The centenary of the birth of Celia Cruz was commemorated today in Cuba with a mass in the Parroquia de la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre in Havana.
A photo of “La Guarachera de Cuba” next to the altar presided over the ceremony which, according to the priest during the mass, was a request from several Cuban artists.
The singer and producer Alain Pérez, the singer Haila María Mompié and the urban singer Yomil, artists who have always shown their love for Celia Cruz and her work, attended the mass.
The chargé d’affaires of the United States Embassy in Cuba, Mike Hammer, was also present during the tribute.
“As a representative of the United States here in Havana, it is a great honor for me to be able to commemorate the life of Celia Cruz, a very important Cuban figure who has made very important contributions to humanity. Her songs give hope, they bring joy, but she also wanted freedom for all the Cuban people, which is what we all want,” Hammer told the press before leaving the church at the end of the mass.
“I had the blessing and privilege in life to work with Celia Cruz as a musician, director of her orchestra, in record productions, she sang my songs. I met Celia, I lived with her, I met her on stage, on a plane, in a room, in a hallway, and Celia Cruz was a person full of love, a person who brought the name of Cuba to the most important and humble places in the world. She was and is a representative of our Cuban culture,” said Alain Pérez, who has just returned to Cuba after participating in a tribute to the Cuban salsa singer at Lincoln Center in New York.
“I would have loved for all the musicians and artists to have come to this tribute in the church praising her in the name of God and what she represents for us spiritually and sentimentally, historically and culturally,” added the artist, who called “pitiful” the fact that not all tributes to the singer are still made in Cuba.
Haila is one of the Cuban singers who has most fervently demonstrated her admiration for Celia Cruz since the beginning of her career. He revered the Queen of Salsa today in this mass and also with her music.
“Today we release the first single titled ‘My life is singing’, from a symphonic album that I am making in tribute to her and for my 25 years of having recorded my first record production that was also dedicated to her,” he told OnCuba.
Haila told us: “I carry his legacy as if it were a luxury bag, with great care and very protected.”
“Today is the day of Doña Celia Cruz’s birth and what could be more beautiful than coming to the church of the Virgin of whom she was a great devotee; in fact, her middle name was Caridad, and here we are to pray for her soul, to continue giving her light so that her legacy remains more alive than ever, so that her music continues to resonate throughout the world.”
For his part, the urban music singer Yomil proudly displays a tattoo with Celia Cruz’s face on his arm and tells us: “I have a lot of admiration, respect and affection for Celia and her work and she is the only artist that I have tattooed on my skin, because for me she is the greatest of all Cubans; she made Cuban music very big in the entire world and until today, several years have passed since her death, she is still “She continues to remember, and everyone who is Cuban should feel proud to have a great one like her.”
The mass in honor of the centenary of Celia Cruz took place in total tranquility and spiritual peace, but surrounded by the events of the last few days in which Cuban cultural institutions once again canceled a tribute to his figure.
“I think there are many prejudices and it is going against the tide, against history; there are things that cannot be erased and much less can be taken away from the people. We artists are ambassadors with our music and no matter how many obstacles or many things that are imposed, no one can stop that because in the end if we win people’s hearts we will live in their hearts forever,” Yomil says about it.
Photo: Otmaro Rodríguez“Very personally, I believe that a mistake is made by trying to blind and limit Celia’s meaning; but it is not a mystery or something that those of us who are clear about this situation do not know,” declared Alain Pérez.
The 100th anniversary of the birth of the singer who constitutes one of the most important Cuban voices worldwide has generated debates on social networks in recent days after the National Center of Popular Music suspended the presentation of a tribute work by Teatro El Público programmed at Fábrica de Arte Cubano.
The important Havana cultural center responded with an empty seat in the middle of the stage and an hour of silence at the moment when said presentation should have taken place, followed by a music session by the Queen of Salsa.
Just that afternoon, the Failde Orchestra was allowed to pay tribute to Celia Cruz during a concert at the Cuba Pavilion, which fueled controversy as many artists and audiences questioned why some were allowed and not others.
