Girl Trouble : The True Saga of Superstar Gloria Trevi and the Secret Teenage Sex Cult That Stunned the World

How did a chart-topping superstar, whose beauty and artistry were sensational enough to make her both a pinup girl and a feminist icon, end up behind bars in a Brazilian prison, accused of helping to mastermind the kidnap, rape, and brainwashing of nearly a dozen teenage girls? In a foreshadowing of today's American Idol instant-celebrity machine, international superstar Gloria Trevi and her producer-boyfriend Sergio Andrade started a first-of-its-kind talent school for young girls in search of their own chance at the big time. Recruited from the most fervent fans at Gloria's sold-out concerts, teenagers from across Latin America began showing up at her house in Mexico City. Their numbers grew along with Gloria's fame, as hit record followed hit record and Gloria became one of Latin America's top TV and movie attractions. But after a fewyears, bizarre rumors slowly began to spread that the school was actually a front for a sex-slave operation, which tortured and brainwashed the very girls who, more than anything, wanted to be just like their idol, Gloria Trevi. But how could this happen -- and with the world watching? Was Gloria Trevi involved, or was she simply at the mercy of her brilliant manager? In the first-ever level-headed look at this scandalous story, award-winning journalist Christopher McDougall recounts how Gloria Trevi went from obscurity to world fame to eluding authorities for two years, before her final discovery and capture in Brazil. In what is considered the oddest twist to an already convoluted tale, Trevi found herself mysteriously pregnant in prison, prompting allegations by Brazilian authorities of an impregnation scheme involving Trevi and a notorious Brazilian gangster. Only later would the shocking truth of the baby's paternity emerge. Gloria has since been extradited to her native Mexico, where she is currently awaiting what is sure to be that country's "trial of the century." Through exclusive behind-bars interviews with both Trevi and Andrade, as well as with the girls who have slowly come forward with their accusations, McDougall reveals the stranger-than-fiction twists in this remarkable tale and offers readers an insider's look at Sergio Andrade's peculiar personal history and how a super-star's celebrity power can control a young girl's mind.

Christopher McDougall writes regularly for Esquire, Men's Health, and Bicycling magazines, and first covered the Gloria Trevi saga for the New York Times Magazine in 2002. He won the Clarion Award in 2002 and became fluent in Spanish and Portuguese as an overseas correspondent for the Associated Press, spending months in Africa reporting on the massacres in Rwanda and frontline fighting in Angola. His articles have also been featured in GQ, Men's Journal, and Inc. magazines

Girl Trouble
The True Saga of Superstar Gloria Trevi and the Secret Teenage Sex Cult That Stunned the World

Chapter One

Gloria, Live

On a Sunday night in December 1989, eighteen-year-old GloriaTrevi was staring at a backstage curtain and contemplating the endof her show business career. In a few minutes, she'd be stepping onto thestage of the wildly popular Mexican variety show Siempre en Domingo to sing a song she'd written about a girl much like herself: young, beautiful, creative -- and absolutely desperate.

"Two minutes now ... "

Gloria stood quietly as a makeup team bustled around her in a finalfrenzy of preparation, dabbing her already glossy lips, smoothing astrand of her always rebellious hair, lacquering her into the perfect porcelainimage of a singing Lladró. This wasn't her lucky break, she knew.

"One minute ..."

She'd already gotten her lucky break in 1985, when she was barely fifteenand charmed her way into the fifth and final spot on a new girl group,Boquitas Pintadas ("Little Painted Mouths"). Now that was lucky. Gloriahad never played an instrument in her life at that point, or sung a note inpublic, and yet somehow she lucked into a chance that far more experi-enced singers would have killed for. The Boquitas were the latest creationof Sergio Andrade, the hot young record producer who'd been nicknamed"Mr. Midas" for his remarkable ability to match unknown artistswith star-making material. He'd had tremendous success with the lovelyyoung chanteuse Lucerito (now known as Lucero), the beautiful blindsinger Crystal, and the rock band Grupo OkiDiki.

