two boys and a girl. She fully intends to continue performing while she nutures her young family, stating that children will not determine when she steps out of the spotlight.
"The day will come when I won't be active in the fetes but it won't be because of the children. I don't let other people influence changes in my life," said Garcia, staying true to her headstrong Scorpio nature (she celebrated her birthday on Tuesday). She won't let other people's opinion of her decision to have a child outside of wedlock force her into marriage either. "Not while I am pregnant, I want to look fierce," she said, laughing. "I always wanted to have children and get married and as I got older and more career oriented, marriage took a back seat."
Stating that a child should not be the reason for marriage, Garcia said she and her boyfriend Brian Morris, who is also her manager, have been so focused on developing her career that they are now getting used to the idea of family life and the concept of marriage.
"Role models model what to aspire to. They consider me a role model because I worked hard and I acquired a lot in my career not because I had a child out of wedlock. That doesn't change what I have achieved nor is it a stumbling block to what I will achieve," she said.
