In Mexico, Celia Cruz participated in films, acted in soap operas and became friends with the biggest stars of the Aztec country.
CDMX, Mexico. – When Celia Cruz left Cuba with Sonora Matancera, after Fidel Castro came to power, she decided to temporarily settle in Mexico, a country where she lived for a year, before taking up residence in the United States. But from before, Celia’s relationship with the Aztec country had been one of respect, admiration and gratitude.
Celia set foot in Mexico for the first time in 1948 to perform a musical number in the film Mexico Room (1949), by filmmaker Emilio Indian Fernandez. The Cuban singer has an uncredited appearance in the film, along with Sonora Matancera and the group of dancers Las mulatas de fuego (one of them was the then very young Elena Burke).
Then, once she settled in Mexico City, after leaving Cuba, Celia had a musical participation in the Mexican film Sweetheart heart (1961), directed by Rogelio A. González and starring the Argentine actress Rosita Quintana and the Mexican heartthrob Mauricio Garcés.
The truth is that Celia also forged friendly ties with numerous personalities in the Mexican artistic firmament. From her time with Sonora Matancera, in the 1950s, until the 1970s, the Queen of Salsa was part of numerous artistic caravans that toured the Mexican nation. His performances at the Blanquita, that famous popular Mexican theater, now closed, are also fondly remembered by the Mexican public. There he interacted with figures such as Dámaso Pérez Prado, the Dolly Sisters, the actress and comedian Carmen Salinas and the dancer Yolanda Montes (Tongolele).
With the latter, Celia maintained a close friendship. In fact, Celia was responsible for one of the “star numbers” in the famous imitation show that Carmen Salinas performed for years. For many (and with respect to Julio Zabala’s imitation of her), the best imitation of Celia was done by Salinas, who included the song Burundanga within the repertoire of the successful musical work that she herself produced for years, Adventuress.
With Tongolele (whom Celia called “His majesty the rumba”), she was united by a close friendship that only ended with the death of the former. According to the testimony of Mexican actress Ofelia Medina, Celia and Tongolele always stayed in the same hotel when they performed in the popular artistic caravans. Even if Celia lived for long periods in Mexico, she always rented an apartment close to the dancer’s. The friendship also extended between Pedro Knight and the Cuban percussionist Joaquín González, Tongolele’s husband.
In addition to Carmen and Tongolele, Celia also formed a solid friendship with Mexican entertainment figures such as the singer Lola Beltrán (she even covered the ranchero song Cucurrucucú dovedistinctive of Beltrán), the Cuban rumbera Ninon Sevillathe singer Toña la Negra and the soap opera stars Verónica Castro and Laura Flores.
It was precisely through Verónica’s intervention that Celia ventured into the famous Mexican soap operas. La Guarachera de Cuba participated in the soap opera Valentina (1993), from the Televisa network and starring Verónica herself. There she played the character of Lecumé, a Yoruba priestess.
In 1997, producer Juan Osorio convinced her to participate with a starring role in the soap opera The soul has no color, a free version of the Mexican movie Little black angels (Joselito Rodríguez, 1948). In this television melodrama, Celia played the character of Macaria, an Afro-Cuban woman who begins a relationship with the white man she worked for. Celia’s character gives birth to a blonde daughter, like her father, and is forced to pretend that she is her nanny in order to be close to her. This role was originally played in the film version by the legendary Rita Montaner.
Acting for Celia was always a challenge, but the great singer made up for this disadvantage with her admirable discipline and dedication, and also with a little help from the actresses Ofelia Guimáin, glory of tragic theater in Mexico, and Laura Flores, who played her daughter in the soap opera.
Celia and Laura, off screen, formed a solid friendship and a mother-daughter relationship that surpassed fiction. Laura has recalled in interviews the love, respect and star treatment they gave Celia in the production of the soap opera. Furthermore, Celia and Pedro handed Laura over to the altar, as the actress herself recalled.
She also had a very special bond with the Mexican singer Yuri. Yuri met Celia at a presentation she had in Veracruz. Dulce, Yuri’s mother, approached Celia to introduce her to her daughter and the salsa singer was fascinated by the young woman’s talent. For a long time, Yuri opened Celia’s concerts every time she performed in Veracruz. According to Celia, Yuri’s voice was perfect for salsa. Yuri, who followed Celia’s advice, became a music star in Mexico and several Latin American countries.
The friendship between the two continued. Yuri paid him a musical tribute with a medley (medley) and performed two duets with Celiaversions of the songs Quimbara and Burundanga. From there a legend arose with the assumption that Celia said: “Only Yuri would fit in my shoes.”
In addition to Yuri, Celia also shared the stage and performed duets with other great figures of Mexican music, such as Vicente Fernandez and John Gabriel.
The anecdotes about Celia and her relationship with Mexico would perhaps occupy dozens of notes. But what is undeniable is that the Queen of Salsa’s affection for the Mexican public has been reciprocated with a loyalty that remains intact even today, a century after her birth and more than two decades after her death.
