The Memoir Of Ms. Butterfly

Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born on 21 October 1925, at 47 Serrano Street in the Santos Suárez neighborhood of Havana, Cuba. Her father, Simón Cruz, was a railway stoker, and her mother, Catalina Alfonso Ramos, was a housewife who cared for an extended family. Celia was one of the eldest among fourteen children, including her three siblings, Dolores, Gladys, and Bárbaro,[and she used to sing cradle songs to put them to sleep.

 According to her mother, she began singing as a child at 9 or 10. often in the middle of the night. She also sang in school during Friday’s actos cívicos and in her neighborhood ensemble, Botón de Oro.

 While growing up in Cuba’s diverse 1930s musical climate, Cruz listened to many musicians who influenced her adult career, including Fernando Collazo, Abelardo Barroso, Pablo Quevedo, Antonio Arcaño, and Arsenio Rodríguez. Despite her father’s opposition and the fact that she was Catholic, as a child, Cruz learned Santería songs from her neighbor who practiced Santería. Cruz also studied the words to Yoruba songs with colleague Merceditas Valdés (an akpwon, a santería singer) from Cuba and later made various recordings of this religious genre, even singing backup for other female aprons like Candita Batista.

As a teenager, her aunt took her and her cousin to cabarets to sing, but her father encouraged her to attend school in the hope she would become a teacher. After high school, she attended the Normal School for Teachers in Havana with the intent of becoming a literature teacher. However, at the time, being a singer was not considered a respectable career.

 However, one of her teachers told her that, as an entertainer, she could earn in one day what most Cuban teachers made in a month. So, from 1947, Cruz studied music theory, voice, and piano at Havana’s National Conservatory of Music. Then, one day, her cousin took her to Havana’s radio station Radio García-Serra, where she became a contestant in the “Hora del té” amateur radio program.

 It was her first time using a microphone, and she sang the tango “Nostalgia” (as a tribute to Paulina Álvarez winning a cake as the first prize for her performance. On other occasions, she won silver chains and opportunities to participate in more contests. She also sang in other amateur radio programs such as La suprema Corte del Arte, broadcast by CMQ, consistently winning first prize. The only exception was when she competed against Vilma Valle, having to split their earnings: 25 dollars each.

Cruz’s big break came in 1950 when Myrta Silva, the singer with Cuba’s Sonora Matancera, returned to her native Puerto Rico. Since they needed a new singer, the band decided to give the young Celia Cruz a chance.

 She auditioned in June, and at the end of July, she was asked to join as lead singer and thus became the group’s first black frontwoman. In her first rehearsal with Sonora Matancera, Cruz met her future husband Pedro Knight, who was the band’s second trumpeter.

 Cruz debuted with the group on Aug. 3, 1950. Initially, the public did not receive Cruz enthusiastically, but Rogelio Martínez had faith in her. On Dec. 15, 1950, Cruz recorded her first songs with the group, which were a resounding success. Her “musical marriage” with the Sonora Matancera lasted fifteen years. Celia recorded 188 songs with the Matancera, including hits such as “Cao Cao maní picao.

 “Mata siguaraya, “Burundanga,” and “El yerbero modern. In addition, she won her first gold record for “Burundanga,” making her first trip to the United States in 1957 to receive the award and to perform at St. Nicholas Arena, New York. During her 15 years with Sonora Matancera, she appeared in cameos in some Mexican films such as Rincón criollo (1950), Una gallega en La Habana (1955) and Amorcito corazón (1961), toured all over Latin America and became a regular at the Tropicana.

On Jul. 15, 1960, following the Cuban Revolution, a contract for Sonora Matancera in Mexico arose. Cruz never imagined that she would never set foot on Cuban soil again. However, the new Cuban regime disapproved of the group accepting offers to work abroad, specifically in the United States. Thus, the Castro regime arbitrarily forbade her to return to Cuba. When she completed a month of stay in Mexico, she received the news of the death of her father, Simón Cruz.

 In 1961, Cruz and Sonora Matancera left Mexico for an engagement in the United States. During this period, Cruz began performing solo without the group, performing at a recital at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. In 1962, before the refusal of the Cuban government to allow her to return to Cuba, Cruz acquired a house in New York. Although she tried to return to Cuba to see her sick mother, who was struggling with terminal bladder cancer, the Cuban government denied her request to return. Then, on Apr. 7, 1962, she received the news about her mother death, Catalina Alfonso.

