8/23/2023 0 Comments Celia cuba![]() In the latter, Cruz spoke directly to Cuba, affirming “soon the moment will come that erases the suffering. These included “I Will Return ( Yo Regresaré)” (1969), “Paths to Return ( Caminos Para Volver)” (1983), and in one of her last recordings, which hinted at her own mortality, “In Case I Don’t Return ( Por Si Acaso No Regreso)” (2000). From the late 1960s onward, she kept recording songs about a future return-not under the exile’s conquest, but through reconciliation. When the Cuban Embassy denied her visa, she declared, “If I can’t return to bury my mother, I’ll never return.” Yet this absolutist narrative does not match Cruz’s discography. This image also simplifies her own more complicated political history, and with it, the political history of the exile community itself.Ĭelia Cruz as a unifying anticommunist symbol does not match her personal behavior.Ĭruz’s former manager, Omer Pardillo Cid, has leaned into the exile community’s memory of Cruz since her death, telling Billboard in 2016 that she “was the exiles’ flag.” According to Pardillo Cid, Cruz requested permission to return and bury her mother in 1962. But Celia Cruz as a unifying anticommunist symbol does not match her personal behavior, which could have been considered tantamount to treason by many of her more conservative fans in exile. Cruz’s love for her unreachable homeland was unquestionably a central feature of her persona and of her appeal to Cuban exiles, beyond factional and internal political divides. Her success abroad in turn served as a symbol for a triumphal, anticommunist rags to riches story of postrevolutionary exile. To them, her musical greatness after 1960 testified to the belief that “free” Cuba prior to the 1959 revolution had produced the most significant contributions to the island’s culture, worthy of global recognition. Although she died of cancer in 2003, the “Queen of Salsa” remains beloved by fans of diverse national, racial, and ideological groups.Ĭruz has long been a particular darling of the Cuban American exile community, an oddity given her importance as a Black cultural figure and the exile community’s overwhelmingly white membership. She settled in the United States, where she composed 34 studio albums, won numerous awards, and even earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987. Following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, however, Cruz famously left Cuba to tour Mexico in 1960 and never went back. She did so despite deeply ingrained racism and sexism on the island. US Postal Serviceīorn in the tenements of Santo Suárez, a working-class Havana neighborhood, Cruz became a star during the 1950s as the lead singer of Cuba’s most important swing band, La Sonora Matancera. This is the extraordinary story of an extraordinary woman who exemplified the very best values of the Cuban Revolution: selfless dedication to the people, courage in the face of grave danger, and the desire to transform society.Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa, found massive international success after she left Cuba. Biographer Nancy Stout was initially barred from the official archives, but, in a remarkable twist, was granted access by Fidel Castro himself, impressed as he was with Stout’s project and aware that Sánchez deserved a worthy biography. The product of ten years of original research, this biography draws on interviews with Sánchez’s friends, family, and comrades in the rebel army, along with countless letters and documents. All the while, she maintained a close relationship with Fidel Castro that lasted until her death in 1980. ![]() She collected the documents that would form the official archives of the revolution, and, after its victory, launched numerous projects that enriched the lives of many Cubans, from parks to literacy programs to helping develop the Cohiba cigar brand. ![]() She joined the clandestine 26th of July Movement and went on to choose the landing site of the Granma and fight with the rebels in the Sierra Maestra. Although not as well known in the English-speaking world as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, Sánchez played a pivotal role in launching the revolution and administering the revolutionary state. Celia Sánchez is the missing actor of the Cuban Revolution.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |