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Speaker 1: Joseph, I hate to do this to you.

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Speaker 2: Are you breaking up with me on Mike Never?

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Speaker 3: Oh, thank god, I'm just kicking things off with another

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Speaker 3: little pop quiz for us.

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Speaker 2: Okay, hold on, change your plans now, I am breaking

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Speaker 2: up with you.

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Speaker 3: Okay, Well, this episode's gonna be a little tense for

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Speaker 3: the audience.

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Speaker 2: Only if I get the wrong answer. So okay, all right.

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Speaker 3: Which of the following songs did not appear on Celia's

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Speaker 3: nineteen sixty five solo album titled Songs I Wish I

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Speaker 3: had been the first to record? Is it Kisaski, sasky

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Speaker 3: sas havn Nikuila or Age of Aquarius? Which of those

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Speaker 3: songs was not on the album?

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Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna say the have an Nikuila song.

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Speaker 3: No, it was actually Age of Aquarius, which was recorded

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Speaker 3: four years later.

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Speaker 2: And yes, you.

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Speaker 3: Guys, if I had a photo and I could post

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Speaker 3: this and there was a video of this podcast, you

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Speaker 3: would look at his face.

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Speaker 1: He is in complete shock.

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Speaker 2: That is nuts.

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Speaker 1: This kind of tells you everything.

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Speaker 3: You need to know about Celia Cruz's recording career in

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Speaker 3: the sixties. She's doing Latin pop standards in classic styles.

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Speaker 3: She's demonstrating a worldly cross cultural interest.

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Speaker 2: In a true Sagittarius spoon fashion.

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Speaker 3: And despite coming of age musically in the fifties, she's

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Speaker 3: staying on top of the new musical and cultural trends.

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Speaker 2: She also just had her life turned upside down, and

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Speaker 2: yet she kept on doing her thing.

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Speaker 3: The loss of her mother and her homeland. Basically, in

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Speaker 3: one fell.

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Speaker 2: Swoop, it's Huangi's all over again. Our icons are survivors, honey.

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Speaker 3: And thrivers, please, And when Celia thrived, an entire groundbreaking

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Speaker 3: musical scene thrived along with her. That's today on Becoming

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Speaker 3: an Icon. I'm your host Lillianavosca.

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Speaker 2: And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon.

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Speaker 3: A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on

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Speaker 3: how today's most famous latinv stars have shaped pop culture.

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Speaker 2: And given the world some extra level.

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Speaker 1: Sit back and get comfortable.

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Speaker 2: Because we are going in the only way we know how.

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Speaker 3: With buenasvivras, agunasriesas, some chies, me and a lot of

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Speaker 3: opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey

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Speaker 3: to find out what makes them so iconic. Celia was

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Speaker 3: farther from home than she had ever been. In nineteen

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Speaker 3: sixty one, at the age of thirty six, she became

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Speaker 3: an American citizen.

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Speaker 2: But she wasn't alone. She had bedro Knight, her husband

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Speaker 2: and manager, by her side, and she had left the

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Speaker 2: island alongside Las So Nora Mantanza, the band that she

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Speaker 2: had been hand picked to lead in Cuba.

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Speaker 3: Driven into exile by the revolution, Celia and La Sonora

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Speaker 3: ended up in New York City. A week long residency

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Speaker 3: at a local theater led to years of performances there,

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Speaker 3: as well as the group's first ever tour outside of

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Speaker 3: the Americas, co headlined with Titoe and his orchestra.

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Speaker 2: The tour would send them all across to Europe and

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Speaker 2: then to Japan. Because you knew our girl was big

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Speaker 2: in Japan, Hanny Kawai.

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Speaker 3: Ringing Celia once again even farther from home than she'd

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Speaker 3: ever really been. And it was at this new height

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Speaker 3: of fame that Celia decided to part ways with the band.

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Speaker 2: It was the end of an era and the beginning

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Speaker 2: of another for Celia.

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Speaker 3: Okay, so shortly after leaving the band, Celia linked up

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Speaker 3: with the two had already met about a decade prior

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Speaker 3: back in Cuba.

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Speaker 2: Puente was a born and raised New York weekend from

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Speaker 2: Spanish Harlem who had studied music at Juilliard thanks to

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Speaker 2: the Chiaivo.

