Celia Cruz

Although her father urged her to become a teacher, Cruz was soon winning numerous local singing competitions. Her big break came when she was invited to sing for La Sonora Matancera in 1950, a position she would hold for 15 years. When Fidel Castro came into power in 1959, Cruz immigrated to the United States. Cuban jazz legend Tito Puente helped her form a band for her solo career when the singer left La Sonora Matancera in 1965, and she successfully toured the globe during the '70s after making a mark on the New York Latin jazz scene. Cruz's worldwide popularity peaked with an appearance in the 1992 film The Mambo Kings; her other movies included Affair in Havana (1957), Juegos de Sociedad (1974), and The Perez Family (1995). Cruz won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Smithsonian Institute in 1994; that same year, the city of Miami named the Cuban community's main street in honor of the enduring songstress. Cruz died of brain cancer in Fort Lee, NJ, in July 2003. She was 77. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide