![]() ![]() There, Cruz performed before 80,000 people during an event that brought the sounds of Afro-Caribbean music back to their roots in Africa. During the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” match in which Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman, there was a companion three-day music festival in Zaire. She would go on to perform with many other all-male bands such as the Willie Colón Orchestra and the Sonora Ponceña, with Pete “El Conde” Rodríguez.Ĭuban music has been influenced by African rhythms. The only woman in the Fania All Stars, she was one of the few women to succeed in the male-dominated world of salsa music. In 1974, Cruz joined the Fania label when she recorded “Celia y Johnny” with Johnny Pacheco. ![]() By 1971, it was an important genre with a record label, Fania, devoted solely to it. This new sound came to be called salsa -music born of Cuban and other Afro-Latin mixed musical traditions. Together, they recorded memorable numbers such as “Aquarius,” which brought Cruz closer to the new musical landscape that was developing in New York City during the 1960s and 70s. Her musical relationship with Tito Puente began in 1966 and lasted until 1973. Photo by Narcy Studios, Cuba, courtesy of Omer-Pardillo Cid.Ĭruz plunged into the New York music scene, filled with musicians from across the Caribbean and Latin America. About a year later, she married her longtime friend and trumpet player from La Sonora Matancera, Pedro Knight.Ĭelia Cruz with La Sonora Matancera. After more than a year in Mexico, she decided to move to the United States, arriving on Nov. In 1960, Cruz went on tour to Mexico with the orchestra. In 1950, she became the lead female singer of La Sonora Matancera, Cuba’s most popular orchestra. Her radio work introduced her to many producers and musicians, especially Roderico Neyra (Rodney) who hired her to be the singer for the dance group, Las Mulatas del Fuego with whom she traveled all over Latin America. Upon her death on July 16, 2003, she was celebrated around the world as the “Queen of Latin Music” and the “Queen of Salsa.”Ĭruz started out on the amateur show called “The Tea Hour” on Radio Garcia Serra. In a career that spanned six decades and took her from Cuba to the United States, Cruz became known around the world for her piercing and powerful voice and larger-than-life personality and stage costumes. Photo by Narcy Studios, Cuba, courtesy of Omer Pardillo-Cid.Ĭelia Cruz was born Ursula Hilaria Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso on October 21, 1925, in the diverse working-class neighborhood of Santos Suárez in Havana, Cuba. ![]() All Cubans know Celia Cruz’ version of this deeply melancholic song by Argentine Luis Aguilé-a song that says I can never die here for I left my heart buried in Cuba… it is waiting for me to return there.Ĭelia Cruz in Cuba, ca. If “Guántanamera” is the patriotic anthem, then the 1967 “Cuando salí de Cuba," is the anthem of exiled Cubans. (I have to admit, that when I was 5, I thought this was a song about a man named Juan from an island with palm trees and not about a woman from Guántanamo.) in 1966 by The Sandpipers, a folk rock group. “Guántanamera” is probably the best known song, sometimes referred to as the Cuban anthem. It was her image on many of the record album covers and her amazing voice that came from the record player. So, I learned about Cuba from Celia Cruz. He was reluctant to talk about Cuba, a place he knew he’d never return to. Somehow, he had made his way in the later 1950s from a tropical island to the middle of Texas, where no one but us it seemed ate black beans and lechon asado, or drank thick Cuban espresso coffee. It was there that my Cuban father played his LPs. In the living room, the Spanish had a different accent and the music, a completely different sound. In the kitchen, it was KCOR: La Voz Mexicana en San Antonio. This project is inspired by the exhibition Pushing Boundaries: Portraits by Robert Weingarten, on view July 2-October 14 at the Smithsonian’s International Gallery, Ripley Center on the National Mall. The finished portrait will be displayed at the Smithsonian this fall. Once a winner is announced, the public will have further opportunity to contribute to Weingarten’s unique process of visual biography. Between May 11-28, visitors can vote on which of these historic figures they would most like to see depicted in the portrait. During the week of May 7-11, the museum will present five blogs about significant individuals in American history. The National Museum of American History and photographer Robert Weingarten are working in collaboration to build a historic portrait with help from the public.
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