The city of Miami, in Florida, will commemorate the centenary of the birth of the legendary Cuban singer Celia Cruz, next week, with tributes ranging from a birthday party to a mass at the Ermita de la Caridad and a symphony concert, a dispatch from the Spanish agency reported this Friday. EFE.
The most notable event will be on Tuesday, October 21, the singer’s birth date, the day on which the Celia Cruz Foundation called a commemoration mass at the Ermita de la Caridad, a national sanctuary dedicated to the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, patron saint of Cuba, and one of the most symbolic places for the Cuban community in exile.
Under the motto “United by Celia,” the ceremony will remember “with gratitude and joy” the musical and human legacy of the singer, who had a special connection with Miami after her exile by maintaining a close bond with the Cuban community in South Florida, becoming a cultural symbol of the region.
The Miami Shoe Museum will celebrate the birthday of the ‘Queen of Salsa’ on Monday with music, a cake, and a large community greeting card created by visitors, at the Intercontinental Hotel.
In the same space, throughout October the exhibition “Dancing Shoes: A Legacy in Motion” is on display, which pays tribute to one of the most recognizable facets of Celia Cruz: her relationship with wardrobe and, especially, with her shoes.
The exhibition brings together the singer’s original footwear, designed by her shoemaker par excellence, the Mexican Miguel Nieto, between the 1960s and 1970s.
The striking cantilever-type shoes that the Cuban wore on stage became an extension of her personality.
“With each step, Celia Cruz traced a journey of identity, art and transformation. Her shoes were more than an ornament; they contained the rhythm of her story,” the museum posted on its website.
The series of tributes will continue on November 22 with the “Celia Sinfónica” concert at the Ziff Ballet Opera House, where the Florida International University (FIU) Symphony Orchestra will reinterpret the singer’s best-known songs.
It will be “a musical and visual journey” that celebrates Cruz’s life and legacy through symphonic arrangements and stage projections, according to the organization.
Exhibition in honor of Celia Cruz on her centenary at the University of Miami
Celia never lived in Miami
Born in the Havana neighborhood of Santos Suárez, and exiled in the United States since 1962, after leaving for Mexico with the La Sonora Matancera orchestra in 1960, Celia Cruz maintained a constant relationship with Miami until her death in 2003, but she never lived in the southern city, but almost all the time in Fort Lee, in the state of New Jersey, with her husband, Pedro Knight. trumpeter of the band.
However, his legacy is still very present in Miami, where there are several monuments in his honor, such as Calle Celia Cruz in Little Havana and an iconic mural in the Celia Cruz Plaza.
Likewise, their music is part of the cultural and sentimental imagination of the city, with songs that have resonated as lasting anthems in generations of Latin Americans, among them “La vida es un carnaval”, “Que le den candela” and “Quimbara”.
In 2021, Rolling Stone magazine ranked “Life is a Carnival” at number 439 among the 500 best songs of all time.
His musical legacy consists of a total of 37 studio albums, in addition to many other special recordings, live albums or associations with other singers.
In her career she was awarded numerous awards, recognitions and distinctions, including two Grammys and three Latin Grammys. In addition to her prolific career in music, she also made some occasional appearances as an actress in films and soap operas.
EFE/Drafting OnCuba