 That same year, on Jul. 14, Cruz was married in a civil ceremony to Pedro Knight after a romance of several years. Cruz and Sonora Matancera made their first tour outside of the Americas, visiting Europe and Japan, where they performed with Tito Puente.

 In 1965, Cruz would culminate a vertiginous fifteen years with the Sonora Matancera. After that, Cruz began a solo career, and her husband Pedro Knight decided to leave his position at Sonora Matancera to become her representative, arranger, and personal director. During this time, Cruz became an American citizen.

In 1966, Cruz was contacted by Tito Puente to perform with his orchestra. Their first collaborative album, Son con guaguancó, featured a recording of José Claro Fumero’s guaracha “Bemba colorá,” which became one of Cruz’s signature songs. Cruz and Puente went on to collaborate on another four albums together. She also recorded albums with other musical directors such as Memo Salamanca, Juan Bruno Tarraza, and Lino Frías for Tico Records. In 1974, Fania Records, the leading salsa record label, acquired Tico and signed Cruz to the imprint Vaya Records, where she remained until 1992.

Cruz’s association with the Fania label had begun in 1973 when she recorded the lead vocals of “Gracia Divina, a song by Larry Harlow which was part of his “Latin opera” Hommy. She then joined the Fania All-Stars, a salsa supergroup featuring the most popular performers on the Fania roster. With them, Cruz first sang “Bemba colorá” and “Diosa del ritmo” in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1973. She later traveled with the group to Kinshasa, Zaire, in 1974 and returned to San Juan in 1975 for another concert. These live recordings were commercially released years later. In addition, as part of The Rumble in the Jungle event, her performance in Zaire was included in the film Soul Power.

Cruz recorded her first studio album for Fania in 1974 in collaboration with Johnny Pacheco, the label’s founder, and musical director. The album Celia & Johnny and its lead single, “Quimbara were both a commercial success.

 In 1976, she participated in the documentary Salsa about Latin culture, along with figures like Dolores del Río and Willie Colón. The following year she recorded her first LP with Colón, a collaboration that would be repeated with great success in 1981 and 1987.

 When touring with Colón, Cruz wore a flamboyant costume, including various colored wigs, tight sequined dresses, and high heels. Her fashion style became so famous that one of them was acquired by the Smithsonian institution. In the late 1970s, she participated in an Eastern Air Lines commercial in Puerto Rico, singing the catchy phrase ¡Esto sí es volar! (This is to indeed fly!).

 Cruz also used to sing the identifying spot for WQBA radio station in Miami, formerly known as “La Cubanísima”: “I am the voice of Cuba, from this land, far away…I am liberty; I am WQBA, the most Cuban!” (Yo soy de Cuba, la voz, desde esta tierra lejana… ¡soy libertad, soy WQBA, Cubanísima!).

In 1982, Celia was reunited with the Sonora Matancera and recorded the album Feliz Encuentro. That year, the singer received the first tribute of her career at Madison Square Garden in New York. In 1987, Cruz performed a concert in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

 That concert was recognized by the publisher of the Guinness Book of Records as the largest free-entry outdoor concert, with an audience of 250,000 people. In 1988, she participated in the feature film Salsa alongside Robby Draco Rosa. In 1990, Cruz won her first Grammy Award (Best Tropical Latin Performance) for her album Ritmo en el corazón, recorded with Ray Barretto.

 She was also invited to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the Sonora Matancera in Central Park in New York. After that, however, the decline of Fania’s brand of salsa dura in favor of the emergent salsa romántica gradually ended Celia’s musical association with the Fania All-Stars.

 Their final reunions took place in Puerto Rico (1994) and Colombia (1995), both of which were released on CD.

In 1990, Cruz managed to return to Cuba. She was invited to make a presentation at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. When she came out of this presentation, she took in a bag a few grams of earth from Cuba, the same one she asked to be placed in her coffin when she died. In 1994, she received the National Endowment for the Arts award from then-President Bill Clinton, the highest recognition granted by the United States government to an artist.

Although she had previously made musical presentations in Mexican and Cuban films, in 1992, Celia debuted as an actress in the American movie Mambo Kings, along with Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas. A year later, she made her debut as a television actress in the Mexican telenovela Valentina, along with Verónica Castro for the Televisa network. In 1995, Celia made a guest appearance in the American film The Perez Family, along with Alfred Molina and Anjelica Huston.

