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‘She had no interest in the comfort zone’: celebrating the centenary of Celia Cruz, Cuba’s Queen of Salsa
Exiled from Castro’s Cuba, she became a superstar – and a trailblazer in the macho world of salsa. Fans and collaborators including Angélique Kidjo hail an icon of Black empowerment
On 13 November 1973, at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in Puerto Rico, Celia Cruz took to the stage in a bejewelled, psychedelic blue dress and vast afro, saluting the 12,500-capacity arena with her trademark rallying cry: “ Azucar! Stretched out to a righteous 12-minute call-and-response in Puerto Rico, she recast the song as a cry of anguish over her exile from her homeland, adding lines like “ Yo como el pájaro quiero / mi libertad recobrar ” (“Like the bird / I want to regain my freedom”) that channelled the pain of the dispossessed. Nevertheless, she triumphed at talent shows, thrived at Havana’s National Conservatory of Music and, in 1950, joined La Sonora Matancera, a long-running band that specialised in son cubano, guaguancó and chá-chá-chá, the rhythms that later coalesced into salsa.
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