Celia Cruz makes history again by being chosen for a US coin.

The legend of the sauce Celia Cruzwho died in 2003, has once again made history by being chosen to appear on the quarter-dollar coin. dollar in 2024, as the first Afro-Latina to be selected for this tribute.

The US television network ABC News reported this Wednesday that Cruz, born in Havana in 1925 but who immigrated to the US as an adult, has been selected by the US Mint for its initiative “American Women Quarters Program” (American Women’s Quarters Program).

Under this program, which runs between 2022 and 2025, the Mint issues 25-cent pieces each year to honor five women “ethnically, racially, and geographically diverse”.

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The honorees range from relevant figures in the field of civil rights, science, government, arts or space, among others.

The other four chosen along with Cruz to appear on the coin are Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first non-white woman to reach the US Congress; Mary Edwards, surgeon, civil rights activist, and abolitionist; the Reverend Pauli Murray, a poet, writer, and attorney; and Zitkala-Sa, known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, a writer, composer, and Native American rights activist.

Designs for the 2024 quarters will be released in mid-2023.

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Cruz began singing in his native Cuba in one of the most popular orchestras of the time, Sonora Matancera. After the revolution on the island between 1953 and 1959, Cruz immigrated to the US in 1961 and helped define the sound of salsa as it is understood today.

Throughout his career of more than six decades, Cruz left his personal mark on the stage with energetic performances, his powerful voice and a commanding presence.

The “queen of sauce” He passed away in 2003 at the age of 77.

Source: EFE