Celia Cruz Quarter, U.S. Mint
The “Queen of Salsa” Celia Cruz is the fourth woman to be honored in the 2024 American Women Quarters Program and the first Afro-Latina to grace a U.S. coin. This vivacious vocal powerhouse’s career spanned continents, genres, and decades. That’s a lot of life and musicality to portray on a small metal disc, but U.S. Mint medallic artist Phebe Hemphill was up to the challenge and created a striking pocket portrait.
“I knew I had to make the design for superstar Celia Cruz as dynamic as she was,” Hemphill said. “I watched her perform in her famous rumba dress and tried to create a design that truly reflected her greatness and vitality.” Hemphill uses a combination of traditional clay relief sculpture and 3D imaging software in her designs.
It would be quite the task to encapsulate the vivacity of Cruz, who is known for her powerful voice, incredible vocal range, improvisational lyrics, on-stage dancing and humor, and infectious flamboyance. The performer's style has also made an impact. Her looks consisted of impressively high heels, colorful wigs, and dazzling gowns featuring sequins, ruffles, and feathers. Several of her favorite outfits, including a Cuban Rumba dress, now belong to the Smithsonian.
Luckily, the quarter captures an exuberant Cruz in characteristically fabulous garb, smiling next to her iconic cry,”¡Azúcar!” (sugar)—a saying that originated in a joke about Cuba’s powerful coffee and became a beloved catchphrase of her performances. (The image of George Washington on the reverse side was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser in 1932.)
Born Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso in 1925 in Barrio Santos Suarez in Havana, Cruz loved music from an early age. Though her father wanted her to be a teacher, she left her training in education and attended Havana’s National Conservatory of Music. Cruz started out performing for local cabarets and radio shows, and one of her first big breaks was singing for a popular orchestra called La Sonora Matancera. The trumpet player, Pedro Knight, later became her husband and manager.
After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, Cruz moved to Mexico and then New Jersey, launching a U.S. career that would include platinum and gold records, films, and Grammys, among other achievements and awards. One cornerstone of her success was joining the Tito Puente Orchestra, one of the groups that developed a popular new genre in the 1960s and 70s: salsa.
“I have fulfilled my father’s wish to be a teacher as, through my music, I teach generations of people about my culture and the happiness that is found in just living life,” Cruz said in 1997, six years before her death. “As a performer, I want people to feel their hearts sing and their spirits soar.”
Cuban-American singer Celia Cruz is now the first Afro-Latina to be featured on a U.S. quarter.
She joins other inspiring women in the 2024 American Women Quarters Program, including Zitkala-Ša, Patsy Takemoto Mink, Dr. Pauli Murray, and Mary Edwards Walker.
American Women Quarters, U.S. Mint
Cruz had more than 80 albums and songs, and artists in the music industry continue to feel the impact she has made.
The vivacious musician was also no stranger to the Latin Grammys, having won 4 awards herself.
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Watch the “Queen of Salsa” perform with Tito Puente in 2009.
Celia Cruz: Website | Instagram | YouTube | X
h/t: [ABC7]
All images via the United States Mint except where noted.
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