Celia Cruz

Celia Cruz in 1957

Background information

Birth name Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso

Also known as La Guarachera de Cuba

Born October 21, 1925

Havana, Cuba

Died July 16, 2003 (aged 77)

Fort Lee, New Jersey, US

 Guaracha
Genres
 son

 bolero

 rumba

 salsa

Occupation(s)  Singer

 actress
 Years active 1947–2003

Labels  Fania

 RMM Records & Video

 Sony Discos

Associated acts  Sonora Matancera

 Tito Puente

 Fania All-Stars

Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003) was a Cuban
American singer and the most popular Latin artist of the 20th century, gaining twenty-three gold
albums during her career. She received a star in the "Walk of Fame" in Hollywood. The U.S.
President Bill Clinton awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 1994. She was renowned
internationally as the "Queen of Salsa", "La Guarachera de Cuba", as well as "The Queen of Latin
Music".[1][2]
She spent much of her career working in the United States and several Latin American countries.
Leila Cobo of Billboard magazine once said "Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential
female figure in the history of Cuban and Latin music". She was an ambassador for the variety and
vitality of the music of her native Havana, and after the Cuban revolution she became a symbol of
artistic freedom for Cuban American exiles. She died of brain cancer in 2003.