The Celebrated and
Controversial Celia Cruz

By Karen Juanita Carrillo
SeeingBlack.com Diaspora Writer

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A glass-enclosed carriage carrying Celia Cruz's coffin was pulled by two white horses on July 22, 2003 through the street of New York City. Thousands of fans, some of whom had lined up for days in New York City's East Harlem/El Barrio neighborhood, crowded the sidewalks to say goodbye.

The horses transported Cruz, who died July 16 of complications from a brain tumor, from the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home on 81st street down to St. Patrick's Cathedral for a funeral mass. The funeral procession had both a sad and somewhat carnival feel to it. As a rain shower erupted over the fans, who tried to trail the procession, there was talk everywhere of the heavens shedding tears for Cruz.

Cruz was one of fourteen children, born on Oct. 21, 1925 to a poor family in the Santa Suárez neighborhood of Havana, Cuba. Although her father encouraged her to train for the steady work and good pay of a schoolteacher, Cruz always said she was simply drawn to singing. She would sing at family get-togethers, at school assemblies, and at community events. One of her aunts believed she had talent and urged Cruz to enter a small talent show, which Cruz won and which encouraged her to study voice and piano professionally, at Cuba's Conservatory of Music.

Styling herself in the tradition of popular Afro-Cuban singer Paulina Alvarez, Cruz quickly gained a following. In 1950, the legendary La Sonora Matancera invited her to become a member of their group. After joining La Sonora Matancera, Cruz married its trumpeter Pedro Knight on July 14, 1962 and remained with the group for fifteen years.

Cruz and Knight defected from Cuba in 1960 and came to live in the New York area in 1962. Cruz and Knight remained happily married for until her death. But Cruz was also a fierce critic of Castro's reign in Cuba for the rest of her life. Cruz' criticism caused her music to be banned from Cuban airwaves and she was denied permission to visit her mother's grave there in the 1970s. Cruz's 85-year-old sister Dolores still lives in Havana's Santos Suárez neighborhood. Dolores last saw Cruz five years ago during a visit to the New York area.

Celia Cruz officially left La Sonora Matancera in 1965 and began to work as a solo artist. It was at this point that she began her legendary work with the late Tito Puente. And when Puente was named salsa music's king, it was only natural for Cruz' reign as queen to begin.

But Cruz became famous because she did much more than sing salsa. She made a Spanish language remake of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and was legendary for songs like "Quimbara," "La Vida es un Carnaval," "La Negra Tiene Tumbao," and "Yerberito Moderno." She sang mambo, son, jazz, Latin pop, and in various other styles. She worked with Johnny Pacheco and the Fania All Stars, with Willie Colon, Marc Anthony, Paulina Rubio, La India and with Wyclef Jean on a remake of "Guantanamera." In 1987 Cruz was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame; in Miami, there is a street named Celia Cruz Way and, in 1994, President Clinton awarded her a National Endowment for the Arts medallion.

Celia Cruz often wore brightly colored clothes, had a collection of outrageous wigs and would sing and even dance gracefully in high, high heels while giving her trademark affirmation of "Azucar! (Sugar!)" to adoring crowds. This is what made Celia both a character and a celebrity.
She never forgave Castro and he never forgave her. Cuba's official party newspaper, Granma, noted her passing by commenting that "Cruz was an important interpreter of Cuban music and made it popular in the United States," but added that "during the last 40 years, she was active in the U.S.-based anti-Castro movement — and used as an icon by the counter-revolutionary Cubans who live in Florida."

In Miami's "Freedom Tower" where the first Cubans to flee Castro were kept, a giant Cuban flag was draped over the building while Cruz' body was on view there. The White House issued a statement calling Cruz "an international artist whose voice and talent entertained audiences around the world," and whose "success in the years following her departure from her beloved Cuba was a tribute to her perseverance, compassion, and love for life."

At the services in New York City, Patti Labelle, Gloria Estefán, La India, Jon Secada, Paquito D'Rivera, Jose Luis Rodriguez, Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith, Victor Manuel, Ruben Blades, Sen. Hillary Clinton, and Gov. George Pataki were among those on hand to see her off. Cruz' widow, Pedro Knight, was practically escorted into St. Patrick's Cathedral on the arms of New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had declared July 22, 2003 "Celia Cruz" day.

Cruz was laid to rest inside the 140-year-old Woodlawn cemetery in the Bronx, where famed musicians such as Duke Ellington and Miles Davis are already buried. The lyrics to her "La Negra Tiene Tumbao" have already eulogized Celia Cruz' life: "This Black woman's got style… When most people die it's said that, well, that's natural, that's life — just as night follows day. But when it comes to me, they're going to tell the truth: I won't accept any lies. It will be said that I enjoyed every instant of this life (although, I did it with care)."

— August 15, 2003

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