Cuba<\/a> a presence in the world,\u201d the priest told those gathered at the Basilica of La Caridad in the populous neighborhood of Centro Habana.<\/p>\nAn unforgiving government<\/p>\n
The priest said the Mass was commissioned by a group of artists who admire Cruz.<\/p>\n
Among those present were renowned artists including singer Haila Mar\u00eda Mompi\u00e9 and musician Ala\u00edn P\u00e9rez, as well as the United States Charg\u00e9 d\u2019Affaires, Mike Hammer.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer songs give hope and joy, but she also wanted freedom for all the Cuban people, which is something we all desire, so for me it is a great honor to be here today, to remember her life,\u201d Hammer told reporters after the Mass, which was not attended by any government official or Ministry of Culture representative.<\/p>\n
Born in Havana on Oct. 21, 1925, Celia Cruz, nicknamed the \u201cGuarachera of Cuba\u201d and the \u201cQueen of Salsa,\u201d built a solid career as a vocalist on the island before going into exile in 1960 and settling in the United States, where she also became an icon for a highly politicized community opposed to the Cuban revolution led by the late leader, Fidel Castro.<\/p>\n
The artist died in 2003 without returning to her homeland, although in 1990 she performed at the U.S. Naval Base in Guant\u00e1namo, a territory under U.S. control that Havana historically has unsuccessfully claimed.<\/p>\n
During her career, Cruz received little coverage in radio, television or print in Cuba, where authorities never forgave her for her hard alignment with the exile community and the United States.<\/p>\n
An empty chair under spotlights<\/p>\n
In anticipation of her centennial, the theater group El P\u00fablico had announced a tribute performance at the prestigious Cuban Art Factory on Sunday. But a few hours before the performance, the state-run National Center for Popular Music announced briefly on social media that it would not take place. It did not provide an explanation.<\/p>\n
There was no immediate reaction from the Cuban Art Factory. But on Monday, the organization posted a photo on its Facebook account that showed an empty chair on stage illuminated by overhead spotlights, a scene that remained in place for the duration of the canceled performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cA work of art that never was, a chair, silence, and the art of resistance,\u201d read the post. \u201cCelia Lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Artists and musicologists protested on social media what they considered an arbitrary act of censorship by authorities.<\/p>\n
A few weeks earlier, the Failde Orchestra had dedicated a segment of a concert to Celia Cruz\u2019s centennial.<\/p>\n
For musicologist Rosa Marquetti, the prohibition of the tribute is a \u201cchapter\u201d of \u201ccensorship and the application of political curatorial methods within Cuban culture,\u201d she wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have spent 60 years trying \u2014 without success \u2014 to tarnish one of the most extraordinary trajectories of life in the cultural sphere in defense of an identity, with an unflinching sense of belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Follow AP\u2019s Latin America coverage at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/a><\/p>\nAndrea Rodr\u00edguez, The Associated Press<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAVANA (AP) \u2014 Hundreds of people on Tuesday attended a Mass in Havana to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Celia Cruz\u2019s birth just days after Cuban authorities canceled a theater performance in honor of the revered singer without explanation, drawing criticism over what some say was an act of censorship. Activities to remember the illustrious […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2106636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[388991,379083,398699,398230,379448,376648,22202,398700,398698,25432],"class_list":["post-2106635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-celia-cruz","tag-cuba","tag-cuban-authorities","tag-cuban-revolution","tag-havana","tag-mike-hammer","tag-performances","tag-renowned-artists","tag-theater-performance","tag-united-states"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Mass-to-honor-salsa-singer-Celia-Cruz-draws-hundreds-in.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2106635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2106637,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106635\/revisions\/2106637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2106636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2106635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2106635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2106635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}