In part II of my 4 part show about ‘La Guarachera‘ Celia Cruz we will talk about Celia’s life and work in the 60’s, an often overlooked yet important part of her life. 

After Celia left Cuba on July 15, 1960, she and La Sonora went to Mexico where they encountered a booming market for Afro-Cuban music. A year later, Celia left to the LA Palladium and soon after traveled to New York where she settled with Pedro Knight, who she was now dating. Sadly in early April of 1962, Celia’s mother, who was still in Cuba, battling cancer, died. Celia was devastated. Later that day she had an engagement at the Puerto Rico Theater and she recalled crying behind the curtains between sets. Even through this difficult time, there were good moments, soon after, Celia was the first Latina to perfrom at Carnegie Hall and on July 14 of that year, she married Pedro Knight. In 1965, Celia left La Sonora, she had ended her contract with Seeco Records, which meant she couldn’t contniue to work with them. WHen they heard she was leaving, some of the band members even cried. In 1965, Celia released her first album with Tito Puente, now signed with Morris Levy’s  Tico. In all the duo recorded 8 albums, unfortunately none were big hits. Celia’s career wasn’t doing so well, the youth craved the sounds of Latin Soul and Boogaloo, dismissing Celia and Tito as “their parents music“. The late 60’s and early 70’s weren’t easy and she mostly worked in Mexico where she still had many fans. All this would change when Larry Harlow, with permission from Morris Levy, recorded ‘Gracia Divina’ for the first ever Salsa opera, Hommy which debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1973. Celia’s career launched to new heights. Hear all this and morwe in this week’s episode. 

Link to listen to Pa’lante. 

https://wpfwfm.org/radio/index.php (On Sundays 8-10 PM, hosted by Daniel del Pielago) 

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