Adiós to the Queen of Salsa

'She was my roots,' fan says
Salsa singer's death elicits feelings of loss
BY TERE FIGUERAS AND ADRIANA CORDOVI
tfigueras@herald.com

Eddy Sanchez didn't care that his battered Ford pickup blocked traffic as he made a wide semicircle onto Eighth Street.

He didn't care that his fingers, muscled and worn from decades of hard labor, shook a bit as he swiped them across two tear-filled eyes.

''I'm crying, look at me,'' said Sanchez, 50, a painter and construction worker by trade, leaning out his truck window to stare at the cluster of pink carnations strewn across one of the sidewalk stars on Calle Ocho's Walk of Fame, partially obscuring the name inscribed: Celia Cruz.

''She was the soundtrack to my life,'' said Sanchez, who left Cuba with his family when he was 10 years old. ``I danced with my wife to Celia Cruz when we married.''

He paused, then laughed.

''In fact, every woman I have ever known, every one that I have ever danced with, I have danced with to Celia Cruz,'' said Sanchez, watching as another person added another carnation in honor of the salsa queen, who died Wednesday of brain cancer.

ACROSS THE GLOBE

The death of the iconic Cruz elicited statements from boldfaced names across the globe, commenting on a career that spanned five decades and pushed Cuban music past national borders and across generation gaps.

But on Calle Ocho, and other parts of the county, fans commented on her death in the bittersweet and familiar terms of sorrow and loss.

''She was my roots, when we had no roots to really connect to,'' said Maria Oliva, 48, whose family left Cuba in 1965. Oliva, then 10 years old, was too young to care about dance and music. It was only growing up in the United States that she learned to love the sound of her country.

''And that sound was Celia,'' Oliva said, leaning down to press her hand on Cruz's name embedded in her star of fame.

Cruz's sound touched more than just her fellow exiles: Lovers of Latin music across the world embraced her signature earth style and her love of the classic Cuban son, the foundation for many genres of Latin music.

Cindy Valentin, born in Puerto Rico, sat on a bench near the memorial to the Bay of Pigs on Southwest Eighth Street and 13th Avenue.

`OURS, TOO'

''She was ours, too,'' said Valentin, pointing at her heart. ``I know she was sick, but it's still a shock. I just came here to meditate a little. And I'll probably cry, too.''

At Sedano's supermarket at 9686 SW 24th St., two clerks made Cuban coffee for customers as they reminisced about ``Celia.''

''Everyone has been feeling this,'' said Rosa Vasquez.

''The only thing that hurts me is that she never got to return to Cuba,'' added fellow employee Georgina Mara, as she listened to Salsa 98.3 FM's radio tribute to Cruz.

At La Palma restaurant at 6091 SW Eighth St., the usual group gathered outside for their evening ritual of Cuban coffee and chit-chat.

But the usual conversation topic of Cuba in general shifted to Celia specifically. ''Celia died, but her music didn't,'' said Manuel Vasco, 70.

THOUSANDS MOURN BELOVED SINGER CRUZ IN MIAMI

By BILL HOFFMANN

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July 20, 2003 -- The heartwarming celebration of Celia Cruz's life moved from New York to Florida yesterday - as thousands of fans lined the streets of Miami to pay their final respects to the beloved salsa superstar.
Latin singer Gloria Estefan and her music mogul husband, Emilio, were among the sea of mourners who openly wept as they filed past the open casket of Cruz, who died of brain cancer last week at the age of 77.

Many waved Cuban flags as they hugged and traded stories about the vibrant entertainer famous for such Latino smashes as "El Yerberito Moderno" and "Que le Den Candela."

In one poignant moment at the daylong memorial, the emotional crowd broke into the Cuban national anthem as they stood along Calle Ocho, the main street in Miami's biggest Cuban district.

Nila Alvarez, 68, who met Cruz years ago in Havana, said Cruz would be sorely missed. "She was always an idol, as a person and as an artist," Alvarez said.

