Celia Cruz

Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a Cuban singer.

Cruz in 1957

Quotes

• I never talk about age, but I was born singing. My mother, Catalina, told me that at 9 or 10 months of age I’d wake up in the middle of the night, 2 or 3 in the morning, singing "esta muchachita va a trabajar de noche". Pues la viejita no se equivocó.
  • On her first time singing, part of her Interview with Generación Ñ in 1996.
  • A similar statement in shown in the BBC Arena documentary "My Name Is Celia Cruz" from 1988.

• When people hear me sing…I want them to be happy, happy, happy. I don't want them thinking about when there's not any money, or when there's fighting at home. My message is always felicidad - happiness.
  • On what she hopes for her audience in “CELIA CRUZ: AT THE TOP OF SALSA” in New York Times (1985 Nov 19).

• Women are afraid to sing salsa…I don't know why; maybe they think it's for men. I am not a composer, or a soneo, a singer and a poet, which is very difficult. But I think everybody can sing everything.
  • On the gender stereotypes surrounding salsa singers in “CELIA CRUZ: AT THE TOP OF SALSA” in New York Times (1985 Nov 19).

• Everybody looks at Celia Cruz and thinks, she is very happy…But I don't have a mother, a father, I don't have a country - I only have Pedro.
  • On just having her husband and not being able to return to Cuba when her parents died in “CELIA CRUZ: AT THE TOP OF SALSA” in New York Times (1985 Nov 19)

• I was having dinner at a restaurant in Miami, and when the waiter offered me coffee, he asked me if I took it with or without sugar…I said, ‘Chico, you’re Cuban. How can you even ask that? With sugar!’
  • On the origin of her catchphrase "Azúcar"; from a 2000 interview quoted in “Celia Cruz, 77; Queen of Salsa’s Passing Marks the End of a Musical Era” in Los Angeles Times (2003 Jul 17).
  • The quote is discussed in Why Did Celia Cruz Say, "Azúcar"? in the Smithsonian Music Channel.

Quotes about Celia Cruz

• There are certain artists who belong to all the people, everywhere, all the time. The list of singers, musicians, and poets must include David the harpist from the Old Testament, Aesop the Storyteller, Omar Khayyam the Tent Maker, Shakespeare the Bard of Avon, Louis Armstrong the genius of New Orleans, Om Kalsoum the soul of Egypt, Frank Sinatra, Mahalia Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Charles. The names could go on until there was no breath to announce them, but the name of Celia Cruz, the great Cuban singer will always figure among them as one who belonged to all people. Her songs in Spanish were weighted with sympathy for the human spirit...Cruz came to the United States and played in a theater on Upper Broadway in New York City and I went to see her every day of her stay. She exploded on the stage and was sensual and touchingly present. From her, I learned to bring everything I had onto the stage with me. And now, some forty-plus years later, without music and by simply reading, I am able to read poetry and satisfy audiences. Much of the presence I bring to my performance, I learned from Celia Cruz. All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us all that we are more alike than we are unalike.
  • Maya Angelou Letter to My Daughter (2009)

• Hopefully, these characters bring us closer to a sense of self: honest and honored. Icons: Toussaint Louverture to José Martí to lesser known heroes, Atahualpa and Denmark Vesey. We lace our visions with Celia Cruz and Aretha Franklin.
  • Ntozake Shange, Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems (2017)