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Speaker 1: By the way, I did not know that, Like did

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Speaker 1: you know that?

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Speaker 3: I mean, I know he's a musical genius, but like,

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Speaker 3: hello Juilliard, get it, Tito. I was like, yo, he'd

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Speaker 3: be knowing real stuff now in the fifties, you guys.

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Speaker 3: Buente had been instrumental in bringing Cuban and Caribbean music

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Speaker 3: to a global audience.

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Speaker 2: And in nineteen sixty six he helped Celia kickoff for

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Speaker 2: a new chapter. In earnest. The two of them would

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Speaker 2: release a pair of albums that year. One was titled

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Speaker 2: Cuba Puerto.

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Speaker 3: Rico Son, which is a reference to a poem describing

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Speaker 3: Cuba and Puerto Rico as two wings of one bird.

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Speaker 1: I kind of like that, ah.

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Speaker 2: And the second one was so.

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Speaker 3: You sound Cubano, you know what I'm saying. Isn't it amazing?

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Speaker 3: How diverse are languages even though it's one language. Like,

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Speaker 3: people don't get that. People don't get it. They're like, oh,

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Speaker 3: you all speak Spanish. I'm like, if you hear my

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Speaker 3: dad talking to his brothers and you hear my mom

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Speaker 3: talking to her sisters. Those are two different languages, let's

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Speaker 3: be very clear.

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Speaker 2: And I do not understand them, only Mexicans. That's it, period.

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Speaker 3: I wish in these moments we had a video podcast,

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Speaker 3: so bad because we are looking at two different album covers. So, Joseph,

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Speaker 3: can you describe the difference between the goub and Puerto

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Speaker 3: Rico album with Celia and Fido on the cover and

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Speaker 3: then just the Celia Cruz album where it's just her

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Speaker 3: in this beautiful, like polka dot flamenco dress.

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Speaker 2: I mean, that's just the biggest difference is that she

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Speaker 2: is front and center by herself and it kind of

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Speaker 2: looks like she's in the middle of like the Wilderness.

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Speaker 3: Epo, and the other one is just her and him. Yes,

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Speaker 3: but she's wearing basically the same dress. They just added

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Speaker 3: polka dots onto the other one.

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Speaker 2: I know, do you think it's the same dress or

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Speaker 2: she did that's her cut? You think that's her fit?

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Speaker 2: She knew her form.

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Speaker 3: I think she knew like her signature style right, like

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Speaker 3: she was very much known. I think for kind of

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Speaker 3: how bold she was. It was kind of like that

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Speaker 3: uniform right like. And it's interesting to me because she

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Speaker 3: also wore all of the colorful wigs before, like all

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Speaker 3: of the rappers.

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Speaker 2: Like before Nicki Minaj hanging.

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Speaker 1: This is before Nikki, this is before Cardi.

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Speaker 3: Like Celia was out in her red hair, in her

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Speaker 3: blue hair, in her purple hair, in her blonde hair. Like,

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Speaker 3: girl was rocking a wig before any of these rappers

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Speaker 3: came in.

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Speaker 2: She right was. She's a pioneer on all front.

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Speaker 3: It was the Pelucas, like she had Pelucas before, we

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Speaker 3: called them, we wa She was ready to be her

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Speaker 3: own woman. And on the album cover for Son, you

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Speaker 3: could see that Celia posed on the cover alone without

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Speaker 3: the band behind her. And in a retrospective for NPR Music,

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Speaker 3: Stephanie Fernandez would write.

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Speaker 2: At Once a Girl in Cuba's countryside, set firmly in

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Speaker 2: the day to day landscape and concerns of El Campo

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Speaker 2: as well as the burgeoning star.

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Speaker 3: The album puts Celia front and center, her Cuban roots,

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Speaker 3: her electric personality, and her distinct perspective as a Cuban American.

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Speaker 2: It's got the fast waachas and tragic cooleros that she

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Speaker 2: had built her name on, but more than that, the

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Speaker 2: lyrics hit the girl from her campo theme hard.

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Speaker 3: There's a song called noi manteca where she sings about

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Speaker 3: not having any.

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Speaker 1: Lard to cook with.

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Speaker 2: Girl, I've been there if.

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Speaker 3: You grew up in a Latino household, that is a

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Speaker 3: nine to one one emergency.

