Fans of the late Celia Cruz, widely regarded as the Queen of Salsa, can now see what a U.S. coin bearing the singer's likeness will look like.
The Cuban megastar, who will be the first Afro Latina to be featured on a U.S. coin, will be depicted on the reverse side of the quarter wearing a rumba-style dress as she boasts a dazzling smile with her signature slogan “¡AZÚCAR!” (which means “sugar”) inscribed along with her name.
The U.S. Mint unveiled the design for Cruz as well as four other notable American women who were selected as the 2024 honorees for the American Women Quarters Program.
Although salsa was a genre dominated by male artists, the Cuban American singer and musician became a celebrated star and helped increase the popularity of salsa and Latin music in general. Cruz died at the age of 77 on July 16, 2003, at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Cruz, who gained worldwide acclaim, recorded over 80 albums — and 23 of them went gold. She was a three-time Grammy winner and four-time Latin Grammy recipient.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded Cruz the President’s National Medal of Arts and she received a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 Grammys.
Online users took to social media to express their excitement after the design's announcement came out.
Rubén García-Reyes said the coin was "beautiful," writing in a tweet in Spanish. Another user, Angela Greben, commented with Cruz's signature "Azúcar!" slogan and The Latin Recording Academy shared the news on their feed.
Celia Cruz was born in Havana in 1925 and began singing in the 1940s. After the 1959 Cuban revolution, she exiled in the U.S. after a performance tour in Mexico.
The other female honorees for the 2024 coins are Patsy Takemoto Mink of Hawaii, the first woman of color to serve in Congress; Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, a Civil War-era surgeon, women’s rights advocate and abolitionist; the Rev. Pauli Murray, a poet, writer, activist, lawyer and Episcopal priest; and Zitkala-Ša, also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, a writer, composer, educator and political activist for Native Americans’ right to U.S. citizenship and other civil rights.
“These beautiful designs recognize the achievements of these extraordinary women, and add to the Mint’s rich history of telling our Nation’s story through enduring examples of numismatic art,” Mint Director Ventris C. Gibson, said in a news release.
The women were chosen by the Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, the National Women’s History Museum and the Congressional Bipartisan Women’s Caucus.