"She was a symbol of Cuba," added mourner Jorge Luis Pelaez, 53.

The line of fans stretched for three blocks as doors opened for the viewing at the Freedom Tower, where 500,000 Cubans who fled Fidel Castro's government in the 1960s were processed by immigration officials.

Also in attendance were Cruz's husband, trumpeter Pedro Knight, singer Carlos Vives and talk-show host Cristina Saralegui.

Cruz's body will be returned to New York today for a private viewing by family and close friends.

Finale Fit for a Queen
Mourners set to honor Cruz

By Joshua Robin, Eli Reyes and Bryan Virasami
STAFF WRITERS; Staff writer Charles Enloe contributed to this story.

July 22, 2003

A horse-drawn carriage draped in Celia Cruz's favorite color - purple - will carry the Queen of Salsa down Fifth Avenue to St. Patrick's Cathedral today, leaving the funeral home where tens of thousands of fans said goodbye.

The world will then honor the Havana-born reina the same way she moved the world: with music.

Patti LaBelle will sing "Ave Maria." Salsa singer Victor Manuelle will also perform. And her fans - who stood 10 deep behind police barricades and marched into the chapel for 12 hours - will likely again wail "Celia! Celia!"

"She means everything to us," said Francesco Barone, 39, of Sunnyside.

Services for Cruz are expected to exceed Judy Garland's 1969 funeral, which drew about 22,000 people to Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home.

Cruz, 77, who won two Grammys and three Latin Grammys, died last Wednesday of a brain tumor in her Fort Lee, N.J., home.

After a weekend of memorials in Miami, Cruz's body returned to New York Sunday night. Yesterday it was the city's turn to mourn and crowds lined up from dawn onward at the funeral home on Madison Avenue and 81st Street. The mourners included Gov. George Pataki, Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller.

"She brought here our roots, our music, our culture, everything that we miss from our countries," said Floria Candela, 46, of Woodside, a fitting-room attendant at Macy's originally from Peru. "I feel a deep sadness, a big loss."

Inside the funeral home, Cruz's copper coffin was set before a Cuban flag. She wore a white sequined dress.

A sense of loss and sadness did not escape the hundreds outside, though some would break into impromptu versions of Cruz's hits and repeated that Cruz wanted to be remembered with happiness.

The crowd - many holding white, long-stemmed roses, worn LPs and dated photos - murmured about the concerts they shared, about her music and her legacy. One brought a bag of sugar - recalling that Cruz started her shows with the chant "Azucar!"

"I remember one time Celia was playing at the Manhattan Center and I was desperate to see her, so I went," Irene Huertas, a Puerto Rican native who lives in the Bronx, said as she held two Cruz LPs dating to the late 70s. "I lost a heel, but I kept dancing all night - until she finished. I loved her," she said.

Staff writer Charles Enloe contributed to this story.

Why They Loved Celia

Some mourners who paid their respects to salsa queen Celia Cruz yesterday offered theri thoughts about he singer and her music.

LIVE COVERAGE

Radio: WPAT-FM 93.1; WSKQ-FM 97.9

TV: NY1; NY! Noticias

QUOTES:

1) 'She was black, she was a woman, she was Cuban..I think she reaches people from all classes, all levels, all nationalities.'

Sheila Fernandez, 38, Hell's Kitchen, attorney

2) 'Not just Cuba, but the world lost something very good. She was the reina of the world.'

Jose Batista, 65, Stratford, Conn., retired airplane-engine factory worker

3) 'My mom's Cuban and I grew up listening to her music. It just feels like part of me..she means everything to us.'

Francesco Barone, 39, Sunnyside, Visual Mechandiser

4) 'She was an icon, plus she was a symbol of freedom... she brings joy to all thse people.'

Rebecca Sccott, 48, homeless

The Funeral

1) 81st and Madison

Led by white horses and festooned with flowers, a glass-sided carriage is to proceed down Fifth Avenue at 12:30 p.m. followed by limos carrying Cruz's family.