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Speaker 1: How are we making tortillas?

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Speaker 2: True?

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Speaker 1: How are we frying?

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Speaker 2: And don't forget semi prio la carta. I lost my purse,

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Speaker 2: like literally just lost my wallet last weekend too. I

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Speaker 2: still feel you, Celia.

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Speaker 3: One thing the retrospective points out is that she sings

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Speaker 3: as both a Cuban and as a new American citizen.

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Speaker 3: Noi monteca could be about food shortages on the island,

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Speaker 3: or it could be about being a struggling immigrant.

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Speaker 2: In semi periola Cartera, she goes on a rift and sings,

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Speaker 2: Hi mira perrilos as perjuelos lali cenia is social security.

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Speaker 3: I love that losing your stuff is scary enough, but

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Speaker 3: as an immigrant, that's like a whole different level of

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Speaker 3: fear unlocked, like you do not exist pells.

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Speaker 2: Whoa, that is really scary now that you actually put

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Speaker 2: that into like retrospect. But wait, then there was Bolero,

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Speaker 2: where she sings to the devil with humanity because the

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Speaker 2: world is one half falsehood and the other half a lie.

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Speaker 2: It's not the happy go Look you, Celia, we got

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Speaker 2: on mugs and votive candles.

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Speaker 3: You know what I mean exactly? Celia always gave us

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Speaker 3: hope and strove for unity. But that doesn't mean she's

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Speaker 3: sugarcoated things. I'm just going to state the obvious here.

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Speaker 3: On top of being a refugee, she was a black

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Speaker 3: woman who overcame obstacles in her life.

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Speaker 2: We didn't get into it the last episode, but back

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Speaker 2: in the fifties, not everyone was happy that a black

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Speaker 2: woman took over as the singer for La Sonora Mantanzena.

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Speaker 1: No, they were not.

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Speaker 3: She proved the critics wrong and took the band to

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Speaker 3: new heights of But it goes to show that her

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Speaker 3: identity was always core to her music, her persona, and

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Speaker 3: even her catchphrase, Assuka Wait, do.

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Speaker 1: You want to help me tell the story of Asuka?

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Speaker 2: Okay, First of all, this is the role of a

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Speaker 2: lifetime honey. Let's go.

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Speaker 3: It's nineteen sixty four and Celia's playing a string of

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Speaker 3: shows at a Miami nightclub. She and Pedro Knight are

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Speaker 3: having launch at a nearby restaurant, and when they finished,

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Speaker 3: the waiter asked if she'd like a Cuban gofes sito

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Speaker 3: and if she'd like a little sugar.

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Speaker 1: Celia responds, Miratsuko, you're a Cuban.

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Speaker 2: You know how strong our coffee is. How are you

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Speaker 2: going to ask me that question? Astuca Glado?

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Speaker 1: Do you really think she said it like that in

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Speaker 1: the moment?

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Speaker 2: No? No, I think she said it more intense. But

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Speaker 2: I would do her a disservice if I even tried.

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Speaker 3: The same night, Celia tells a story at the Monmark

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Speaker 3: Cabaret where she's performing.

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Speaker 1: The audience eats it up.

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Speaker 2: Then where it gets around, and soon the audience is

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Speaker 2: begging her to tell the story every night.

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Speaker 3: But Celia gets tired of telling the story every single show,

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Speaker 3: like she wants some new material. So one night she says,

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Speaker 3: you know what, I'm not going to do it tonight.

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Speaker 2: And instead, when the announcer introduces her on the stage,

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Speaker 2: she comes down the stairs just shouting the punchline Asuka.

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Speaker 3: The audience, already knowing the story, loves it, and thus

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Speaker 3: Celia's signature catchphrase is born. But do not get it twisted.

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Speaker 3: It's way more than some T shirt slogan.

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Speaker 2: Just like a good cafecito.

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Speaker 3: It's got depth because, on one level, the story is

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Speaker 3: a beloved piece of Cuban American folklore. Every Cuban knows it,

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Speaker 3: just like every Cuban knows what gafesito should taste like.

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Speaker 2: On another level, when Sania drops asuka into a song

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Speaker 2: about El Campo or about the struggles of poverty, it's

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Speaker 2: hard or to not hear it as a reference to

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Speaker 2: the sugar king fields worked by her ancestors.

