Ursula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, most known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban singer.

She was born in 1924 in the neighborhood of Santos Suarez in The Havana. Her father, Simon
Cruz, was railway stoker and her mother, Catalina Alfonso, was Housewife. She shared her
childhood with her three brothers: Dolores, Gladys, and Bárbaro.

Celia was attracted to music from an early age. Her career began when her aunt and cousin
took her to cabarets to perform. For her love to music, she studied voice, theory, and piano at
Havana’s National Conservatory of Music. In the late 1940s, she competed on an amateur
radio show contest called “The Tea Hour"; where she came to the attention of influential
producers and musicians.

In 1950, she became the lead female singer for La Sonora Matancera, Cuba’s most popular
orchestra. His career was started and Celia became the “Queen of Salsa,” and was central to
the genre’s rising popularity for six decades.

A moment very important in the life of Celia happened in 1960. That year, the Cuban
Revolution raged. She was touring in concert in Mexico and made the decision not to return to
the island. She never returned to her homeland. In 1961, she had moved to the U.S. and she
married with Pedro Knight, her longtime friend, and trumpet player.

She won a Grammy in 1989 for "Ritmo en el Corazón" and years later the best salsa Grammy
for her song "La Negra Tiene Tumbao."

The favorite word of Celia it was "AZÚCAR!" and she always has shouting it in each his
concerts. But, what mean Azúcar for Celia? She loved so much her country and she wanted
wich everybody recognizes her by one of the things for which Cuba is best-known: the sugar
canes.

In 2003, Celia Cruz died of brain cancer at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, at the age of 77.