DESTRA GARCIA is not close to throwing in the towel.Now the mother of a baby girl, Destra accepts that the time will come when she will have to get off the soca stage, but she insists that is a long way off.“Everybody needs to know when their time has passed. There are young people coming up with a lot of talent, and you can’t keep competing with the younger people. It’s like football, when the younger, faster runners come out the older ones have to go. “Look at people like Maradona and Pele; they’ll always be legends, and they’ll always be great . . . but a time comes when you can’t run as fast, when you can’t make the kind of music that the younger people want to listen to, but you’re appreciated for the work that you’ve done and you need to step out and bow out gracefully. But that time hasn’t come for me; it’s not even close,” she quipped with a laugh.“But I’ll know when it happens, and God will change me. I think I’m a very versatile singer and I started in gospel and R&B and I think I would want to explore those things a little bit later on, when you know the hips and the butt start to sag and you know,” she said, adding that she intended to work hard until she got it all. The Trini songbird said she was training hard to regain her figure after giving birth to her now six-month-old daughter Xaiya, which means you are loved, or loved one.“Running behind the baby is enough; that’s the first part. I’m doing a lot of gym, a lot of walking, a lot of running, trying to change my diet. Like right now I’m off carbs completely. I have a trainer that is sticking behind me. I try and go to the gym like least twice a day when I can, when I’m not touring. And when I’m on tour I try to maintain my diet,” she explained.Destra would have missed this year’s Carnival at home because of the pregnancy and birth, but she has been back on the tour circuit from April at the Jamaica Carnival.Since then she has touched places like St Lucia, Antigua,St John’s, Toronto and was in Barbados last weekend for Soca On De Hill, which attracted 10 000 patrons.She said leaving Xaiya was always difficult, but she has a built-in support system in her parents.“My parents have always been there, even with my career, my mum and my dad have always been there for me as a support mechanism. And while I was pregnant, I mean that was the main thing we kept talking about, you know, how am I going to pick up where I left off. “I have to work, this is what I do. I have to maintain my baby. Whether you have a father there or not, I think each woman supposed to have her independence and be able to take care of her child on her own,” Destra stated.She said her parents stayed with her for a month after the baby was born, and they bonded during that period. Now Xaiya sees them every week and they look after her when Destra is away.“I think my mum did a great job with me. She is very meticulous just like I am. She knows everything to do, and I’ve seen her [mum] with her. I have no problem; I just miss the baby, that’s all,” she stated, adding that it was always hard to say goodbye.On the issue of motherhood, family and being a professional, Destra is of the view that one could have it all.“I think all things being equal, whether we’re doctors, lawyers, entertainers, yes, we could have it all. It’s harder for us, because we have to do a lot more work if we want to be on the same level as men, because yeah we’re both parents, but you’re the one that has to carry the belly, you’re the one that has to be there when the baby is crying . . . and we need to keep working because we deserve it. We deserve to have it all,” she stressed. She said the band was making some changes to the routine and the set to keep things “jiggy” and modern. She also intends to play a more active role in Crop-Over in the future.“I love Crop-Over, and I would like to be here maybe do some of the leader parties like we do in Trinidad and probably release music again. Probably just follow what I did this year but just more intense,” she said.Destra has a song on the Soka Tite Choonz Vol. 5 titled De Proper. She has also recorded with Bubbles and the Red Boyz. The last will be released for Trinidad Carnival 2011.by Yvette BEST