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Speaker 3: One of Celia's superpowers as a performer is her ability

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Speaker 3: to weave pieces of her history and heritage into her music.

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Speaker 1: Without the racing any details.

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Speaker 2: She was Cuban history personified in all its struggles and resilience,

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Speaker 2: and you knew it when.

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Speaker 3: She came on stage, that's right, and when you heard

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Speaker 3: her in the track It's Time to Talk.

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Speaker 1: Fanya Records.

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Speaker 3: Celia would continue touring with Depo Puente and recording for

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Speaker 3: his label, Thegal Records into the seventies, and in nineteen

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Speaker 3: seventy three, yet another bandleader would approach her with a

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Speaker 3: unique opportunity.

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Speaker 2: Larry Harlowe born in Brownsville, Brooklyn had studied music in Cuba.

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Speaker 2: After immersing himself in the Latin music of New York.

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Speaker 2: The nineteen fifty nine Revolution would send him back to

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Speaker 2: his hometown.

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Speaker 3: Back in New York, Harlow was inspired hired by the

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Speaker 3: seminal concept album Tommy from British rock band The Who,

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Speaker 3: and he wrote Hommy No Quote, Latin opera filled with

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Speaker 3: the Afro Cuban and jazz music he had spent his.

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Speaker 1: Adult life studying and composing.

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Speaker 2: Harlow approached Seria de singh Gracia devina, a climactic, longing

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Speaker 2: song Kubano number with dramatic strings and bright horns. This

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Speaker 2: sound is giving son double O seven. Have you heard it?

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Speaker 1: I have not, but I will be adding it to

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Speaker 1: my playlist.

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Speaker 2: Is so mysterious and so like, I don't know. It

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Speaker 2: just reminded me of like a Cuban version of double

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Speaker 2: oh seven.

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Speaker 1: Like Adele's Double O seven.

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Speaker 2: Song Yes Big band Eat mm hmm.

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Speaker 3: So this show was actually put up at Carnegie Hall,

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Speaker 3: and after her iconic performance, Celia was approached by the

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Speaker 3: label that represented Larry Harlow, Fanya Records.

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Speaker 2: The legendary Fanya Records was founded in nineteen sixty four

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Speaker 2: when Dominican bandleader Johnny Pacheco decided he had had enough

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Speaker 2: of the EIGHTYBD payouts his previous label had given him

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Speaker 2: for his music. It do be like that.

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Speaker 3: By the seventies, Bacheco had gone from selling records out

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Speaker 3: of the trunk of his car to leading a record

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Speaker 3: label featuring such Latin luminaries as Willie Colonne, Hector Levo,

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Speaker 3: Rey Bareto, and finally Celia Cruz.

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Speaker 2: Bachiko felt that Celia's earlier records tended to limit her

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Speaker 2: incomparable voice. Bacheco said, Celia sounded good with a stick

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Speaker 2: banging against a can. She didn't need all those instruments.

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Speaker 1: Damn shots fired, watch out d.

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Speaker 2: Dong or at least Tito's engineer.

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Speaker 3: Either way, he kind of had a point. Despite continuing

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Speaker 3: to tour and perform, Celia's profile on the Latin music

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Speaker 3: scene in New York City hadn't quite matched her dominance

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Speaker 3: of Havana and Latin America as a whole.

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Speaker 2: But that would all change with Celia's first record with Finat,

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Speaker 2: titled Celia Johnny.

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Speaker 3: Celia Johnny would give us two stone cold Celia Classics

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Speaker 3: and gambara.

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Speaker 2: Ka kma kimakam man back kimba kim okay.

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Speaker 3: I am going to get your record deal because your

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Speaker 3: ability to do that, Like, are you doing that on

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Speaker 3: the weekends and on off hours?

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Speaker 1: Are you practicing?

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Speaker 2: You know? I when I'm meditating, I'm saying it. Thing.

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Speaker 2: It's like a thing now.

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Speaker 3: Instrumentally, Celia and Johnny featured more than a stick of

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Speaker 3: hanging against a can. It had the horns and the

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Speaker 3: rhythm section characteristic of Cuban music, but true to Johnny

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Speaker 3: Bajeko's words, the production gave Celia's voice a chance to

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Speaker 3: really shine.

