Celia Cruz is remembered 20 years after her death

July 22, 2023

Celia Cruz and the cry of "¡Azúcar!" live on as two decades pass since her death

The death of Celia Cruz paralyzed the world of Latin music on July 16, 2003 and had a major impact on her followers. As we mark today 20 years later, her incomparable voice, energy, humility and her cry of ¡Azúcar!, which became her trademark, live on among her admirers, even among those who never knew her.

No one forgets either her striking dresses and bold, colorful wigs with which the "queen of salsa" looked impeccable, a title she earned in her own right in a five-decade career that began in her native Cuba and continued in the U.S., where she went into exile in 1961.

Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz y Alfonso de la Santísima Trinidad (1925-2003), a Black Cuban woman of humble origins, made her way and imposed herself in a genre dominated by men, who loved and respected her.

Today, twenty years after "la Guarachera de Cuba" lost her battle with cancer, the Cuban community paid her tribute by dedicating their parade and a float to her in New York, where its mayor, Eric Adams, declared July 16 the "Day of Celia Cruz", while her followers didn't mind the heavy rain and went to her mausoleum at Woodlawn cemetery in El Bronx, among them Michael Grazino, 43 years old.

Graziano, who was wearing a shirt with the singer's face, remembered when, at age 9, he heard Cruz for the first time: "I was about to go to sleep when I hear 'bemba colorá, listen you have the bemba colorá'. I was mesmerized and I asked my mother who was singing and she insisted I go to sleep and I insisted on knowing who that woman was. She said 'Celia Cruz' and from that day on her name was etched forever", he said while other admirers told EFE that it was important to pay tribute to their queen.

"I remember Celia with the same strength, love and sweetness because that is what has always prevailed in our friendship", Cuban singer Lucrecia tells EFE, who brought to life the popular interpreter in a musical and refers to her as if she were alive.

"The admiration I feel for Celia is untouchable for me", she affirms, and notes that Celia Cruz is "increasingly greater", because young people who did not know her are among her new followers.

Cruz showed an interest in music from a young age, but her father wanted her to be a teacher "one of the few careers that a poor Black person could study in Cuba" and which she abandoned when she was close to finishing it, recalls Cuban philologist Rosa Marquetti in her book "Celia en Cuba (1925-1962)", about the singer's career in her country, a period about which little is known.

FANIA DID NOT MAKE CELIA FAMOUS

She told EFE that with her book, published in 2022, she wanted to show that "Celia is a phenomenon that transcends generations, that she was a diva and that her contributions to Cuban music were enormous" and also to end the idea that it was the Fania orchestra that made her famous.

"With Fania her popularity expands, because she had already traveled and was famous in other countries (before coming to the U.S.) where she traveled singing with the Sonora Matancera. In Cuba she did lyrical theater, vernacular theater, she was one of the great stars of the Tropicana cabaret and she did a radio novel", she recalled.

She assures that beyond the musical legacy, the singer left a legacy to Latin women "of her values, of her perseverance, intelligence, of knowing how to fight for her dreams, of her shrewdness in dealing with complex situations".

"She was able to assert herself without losing human quality, without stepping on anyone's head and with that legacy many women identify themselves, including me", she affirms.

"She had respect for the public, she was aware of who she was, she knew the weight of her name but also that without that public she would not have gotten where she got", said Marquetti, who is working on the second part of the history of the artist's career.

When news of her death became known, many admirers gathered in front of the funeral home in New York where her remains were taken and sang embracing her photos and records, while sharing memories for long hours.

After almost a week of massive funeral rites of popular fervor, during which her remains were laid to rest in Miami and New York, she was buried in her mausoleum and rests next to her husband Pedro Knight, who died four years later.

Her death has not stopped the recognition of this icon of Latin music, and among the tributes is the release on the market of the Barbie-Celia Cruz doll next September, and in 2025 she will be immortalized on a 25-cent coin in the U.S.