Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz also known as Celia Cruz was born in Havana,

Cuba on October 21, 1925 and passed away on July 16, 2003. She was a wife to Pedro Knight,
the Sonora Matancera’s first trumpet player from 1962 to 2003. Celia grew up in Havana
neighborhood of Santos Suárez in a household of 14.
Her mother was very supportive of Celia’s passion for music, while her father had
different hopes for her. Celia’s mother pushed her to enter contests around Cuba. Celia won a
“La hora del té” singing contest which was the start of her musical career. Meanwhile, Celia’s
father hoped for his daughter to become a teacher, a common career for female cubans at that
time. In order to satisfy her father, she enrolled at the National Teachers’ College but did not
remain there. Soon after, she enrolled at Havana’s National Conservatory of Music. Instead of
continuing her education, one of Celia’s professors convinced her to pursue her singing career.
Celia’s first records were made in 1948. In 1950, her singing career began to really kick
off when she started singing along side with Sonora Matancera, a Cuban orchestra. She helped
not only bring attention to the group but also Latin music as a whole after replacing the leading
singer of Sonora Matancera. She was later own as “The Queen of Salsa”. She collaborated with
many talented artists such as Emilio Estefan, Patti LaBelle, David Byrne, and so many more.
Celia was known to have had a golden era, 15 years where she earned so many accomplishments.
She has recorded a total of 23 golden albums, performed live in radio, and in television shows.
Celia was loved internationally and had a 40 year singing career. She made a total of 73
records with 23 that went gold. Along those successes, she also won many Grammys and Latin
Grammys. On July 16, 2003 in New jersey Celia Cruz passed away due to brain cancer.
Recently, on October 13, 2015 a drama series named ​Celia​ was aired on Telemundo in order to
honor her. She is remembered as one of the most loved and popular artists in Latin music. Her
legend still remains, as it always will.