2) At 53rd

Gloria and Emilio Estefan will be among friends and celebrities joining the procession

3) St. Patrick's Cathedral

The funeral Mass is to be held at 2 p.m. The guest list is expected to include Ruben Blades, Jon Secada, Antonio Banderas, Victor Manuelle, Paquito D'Rivera, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Johnny Pacheco, and Patti LaBelle who is to sing "Ave Maria,"

The Mass is open to the public, but burial will be private.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

Final farewell to Celia Cruz
23/07/2003 08:30 - (SOUTH AFRICA)

New York - New York bid an emotional goodbye to Cuban-born "Queen of Salsa" Celia Cruz on Tuesday, as her coffin was carried on a white carriage through the city's streets to a funeral service at St Patrick's cathedral.

The carriage, bedecked with white flowers and Cuban flags and pulled by two white horses, was followed by fifteen limousines carrying her husband, Pedro Knight, members of her family and close friends.

Cruz, dressed in white, was laid on the carriage in a gold-coloured coffin accompanied by a crystal urn.

The singer died at her New Jersey home at the age of 77 last Wednesday of a brain tumor.

A white car drove slowly in front of the carriage flying the Cuban flag and carrying an image of Cuba's patron, the virgin of Caridad del Cobre.

"She is just beautiful in her casket, just like a saint," the salsa singer La India said.

Despite six days of mourning, in Miami and New York, her adoring fans turned out in their thousands in New York once again on Tuesday crowding the city's Fifth Avenue in a bid to gain a glimpse of the singer's funeral courtege.

The route was lined with the flags of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru and other Latin American nations.

"It's beautiful, beautiful," exclaimed Mildred, from New Jersey, adding "she deserves this and much more. God put her on this planet so she could give music to the people and be a good person, and she achieved that."

Jeanette Suarez, of Westchester, New York State, described Cruz as a "marvelous person" who gave so much to so many.

The cortege headed to the cathedral from a nearby chapel where fans were able to pay their last respects prior to Tuesday's funeral service. Organisers said some 75 000 people had paid their respects to Cruz at the chapel.

Her death has sparked such an outpouring of grief, that New York governor, George Pataki, has declared July 23 "Celia Cruz Day."

The auxiliary bishop of New York, Josu Irionodo, led the funeral service in Spanish at the catholic St Patrick's cathedral here for 1 500 mourners inside the building while loudspeakers broadcast the ceremony to those outside.

"She was born to be free," the bishop said adding "Celia rose high, very high, but she never distanced herself from the people. She didn't need stairs, an elevator or directions to reach the heights she achieved."

Michael Bloomberg, the New York mayor, the actor Antonio Banderas, and musicians Johnny Pacheco, Ruben Blades, Gloria Estefan and Marc Anthony were just some of the well-known personalities to attend the ceremony.

American singer Patti LaBelle sang Ave Maria while the Puerto Rican singer Victor Manuelle gave a rendition of "Life is a carnival" as mourners left the cathedral.

Following the ceremony, Cruz's coffin was taken for burial to the Woodlawn cemetery - where Louis Armstrong, Billie Holliday and Miles Davis are also buried - in the New York neighbourhood of the Bronx.

Her body will be laid a temporary mausoleum while a permanent one is finished for her over the next three months.

Cruz studied music in her hometown of Havana, where she was born October 21, 1925, sang on Cuban radio programs and, in 1950, became the lead singer of the legendary Cuban group Sonora Matancera. She wed the band's trumpeter Pedro Knight, by whom she is survived.

She and the band left Cuba in 1960 and eventually settled in the United States. Cruz was never allowed to return to her homeland.

Fidel "Castro never forgave me," she once said.

Tens of thousands of people paid an emotional tribute in heavily Cuban-American Miami Saturday to Cruz, who staunchly opposed communist Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Her endless string of hits helped bring Cuban music a wide international audience and ever-growing list of fans over a career that spanned six decades.

Oscar-winning US actress Whoopi Goldberg plans to play Cruz in a movie of her life story.

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