Celia Cruz quarter will honor New Jersey's 'Queen of Salsa'
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For more than 40 years, Celia Cruz quartered in Fort Lee. In late 2024, her image will adorn a quarter.
Officials at the United States Mint this month named the late Cruz one of five honorees for the American Women Quarters Program's 2024 series. Launched in 2022, the program is in its second year of a four-year run designed to create awareness for trailblazers in women's history, such as Cruz.
“All of the women being honored have lived remarkable and multi-faceted lives, and have made a significant impact on our nation in their own unique way,” said Ventris C. Gibson, the director of the U.S. Mint. “The women pioneered change during their lifetimes, not yielding to the status quo imparted during their lives.”
Born Oct. 21, 1925, in the Santos Suárez neighborhood of Havana, Cuba, Cruz would become the 20th century's “Queen of Salsa." Cruz was a standout singer in her youth but had plans to become a teacher. It was only after she enrolled in the Normal School for Teachers in Havana that her talent became too much to ignore.
Cruz transferred to Havana's National Conservatory of Music and began to study her craft. She blitzed through amateur singing contests, toured Mexico and Venezuela and found modest success through performances on Cuban radio. In 1950, Cruz got her big break. She was asked to join Sonora Matancera, a historic and popular Cuban orchestra. Over the next 15 years, she would record 188 songs with the group and earn her first of 23 gold albums.
She would also defect from Cuba with the group in 1960 while touring in Mexico amid the Cuban Revolution.Boasting a powerful voice, Cruz was often equally appealing to the eyes. A cultural icon, she spanned music, film and fashion. One of her trademark colorful dresses, a long sequined gown, has been on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.
After leaving Cuba and subsequently being banned from reentry by Fidel Castro, Cruz and her partner, Pedro Knight, moved to Fort Lee. She spent the rest of her 42 years in the community, just a river crossing from New York City's Latin music scene.
From her New Jersey base, Cruz would make cameos in Mexican films, famously collaborating with Tito Puente and honing the Cuban and Afro-Latin sound now called salsa music. She won her first of three Grammy Awards in 1990 and racked up dozens of additional honors before succumbing to brain cancer in July 2003.
In 2022, the Forked River Service Area on the Garden State Parkway was officially dedicated to Cruz.
Cruz is one of 20 women expected to round out the American Women Quarters Program through its 2025 end. The first quarter, which went into circulation early in 2022, honored writer, performer and social activist Maya Angelou.
The most recent to enter circulation features Bessie Coleman, the first African American and first Native American woman pilot. Each features a portrait of George Washington on its front face. That right-facing portrait created by Laura Gardin Fraser for the 1932 quarter had previously been shelved in favor of the common left-facing John Flanagan design, federal records show.
The reverse design for the Cruz quarter has not yet been revealed by the U.S. Mint. The process requires a review by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and stakeholder recommendations before a final design can be selected by the secretary of the Treasury, records show.
Other 2024 American Women Quarters
Pauli Murray – poet, writer, activist, lawyer, and Episcopal priest.
Patsy Takemoto Mink – first woman of color to serve in Congress.
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker – Civil War-era surgeon, women’s rights advocate and abolitionist.
Zitkala-Ša (“Red Bird”) – writer, composer, educator and political activist.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Celia Cruz, NJ Queen of Salsa, will get image on quarter