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Speaker 2: Before it was a hipster thing, vinyl was the only

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Speaker 2: way to listen to music on demand. If the record

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Speaker 2: didn't sound great, the people weren't going to put it

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Speaker 2: on repeat.

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Speaker 3: I don't think repeat was a button on record players, Joseph,

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00:14:49,640 --> 00:14:50,400
Speaker 3: are you sure?

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Speaker 2: I think if you just kind of like lift it

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Speaker 2: up a little bit and then you just let it

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Speaker 2: kind of come back, it'll hope.

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Speaker 3: It was definitely manual. There was no automated replay on

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Speaker 3: a record player.

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Speaker 2: See this is why we're breaking up anyway. Celia e

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Speaker 2: Johnny introduced a whole new generation of Latinos, including young

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Speaker 2: Latinos living in the US, to the legendary Celia.

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Speaker 1: Cruz, and it introduced the world.

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Speaker 2: To Sasa Liliana pop quiz.

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Speaker 3: Whoa wa, whoa wait, wait a second, I don't know

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Speaker 3: that I like this turning of the tables.

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Speaker 2: Okay, how do you define salsa a music?

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Speaker 1: I can shake my ass too with a partner.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I thought you're going to say something more technical,

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Speaker 2: because I know how you are. But wow, if you

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Speaker 2: want to get technical, it's hard to pin salsa down

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Speaker 2: as one thing. As early as the forties, Cuban musicians

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Speaker 2: were referred to as Salcero's.

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Speaker 3: Celia Cruz herself said salsa is Cuban music with another name.

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Speaker 3: It's mambo chacacha rumbas on all the Cuban rhythms under

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Speaker 3: one name.

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Speaker 2: People have also argued over whether satsa actually describes a

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Speaker 2: genre if it's just a marketing term.

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Speaker 3: By the way, my dad gets in this fight all

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Speaker 3: the time, I'm like, DoD, please surrender, surrender, stop fighting

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Speaker 3: the fight.

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Speaker 1: Okay.

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Speaker 3: But fellow Fania artist Willie Colonne was a little less

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Speaker 3: cynical about it, saying salsa was basically just the force

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Speaker 3: that united diverse Latino and non Latino racial and ethnic groups.

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Speaker 3: Salsa is the harmonic sum of all Latin culture. By

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Speaker 3: the way, that is way nicer than music you can

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Speaker 3: shake your ass to with a partner in a club,

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Speaker 3: you know.

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Speaker 2: What I mean. So salsa is nothing, but it's also

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Speaker 2: all the things.

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Speaker 3: Salsa's dead, long live Salsa. The point is a large

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Speaker 3: group of extremely talented musician with roots in neighboring Caribbean

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Speaker 3: countries ended up being actual neighbors in New York.

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Speaker 2: Being in the same place at the same time. They

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Speaker 2: converged around a musical template rooted in Cuban rhythms and

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Speaker 2: song structures, a template that let each of them add

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Speaker 2: a little something of their own.

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Speaker 3: And in the process they give Latinos across the un

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Speaker 3: US and beyond a place to overcome their own divisions.

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Speaker 1: The dance floor was our shared ground.

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Speaker 2: Case endpoint. Just before Celia was signed to the label,

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Speaker 2: the Fanya All Stars supergroup had played Yankee Stadium to

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Speaker 2: a roaring crowd of forty five fiousand for.

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Speaker 3: A concert that is near capacity, salsa was big, huge,

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Speaker 3: and that.

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Speaker 2: Very same year, with Seja among their crown Jewel performers.

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Speaker 2: The All Stars would perform to an even bigger crowd

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Speaker 2: in Zaiere, Africa.

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Speaker 1: Joseph, are you there?

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Speaker 3: H I feel like you take a break sometimes and

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Speaker 3: I don't know when you're there.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I'm back.

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Speaker 3: Do you remember, way way back in twenty seventeen when

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Speaker 3: everyone was going nuts about Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor.

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Speaker 2: I do vaguely remember straight people being very excited I

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00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:03,399
Speaker 2: did about boxing for a minute, so like, yes.

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Speaker 1: Okay, let me jog your memory a little more.

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Speaker 3: So. They called it the biggest fight in combat sports history.

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Speaker 3: Two boxers faces plastered everywhere where you could stick a poster.

