HAPPY FRIDAY P.O.U.!
We continue our look at Famous Black Couples.
Celia Cruz (born Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso on October 21, 1924 – July 16, 2003) was a Cuban-American salsa singer, and was one of the most successful Salsa performers of the 20th century, having earned twenty-three gold albums. She was renowned internationally as the “Queen of Salsa” as well as “La Guarachera de Cuba.”[1]
She spent most of her career living in New Jersey, and working in the United States and several Latin American countries.
Celia Cobo of Billboard Magazine once said “Cruz is indisputably the best known and most influential female figure in the history of Cuban music.” Cruz once said in an interview “If I had a chance I wouldn’t have been singing and dancing, I would be a teacher just like my dad wanted me to be”
Cruz was born October 21, 1924 in the diverse, working-class neighborhood of Santos Suárez neighborhood in Havana, Cuba.[2] She is the second child of fourteen children[3] born to Catalina Alfonso and Simón Cruz. Simón worked in the railroads as a stoker, and Catalina took care of the extended family.
While growing up in Cuba’s diverse 1930s musical climate, Cruz listened to many musicians that later influenced her adult career, such as Paulina Alvarez, Fernando Collazo, Abelardo Barroso, Pablo Quevedo, Arsenio Rodríguez, and Arcaño y sus Maravillas. Celia Cruz also studied the words to Yoruba songs with colleague Mercedita Valdes (an Akpwon santeria singer) from Cuba and Celia made various recordings of this religious genre singing even back up for other female akpwons like Candita Batista.[4]
When she was a teenager, her aunt took her and her cousin to cabarets to sing, but her father encouraged her to keep attending school, in hopes that she would become a Spanish language teacher. However, one of her teachers told her that as an entertainer she could earn in one day what most Cuban teachers earned in a month. Cruz began singing in Havana’s radio station Radio Garcia-Serra’s popular “Hora del Té” daily broadcast, she sang the tango “Nostalgias”, (and won a cake as first place) often winning cakes and also opportunities to participate in more contests. Her first recordings were made in 1948 in Venezuela. Before that, Cruz had recorded for radio stations.
Pedro Knight Caraballo (September 30, 1921 – February 3, 2007) was an accomplished Cuban-American musician who was better known for being the husband of legendary singer Celia Cruz.
Knight was a trumpeter for Sonora Matancera when Cruz was hired, as a back-up singer. The couple soon began a relationship that lasted until Cruz’s death in 2003 from a malignant cerebral tumor.
In 1960, members of the Sonora Matancera moved to Miami, Florida, fleeing Fidel Castro’s Cuba. In 1961, they began performing at the prestigious Palladium Ballroom in New York City.
Knight and Cruz got married in 1962. It was at that point, that Knight decided to step back and let his wife take all the limelight, although he continued to tour as one of her musicians. Ironically, the fact that he took a step back in order to help his wife’s career, also made him famous and well-respected across Latin America. He would be interviewed multiple times by television shows and make multiple show business friendships, including Maria Celeste Arraras, who expressed her respects to him about three months after Cruz’s death, by telling him on live television to “remember (that we) all like you”.
Knight was devastated by Cruz’s death. Cruz used to call him “mi cabecita de algodón” (“my little cotton head”). He stood by her side as she suffered from cancer, and he had expressed hope in public that she would recuperate. They had no children. Cruz died 2 days after their 41st anniversary.
Here’s a video of Celia and Pedro performing “Usted Abuso” in the special Celia Cruz & Friends: A Night of Salsa
Check out Celia twerkin’ it for her hubby Latina style in the music video “Sazón”