Celia Cruz, a Cuban American singer who was referred to as the Queen of Salsa, would be the first Afro-Latina lady to seem on American quarters as a part of a U.S. Mint initiative.
The mint mentioned in a information launch on Feb. 1 that Ms. Cruz could be featured as a 2024 honoree of the American Ladies Quarters Program, which portrays outstanding ladies all through historical past on the quarter.
Different honorees this yr embrace Patsy Takemoto Mink, the primary lady of coloration to serve in Congress; Pauli Murray, the author, lawyer and activist; Mary Edwards Walker, an abolitionist and surgeon throughout the Civil Conflict period; and Zitkala-Sa, often known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, who was a political activist for Native American rights.
The designs for the honorees can be made public by mid-2023, the mint mentioned.
Ms. Cruz, described by the mint as “one of the vital in style Latin artists of the twentieth century,” was born in Havana and joined Cuba’s hottest band, La Sonora Matancera.
Ms. Cruz gained 5 Grammy Awards, the Nationwide Medal of Arts and a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy, the mint mentioned.
Along with her voice, Ms. Cruz was recognized for sporting dazzling outfits and huge wigs. She moved to New York in 1961 and ultimately to Fort Lee, N.J., the place, in 2003, she died at 77 from problems after surgical procedure for a mind tumor.
“When folks hear me sing,” she advised The New York Instances in 1985, “I would like them to be completely happy, completely happy, completely happy. I don’t need them fascinated by when there’s not any cash, or when there’s preventing at house. My message is all the time felicidad — happiness.”
The American Ladies Quarters Program, which started in 2022 and can run via 2025, honors ladies in fields together with civil rights and science who’ve made contributions to U.S. historical past, in response to the mint’s web site.
Honorees are chosen by the Treasury secretary after consulting with the American Ladies’s Historical past Initiative on the Smithsonian Establishment, the Nationwide Ladies’s Historical past Museum and the Congressional Bipartisan Ladies’s Caucus, the mint mentioned.
Maya Angelou, Eleanor Roosevelt and Sally Trip are among the many program’s previous honorees.
“The entire ladies being honored have lived outstanding and multifaceted lives, and have made a major influence on our nation in their very own distinctive approach,” Ventris C. Gibson, the mint’s director, mentioned within the information launch. “By honoring these pioneering ladies, the mint continues to attach America via cash, that are like small artistic endeavors in your pocket.”
Different efforts over time have aimed to extend the range of figures represented on the nation’s forex. Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist, is meant to seem on the $20 invoice, however that change will most probably take a number of years due to a deadline regarding counterfeiting protections.
Supply: NY Times