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Speaker 2: Mm hmmm, okay, I get that, but what does this

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Speaker 2: have to do with sheeliaut Kruz.

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Speaker 1: Okay, happy you asked.

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Speaker 3: In nineteen seventy four, the biggest boxing match in history

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Speaker 3: happened in Zire, Africa, Muhammad Ali versus George Foreman. They

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Speaker 3: were facing off for a five million dollar prize.

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Speaker 2: Perse Wow, I'm guessing this was way before George Foreman

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Speaker 2: made his grill fortune.

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Speaker 3: I can't, by the way, I had one in college

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00:18:41,280 --> 00:18:45,719
Speaker 3: maybe two, okay, and yes, way before that and coinciding

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00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:48,200
Speaker 3: with this huge boxing match was a three night music

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Speaker 3: festival that put American icons like James Brown and Bill

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Speaker 3: Withers alongside African musical stars and of course, yes newly

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00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:03,159
Speaker 3: signed fun icon Celia Cruz along with the rest of

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Speaker 3: the FANYA All Stars.

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Speaker 2: Now that is some Beachella level hype.

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Speaker 1: Now, if you want to talk hype.

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00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:12,199
Speaker 3: This fight would be the first time Muhammad Ali had

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Speaker 3: entered the ring in three and a half years after

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Speaker 3: protesting the draft, and George Foreman was at the top

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00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:21,719
Speaker 3: of his game. The entire world was hyped for this

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00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:26,480
Speaker 3: match and and it got delayed five weeks because Foreman

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Speaker 3: was injured, but the Zaire seventy four music festival would continue.

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Speaker 2: I just want to say this, what if I went

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00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:36,400
Speaker 2: to this fight? You know me and you are going

379
00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:38,639
Speaker 2: to fight in Africa? And like if I have to

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Speaker 2: wait an additional five weeks, Like I don't know if

381
00:19:41,119 --> 00:19:43,639
Speaker 2: I can stay there, Like how do people have money

382
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Speaker 2: like this?

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Speaker 1: You're like, yo, my PTO is out?

384
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I need to call my manager really like

385
00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:52,960
Speaker 2: what but I get it. Listen, the show must go.

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Speaker 3: On, Yes, and Celia and her contemporaries would perform for

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Speaker 3: a crowd of sixty thousand people, Celia's biggest show yet.

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Speaker 1: This festival was a huge deal.

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Speaker 3: People don't understand what it was like to be able

390
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Speaker 3: to put a show on like this back in the day.

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00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:15,159
Speaker 3: Like we are so different now because we have so

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Speaker 3: many music festivals all the time, like you have the

393
00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:21,479
Speaker 3: Miami like edim One, You've got Coachella. You're almost like

394
00:20:21,760 --> 00:20:24,880
Speaker 3: oversaturated in the marketplace. But to put something together like.

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Speaker 1: This was a really big deal.

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Speaker 3: And together with the fight Rumble in the Jungle, the

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Speaker 3: whole thing was builed as an event for Pan African unity.

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Speaker 2: After landing in Sayere Mohammad Ali describe it as something

399
00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:41,480
Speaker 2: of a homecoming, and it's hard not to see Celia's

400
00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:42,840
Speaker 2: performance in the same light.

401
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Speaker 3: Like we said, she never checked her blackness at the

402
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Speaker 3: door before taking the stage.

403
00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:51,919
Speaker 2: Our Queen sang like a santea on vinyl for the

404
00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:55,200
Speaker 2: world to hear. You think she wasn't feeling the odishas

405
00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:56,480
Speaker 2: when she landed in Africa.

406
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Speaker 3: Girl, And think about Celia playing the festival in the

407
00:21:00,920 --> 00:21:04,359
Speaker 3: middle of the seventies. In America, a whole generation had

408
00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:07,200
Speaker 3: come of age during the Civil rights movement, and across Africa,

409
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:10,680
Speaker 3: former European colonies were gaining independence, but.

410
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,400
Speaker 2: Our civil rights leaders in America had been struck down

411
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:16,879
Speaker 2: in their prime, and for countries like Sayir, independence wouldn't

412
00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:20,320
Speaker 2: heal all wounds. The nineteen seventies is the best of

413
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Speaker 2: time's worst of times.

414
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:25,800
Speaker 3: Shit, there's a reason we compare the seventies to today.

415
00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:30,080
Speaker 3: There's division all over, and amid the chaos, there's also

416
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:31,680
Speaker 3: calls for unity, and for.

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Speaker 2: Everything Celia had gone through in her life, it makes

418
00:21:34,040 --> 00:21:36,520
Speaker 2: sense that she would be their calling for unity, but

419
00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:38,480
Speaker 2: it's also an incredible show of.

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Speaker 3: Strength, and she even went further, standing not only for

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Speaker 3: Black unity, but for unity among latinos. Celia would continue

422
00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:48,600
Speaker 3: recording with Johnny Pacheco through her Fanya years, but she

423
00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:52,640
Speaker 3: also recorded a trio of groundbreaking records with fellow legend Willie.

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Speaker 2: Colonne, the bad Boy of Finance.

425
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Speaker 3: Oh yes, those records were nineteen seventy sevens. Only they

426
00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:02,440
Speaker 3: could have made this up nineteen eighty one's Celia Wuili

427
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:04,480
Speaker 3: and nineteen eighty seven's The Winners.

428
00:22:05,160 --> 00:22:07,959
Speaker 2: I mean, only they could have made it this album.

429
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:10,440
Speaker 2: The audacity of these titles is crazy.

430
00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:12,639
Speaker 1: Hey, they earned their bragging rights.

431
00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:17,600
Speaker 3: Those records included classics like used Abuso, cukur Ukuku Paloma,

432
00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:20,440
Speaker 3: even a new version of Burundanga.

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Speaker 2: But the second of those two albums contained a little

434
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Speaker 2: song titled Latinos and Estausoonios.

435
00:22:26,080 --> 00:22:29,600
Speaker 3: The song is a cheerful, full throated call to solidarity

436
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,720
Speaker 3: among Latinos living in the United States. It directly references

437
00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 3: Latinos mixed and varied roots among Indigenous America, Africa, and Spain,

438
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:43,280
Speaker 3: and it speaks directly to the immigrant experience. Joseph want

439
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:44,239
Speaker 3: to read the lyrics for us.

440
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:49,120
Speaker 2: In our migrant mind, sometimes there is confusion, but there's

441
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:52,200
Speaker 2: no one who can fool our hearts and souls. Latinos

442
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:55,520
Speaker 2: in the US. Let's unite because in union there is power,

443
00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:58,440
Speaker 2: respect and value preach.

444
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 3: She also urges us not to lose the Spanish language,

445
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:07,480
Speaker 3: which okay, okay, Celia, I feel guilty every day already,

446
00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:09,920
Speaker 3: my aitah.

447
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:11,960
Speaker 2: Abuelita in effect, But I mean, she just wanted us

448
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 2: to stay true. Also, you know, I want to say this,

449
00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 2: I bet you that that song. I think when she

450
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:18,600
Speaker 2: came to New York, she realized that there was a

451
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:21,760
Speaker 2: lot of you know, Latinos here who really didn't know Spanish,

452
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,200
Speaker 2: and she was probably very shocked by that meeting a

453
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:25,840
Speaker 2: lot of New York weekends, like maybe some of those

454
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:27,400
Speaker 2: people that she worked with didn't know Spanish.

455
00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:36,160
Speaker 3: Have you heard Jaelo speaking Spanish? Block Latinos and eslosnidos.

456
00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:38,240
Speaker 3: Is it one of Celia's super mega hits. It's not

457
00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:42,600
Speaker 3: Bembe Colora, it's not Guimbara, it's not La Neumbao, but

458
00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:44,480
Speaker 3: it speaks volumes.

459
00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:46,400
Speaker 1: About her perspective as a Latina.

460
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:49,960
Speaker 2: Listening to your music as a Latin person, you kind

461
00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:52,399
Speaker 2: of just know that Celia is on your side. That's

462
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,920
Speaker 2: the Libras on energy. It's balance and fairness and harmony.

463
00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:59,080
Speaker 1: She is an icon in the truest sense of the word.

464
00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 3: She made everyone and feel like they could see a

465
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:05,000
Speaker 3: bit of themselves in her, all while being uniquely and

466
00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:06,399
Speaker 3: distinctly herself.

467
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:09,280
Speaker 2: That's how she smashed barriers, booth.

