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Celia Cruz Biography

This Celia Cruz biography tells the story of a life filled with music, excitement and electrifying
performances. Known as the “La Reina de la Salsa” and “La Guarachera de Cuba”, Cruz’ is
considered a musical legend, a woman who helped popularize and energize Latin music.

The Celia Cruz biography is said to be a biography of Afrocuban and salsa music itself, as it grew
in popularity in the United States. Nobody could make sugar sweeter than Celia Cruz.

The Latin performer, who made azúcar—the Spanish word for sugar—a rallying cry from the
stage, was more than a singer.

The life of Celia Cruz began on October 21, 1925 in Havana, Cuba when she was born to
Catalina Alfonso and Simón Cruz. She grew up in the poor neighborhood of Santos Suárez
where she was influenced by Cuba’s diverse musical climate.

Celia’s singing talent was spotted early-on and when she was a teenager, her aunt took her to
cabarets to sing and perform in amateur contests. But Cruz’s father had other plans for his
daughter and he encouraged her to remain in school and become a teacher. However, she
remained undettered, especially after one of her teachers told her that as a singer Cruz could
earn in one day what she made in a month!

Celia Cruz and La Sonora Matancera.


Picture by Jaramij.

In 1950, the life of Celia Cruz took a new twist when she began singing with renowned Cuban
orchestra Sonora Matancera. Celia Cruz’ music with the group helped propel it, and Latin music,
to new heights. Celia Cruz’ music with the band was a mixture of boleros, cha-chas and
guarachas, a medium-tempo style of Cuban street music that rose to popularity in the 1950s.

Cruz, who at this time became known as “La Guarachera de Cuba”, stayed with the group until
1965. Some of the band’s more popular songs during this time included “Yerbero Moderno,”
“Burundanga,” and “Caramelo.” The group, which became known as “Café Con Leche,” traveled
all over Latin America, alerting the world to this new talented chanteuse.

The Celia Cruz biography tells that while touring with the band, Cruz would frequently tell a joke
about the time she ordered coffee in Miami and was asked if she wanted sugar. Since the waiter
was Cuban, she chided him that he should know that you can’t drink Cuban coffee without it!
Eventually, Cruz dropped the joke and would simply open her performances shouting out
“¡Azúcar!”.
Throughout the life of Celia Cruz, the word “azúcar” would become synonymous with the
performer and came to symbolize the energy and sabor—Spanish for flavor—that Cruz injected
into all of her performances.

Celia Cruz And Pedro Knight


Picture by Fernando Garcia Aguinaco.

While in the group, Cruz also became romantically involved with one of the band’s trumpet
players, Pedro Knight. The pair married in 1962 in Connecticut. It was a union that would last 41
years.

Upon leaving Cuba in 1960 as leader Fidel Castro took control, the biography of Celia Cruz
began to include another musical ascent. As Latin orchestras surged in popularity, she was asked
many times to perform at New York City’s famed Tropicana nightclub.

After leaving La Sonora Matancera, the Celia Cruz biography would become even
more impressive, departing from the group established her as a solo artist, and helped showcase
her larger-than-life performances, which became known for her enormously large wigs, vibrant
dresses and skyscraper-like high heeled shoes.

Music lovers across the world embraced her style and her love of the classic Cuban “son”, the
root of most Latin music, including mambo and salsa.

For the next four decades, Celia Cruz’ lyrics and music catapulted her to iconic status. She
worked with some of the most respected names in Latin music, including her counterpart “El Rey
de la Salsa”, Puerto Rico’s Tito Puente as well as Dominican “Godfather” of salsa music, Johnny
Pacheco.

The Celia Cruz biography became one of the few to tell a story of a woman involved in the
mostly-male Afro-Latin music scene. Celia Cruz was known for her talents as an improviser on
stage during the call-and-response section of salsa music that comes from traditional African
music.

Celia Cruz’ music evolved with the times and toward the end of her career, she began branching
out into dance and hip-hop music, including a popular cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”
and the hip-hop infused “La Negra Tiene Tumbao” which had fans of all ethnicities shaking their
booties on the dance floor in 2002.

Celia continued to collaborate with some of the world’s most respected musical talents, including
Aretha Franklin and Luciano Pavarotti, with whom she sang a duet of her famous
"Guantanamera."

She made more than 76 records, winning multiple Grammys and Latin Grammys. She also
appeared in several movies, including 1992’s “The Mambo Kings” and earned a star on
Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 1989.

Celia Cruz also collected honorary degrees from Yale, the University of Miami and Florida
International University and was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1994 by the
National Endowment of the Arts in Washington D.C.

On July 16, 2003, Cruz died of a brain tumor in her Fort Lee, N.J., home. Per her wishes, her
body was flown to Miami, a city she treasured, for a memorial after her death before returning to
New York for burial. When her body arrived in Manhattan, a horse-drawn carriage carried Cruz
down Fifth Avenue to St. Patrick’s Cathedral as tens of thousands of fans said goodbye.

For all her success, the life of Celia Cruz was not without its disappointments. One sad part on
the Celia Cruz biography is that she never returned to Cuba: after she left, Castro considered her
a traitor and would not even allow her to return for her mother’s funeral.

Celia dreamed of returning to her homeland. “Yo llevo a Cuba la voz, desde esta playa lejana,'”—
I send to Cuba my voice, from this distant beach—she once sang. The Celia Cruz biography tells
that in the end, Cruz’ distinctive and rich voice, which seemed to vibrate with the rhythm of the
island of her birth, carried her song from Cuba all around the world.

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