With Boquitas Pintadas, Sergio was trying his hand at rock-and-rollgirl groups, a genre that was catching fire in the United States and seemedcustom-made for his talents. After all, Bananarama was earning goldrecords for basically looking good standing next to each other, while TheGo-Gos and The Bangles were selling out arenas because they couldpluck a few rudimentary chords. That's why Sergio, a classically trainedpianist, knew he could do better. Instead of just jiggling guitar twangers,he'd turn his girls into serious musicians. He handpicked five Boquitasand sequestered them for a year, teaching them keyboards and harmonicsand creating their neat, office-girl look. He worked them hard -- maybetoo hard: The girls bickered, and Boquitas Pintadas folded in less than ayear.

"Thirty seconds, Miss Trevi."

That's how, at age sixteen Gloria ended up out of work and out on thestreet. She'd come to Mexico City three years before on a TV talentscholarship, but her talent hadn't landed her more than a few soap operawalk-ons. Just as her money and confidence were running out, she got herlucky break with the Boquitas. That one year as a Boquita gave her aglimpse at what a pop singer's life could be, and now she was desperate forone last shot -- but on her own this time, without having to rely on suchundependables as squabbling bandmates and a phony prefab image. Shedreaded the alternative: a grim, fourteen-hour bus trip back home toMonterrey, the smog-hazed factory town hard on the Texan border. Soafter the Boquitas folded, Gloria begged her mother for money to live onwhile she wrote songs and courted record companies, but her motherrefused—no way she was letting her daughter live alone in the lethallabyrinth of Mexico City without at least a recording company or TVtraining program to look out for her.

"OK, Miss Trevi, on my count. Five... "

Gloria defied her family and basically disappeared. Very few peopleknow where sixteen-year-old Gloria went after she vanished or what shedid to survive. Afterward, those lost years would become the basis of herlegend. Teenage girls across the world would hear Gloria tell stories ofhow she was evicted from her boardinghouse and lived on the streets,singing for coins at bus stops and begging on the streets.

"Four... "

Gloria would turn the story of her lost years into a teenybop adventure,spinning epic tales of begging dowagers for coins and scrubbing toiletsfor rent. She was thrilled, she'd say, when she got the chance to stripoff her rubber scrub gloves and teach aerobics for slave wages. Aftertwelve straight hours of classes a day, Gloria would recount, she barelyhad enough to pay for a few street vendor tacos and cover her weeklyboardinghouse bill. Whatever she was actually doing during her post-Boquita years, it had the ironic side effect of making her more glamorousthan she'd ever been as an aspiring pop star. If she truly had been eatingas miserably and exercising as endlessly as she'd say, it made Gloria'sbody simultaneously trimmer and bustier. She couldn't afford to have herhair cut, so she let it go long and loose. She couldn't buy clothes, so shepaid more attention to the few she had, assembling them in a far more daringand artful style, mimicking the breakthrough popularity of Madonnaand Cyndi Lauper to create her own Latin-style, trash-chic look.

She was also writing furiously in her notebooks, making use of thebreaks between aerobics sessions to jot down the rhymes and melodiesshe'd come up with during class. In a way, the job was perfect for anaspiring pop star -- Gloria was being paid to rehearse dance moves and lether mind run free, all to a steady techno backbeat. She'd been writingverses since she was five years old, and had learned to read and arrangemusic during her year with the Boquitas. Her tough new life, meanwhile,was giving her plenty of hard-knocks and girl-alone material to draw onfor lyrics.

"Three ... "

One year after the Boquitas' final concert, as Gloria would tell thestory, she was back in Sergio Andrade's office, this time carrying ascrawled collection of nearly thirty songs ...

Girl Trouble
The True Saga of Superstar Gloria Trevi and the Secret Teenage Sex Cult That Stunned the World. Copyright © by Christopher McDougall. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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