Celia Cruz: A Voice of The Cuban-American Diaspora

Celia Cruz is recognized as the Queen of Salsa, a style icon, and so much more. She has a musical career that spans six decades and is considered one of the prominent voices of the Cuban-American diaspora.

Today, Salsa music is seen as an umbrella term, with sub-genres in multiple Spanish-speaking regions. Migration and diasporic communities have played an important role in the development of Salsa music, and this is especially true in the case of Celia Cruz. At the start, Salsa’s origins were deeply rooted in Afro-Cuban dance music. You can find distinctly West African religious and musical practices in Celia’s music - this is because the traditions of 17th & 18th century slaves were quite preserved in Cuba. So from the very beginning, Salsa music was a fusion and passing-down of musical practices that could be traced back to very specific roots (in a way that is not always possible, like in The States for example).

Eventually, Salsa music found its way to the USA and it resonated with both immigrants and American-born, Spanish-speaking communities. The broad appeal transformed Salsa from a regional sound to more of an umbrella term, that encompassed Salsa styles from communities across the States and Latin America. This globalization of Salsa has a lot to do with Celia Cruz and her own migration story.

The Cuban Revolution

Celia spent the majority of her adult life in exile. She was vocal about her opposition to the Cuban revolution and was denied re-entry by Cuban officials in 1962 - Celia had been touring in Mexico at the time and was looking to return to Cuba for her mother’s funeral. According to her manager, Celia vowed "If I can't return to bury my mother, I'll never return."

She spent the rest of her life as an American citizen - in a lot of ways, this is the plot twist that catapulted her career. Her new home of New York City gave her a new platform, introducing her musical talents to new audiences. She worked closely with Fania Records which is known for spearheading the Salsa explosion of the 1960s and 1970s. Her new life as a Cuban-American also influenced her lyricism. Last year NPR dissected some of Celia’s work and how her ever evolving identity influenced her art. Celia had always used music as an avenue to discuss the sexism and racism experienced by Afro-Latinas, but her exile added a new dimension to her social commentary.

Migration and Music

For a genre that can be traced back to so many migration patterns, it seems fitting that its reigning queen has a complex relationship with migration as well. Celia returned to Cuba one time after her exile , in 1990 she performed at the US Naval Base in Guantanamo. Today she is buried in New York holding a fistful of Cuban earth.

To learn more about Celia Cruz, you can watch Telemundo’s spanish-language TV series, Celia: La Serie or click here for information on the upcoming English-language film.

A playlist featuring Celia Cruz and Willie Colón

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For our Herstory Lessons blog series — we're retelling the stories of womxn in music that have been misheard, mislabeled, or erased completely from our history books.

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