Celia Cruz Joined The Band La Sonora Matancera

Celia Cruz was born in Cuba, in 1925. Her father was a railroad stroker and her mother was stay at home mom. She grew up in a poor town named Santos Suarez, with 13 other siblings. She always used to sing them to sleep, and that's when she discovered her passion for it. In 1940 Celia won a singing contest called “La hora de te”, and that's where her career really took off. While her mother supported her, her father did not. He wanted her to become a teacher, and not a showgirl. In a 1997 interview with Marvette Perez, she said, "I have fulfilled my father's wish to be a teacher as, through my music, I teach generations of people about my culture and the happiness that is found in just living life. As a performer, I want people to feel their

hearts sing and their spirits soar”. To please her father like most daughters try to do, she attended The National Teachers College, but dropped out soon after when she started gaining more fame.
She joined the band La Sonora Matancera in the early fifties, and faced a lot of lashback.

Female singers in Cuba were not very popular, especially ones of afro-cuban descent. Regardless they got someone to sign them and their first song got played on the radio. They soon became a huge hit in Cuba and began touring at first in just Cuba but then moved throughout Latin America. Throughout the fifties they enjoyed their fame, but it came to an end in 1959 when the Communist Party took control of Cuba. La Sonora Matancera, while touring in Mexico decided to leave Cuba for good and moved to the United States. After that she only toured in the United

States.
Celia catered to a different type of audience when she joined the band Tito Puente Orchestra.

This is when her stage presence really stood out, with her fancy glitter filled stage outfits, towering hair and high heels, people started to take notice off her. She to do loved eccentric, energetic dances when she preformed and her audience really loved it also. Celia never sang in anything but her native spanish language, but she worked with people of all backgrounds. She was known for three things, her powerful husky voice, stage presence, and her catchphrase “Azúcar!’’ which means sugar in english. In a 2000 interview with Billboard, she talked about how her famous catchphrase came to be. “I was having dinner at a restaurant in Miami, and when the waiter offered me coffee, he asked me if I took it with or without sugar. I said, 'Chico, you're Cuban. How can you even ask that? With sugar!' And that evening during my show ... I told the audience the story and they laughed. And one day, instead of telling the story, I simply walked down the stairs and shouted Azúcar!"”

By the 1970’s Celia was know as the queen of salsa. She continued performing throughout the 80’s and didn't let her age slow her down. In an interview with Tribune News Service in 2002 she said, "I don't plan on retiring. I plan to die on a stage. I can have a headache. But when it's time to sing and I step on that stage, there's no more headache. As long as I'm doing what I want to do, I feel

good."
She recorded her final album in 2003 titled “regalo de alma” just months before her death. She died on July 16, 2003 after battling brain cancer. When reading her website I wasn't shocked to see how many awards she had won. Celia had won three Grammy’s, four Latin Grammy’s, Two he President's National Medal of Arts, Guinness World Record for the Longest Working Career As a Salsa Artist, and the Voices for the Children Foundation award, along with many more lifetime achievements. She also had honorary Doctorates from Yale, Florida International, and Miami universities. Her legacy is carried on today throughout her Celia Cruz foundation, a non-profit organization that provides cancer research and scholarships for Latino music students.
In conclusion, Celia Cruz was a Afro-Cuban singer who broke stereotypes and became known as the queen of salsa. She had such a strong stage presence and a powerful voice. She was dedicated to her fans and performed throughout her 70’s even while she had brain cancer. She gave back to the world and is still considered to be a household name in some countries.