Cuban singer Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was adored across the globe for her musical artistry. Sunday makes 20 years since her death — but her memory is still alive.
Cruz started out in Cuba, singing her younger siblings to sleep. She attended music school until a professor advised her to drop out, knowing that she could find success on her own.
She grew to create all types of Latino music, including rumba, mambo, cha-cha, guaracha, and most notably, salsa.
Cruz won six Grammy awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a National Medal of Arts, received three honorary degrees, and was dubbed "Queen of Salsa" by many.
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The singer's signature catchphrase, "azúcar," meaning "sugar" in Spanish, has been used as the title for a variety of memorials: an exhibit at the National Museum of American History, a musical tribute aired on Telemundo, a musical, and more.
She died at 77 after falling ill to cancer, and her body was flown to Miami so that her fellow Cuban exiles could pay their respects before she was ultimately buried in The Bronx, New York.
CELIA CRUZ
The U.S. Mint announced in February that Cruz would be the first Afro-Latina to appear on the quarter.
She is a 2024 honoree of the American Woman Quarters Program, which honors historically significant women on the coin.
Cruz will also be the focus of the 2023 New York Cuban and Hispanic American Parade in Manhattan, NY, and will be honored with a ceremony at her burial site.
