When Espinosa was three years old, she played popular Cuban melodies on the piano by ear for the first time in an ice cream parlor.
At the age of 14, Espinosa graduated from the Conservatorio Internacional de Música in Havana as a professor of piano and music theory.
She continued her music education with renowned professors and artists Joaquín Nin, Ernesto Berumen and Jascha Fishermann.
By 1959, at the end of Batista's pro-Western rule, the Academy – which included an elementary school and music and dance programs – had 450 students.
Three decades later, after leaving Fidel Castro's Cuba and arriving in Miami, Espinosa continued her life's work as a teacher of music.