 In 1997, she starred again for Televisa in the Mexican telenovela El alma no tiene color, a remake of the classic Mexican film Angelitos negros. Cruz played the role of a black woman who gave birth to a white daughter. On Oct. 25, 1997, the city of San Francisco, California, officially declared that date “Celia Cruz Day,

In 1998, she released the album Mi Vida es cantar, which featured one of her most successful songs, “La Vida es un Carnaval.” In 1999, she performed with Luciano Pavarotti at the Pavarotti and Friends concert. In 2000, Cruz released a new album under the auspices of Sony Music, Celia Cruz and Friends: A Night of Salsa, where she recorded again with Tito Puente, who died shortly after.

 Thanks to this album, Cruz was awarded her first Latin Grammy. In 2001, the album Siempre viviré made her second Latin Grammy creditor. That same year, she performed with Marc Anthony in a tribute to Aretha Franklin for VH1. Finally, in 2002, Cruz released the La Negra Tiene tumbao album, where she ventured into modern variants of Caribbean rhythms, influenced by rap and hip hop. For this record, she won her third Latin Grammy and her second American Grammy.

On Jul. 16, 2002, Cruz performed to a packed house at the free outdoor performing arts festival Central Park SummerStage in New York City. During the performance, she sang “Bemba colorá.” A live recording of this song was made available in 2005 on a commemorative CD honoring the festival’s 20-year history entitled “Central Park SummerStage: Live from the Heart of the City. “In addition, Cruz appeared on the Dionne Warwick albums Dionne Sings Dionne and My Friends & Me with their Latin duet version of “(Do You Know The Way To) San José.”

In the summer of 2003, as his beloved wife was dying of brain cancer, Pedro Knight set out to find her a final resting place. His wife of 41 years, the legendary salsa singer Celia Cruz, needed a space accessible to the legions of fans whose lives she had touched through her music.

He chose a plot in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. On Myosotis Avenue, a granite mausoleum was built with four windows so fans could peer in and pay their respects to their beloved Guarachera de Cuba, whose nickname came from the guaracha songs that made her famous. The mausoleum’s neighbors were gravestones and more giant monuments built in tribute to prominent New Yorkers of all stripes, including seven former mayors and musical giants like Duke Ellington and Miles Davis.

As thousands of fans worldwide made pilgrimages to Ms. Cruz’s grave after her death in July 2003, those who work at the cemetery noticed that whenever Mr. Knight visited, he shared his time with people who had come to pay respects to his wife. “The poor guy,” said Susan Olsen, Friends of the Woodlawn Cemetery executive director. “He never really had a chance to be alone with her.”

Earlier this month, the two were reunited.

Mr. Knight, who died in California on Feb. 3 at age 85, was entombed next to his wife on Feb. 13. 

His burial, on the day before Valentine’s Day, was the final chapter of a love story that had taken the couple from Fidel Castro’s Cuba to the heights of fame during life in exile in the United States.

Her nickname, which followed her into death, is engraved on her tombstone. Mr. Knight was her “cabecita de algondón,” her little cotton head, a nod to the fact that age turned his fuzzy curls and mutton-chop sideburns milky white.

The couple met in Havana in 1950, when Ms. Cruz joined the famous Sonora Matancera orchestra, where Mr. Knight played the trumpet. After defecting with the orchestra in 1960 in Mexico, they made their way to the United States and married in 1962.

Under her husband’s guidance, Ms. Cruz became a global salsa star. She was bathed in the limelight, and that was the way Mr. Knight liked it.

“He always wanted all of the attention to be on her,” said Omer Pardillo-Cid, Ms. Cruz’s former manager, on a recent visit to the tomb. “She was the flamboyant one; Pedro was always straightforward.”

Today, sunlight slanting into the couple’s shared chamber is colored by a stained-glass window depicting Our Lady of Charity, the patron saint of Cuba. Three photographs of Ms. Cruz in silver frames are displayed on her tomb, along with a rosary and a small Cuban flag, given to her during the only visit she could make to Cuba — to the Guantánamo military base during her decades in exile.

As yet, nothing adorns Mr. Knight’s tomb. Mr. Pardillo-Cid plans to display photos of him, but solo shots have proved difficult to come by. “It’s been hard finding a picture of just him,” Mr. Pardillo-Cid said. “They were always together.

Ms. Butterfly Genesis