468
00:24:09,359 --> 00:24:12,200
Speaker 3: And in nineteen eighty seven, she'd also smash a record

469
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:16,160
Speaker 3: for the biggest free open air concert in live music.

470
00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:20,560
Speaker 2: History, seriously bigger than The Rumble in the Jungle.

471
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:22,000
Speaker 1: Oh Yes.

472
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:27,080
Speaker 3: On March third, Celia Cruz reunited with Las Sonorra Mantansera

473
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 3: and co headlined the annual carnival on Nitife, the largest

474
00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:34,560
Speaker 3: of the Canary Islands. Take a wild guess how many

475
00:24:34,600 --> 00:24:35,480
Speaker 3: people showed up?

476
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:35,919
Speaker 1: Joseph.

477
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:39,720
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's an island. I'm going to say, well,

478
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:42,960
Speaker 2: it was more than sixty because that was the other one.

479
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,040
Speaker 2: So I'm going to say it was maybe like seventy

480
00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:48,320
Speaker 2: five thousand, because I don't imagine that that's a very

481
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:48,879
Speaker 2: big island.

482
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:50,840
Speaker 1: Seventy five thousand, that's your final guest.

483
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:52,240
Speaker 2: I'm going to say one hundred thousand.

484
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:53,600
Speaker 1: Girl, you need to phone a friend.

485
00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:56,600
Speaker 2: I'll phone you. How many?

486
00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:02,359
Speaker 3: Two hundred and forty thousand just shot of a quarter million? Wow,

487
00:25:02,680 --> 00:25:05,439
Speaker 3: and enough to smash that world record for the largest

488
00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:09,000
Speaker 3: free open air concert in live music history.

489
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:11,439
Speaker 2: Like, I just want to say, how big is that

490
00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:14,439
Speaker 2: island that two hundred and forty thousand people are just

491
00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:16,679
Speaker 2: going to a car? I think everybody on the island

492
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 2: was there, if that's what we're going to say. Also,

493
00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:21,960
Speaker 2: who was counting the census officials? Okay, they were like

494
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:23,800
Speaker 2: are you here for the concert or no, are you

495
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:24,920
Speaker 2: here to get to das can.

496
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:28,760
Speaker 3: I just tell you I've also been to thee around

497
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:32,199
Speaker 3: this time. Like it's like, I don't know where they

498
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 3: put all those people, like was everyone on a boat listening?

499
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:36,120
Speaker 2: It's small.

500
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 3: It is small, Yeah, Mery Islands it's small. It's not

501
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:42,480
Speaker 3: like tiny, but it is small. It's just the idea

502
00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:44,560
Speaker 3: that a quarter million people would turn up for something

503
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:47,080
Speaker 3: like this was pre social media. Like they didn't blast

504
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:49,399
Speaker 3: the shit on x or put it on Instagram and

505
00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 3: were like, come to the concert.

506
00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 2: An open air concert like cool, but like you know,

507
00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:54,840
Speaker 2: like maybe I don't have a radio or I don't

508
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:56,800
Speaker 2: know how people are listening to shit then, and what

509
00:25:56,920 --> 00:25:58,639
Speaker 2: I'm like getting the groceries and I'm like, why is

510
00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:00,960
Speaker 2: everybody over there? Let me just put my eggs and

511
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,680
Speaker 2: milk down and then just go see why everyone's over there.

512
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:08,880
Speaker 3: Let's go back to thendifah Okay. During this concert, Celia

513
00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:11,640
Speaker 3: would profess to the crowd a deep love for the island,

514
00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:14,879
Speaker 3: saying that it calmed her longing for Cuba, and she

515
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:17,679
Speaker 3: would continue visiting and performing there for the remainder of

516
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 3: her life.

517
00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:20,920
Speaker 2: And she's still got some life of ahead of her.

518
00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:22,119
Speaker 2: Don't jump ahead like that.

519
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 1: I would never.

520
00:26:24,680 --> 00:26:28,439
Speaker 3: Don't worry. We have one whole episode left with our queen.

521
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 2: Next time, on becoming an Icon La Rena's Twilight.

522
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 3: Years awards, accolades, and a fistful of Cuban soil. Becoming

523
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:49,240
Speaker 3: an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael Duda

524
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 3: podcast network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the iHeartRadio app,

525
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,440
Speaker 3: Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast