Introduction The year was 1988. My partner Tico Torres and I were living in London, and exiting an underground tube station one day, we noticed a huge poster that announced Celia Cruz in Concert! My first thought was, “Celia Cruz? Who in London would go see Celia Cruz?” Tico looked just as surprised. It’s not that we didn’t know who she was; quite the contrary. Tico and I were both born in Cuba, but we were young children when we left as part of the Freedom Flights in the late 1960s. Growing up in Miami, we wanted only to assimilate and be as all-American as possible—Celia Cruz was someone from our parents’ generation, part of the distant past. I associated her with the embarassment of being forced by my mother to dance with my little cousins to Celia’s tunes at every family gathering. While I would dance reluctantly to make my mother happy, Tico recalls being absolutely traumatized by similar experiences! Yet all these years later, outside the Tottenham Court Road station, something about that poster called to us. Perhaps it was the wet and miserable weather that made us miss the sunshine and color of Miami. Maybe we were homesick for family and familiar sounds. We felt compelled somehow to try to meet her. After a few hours of detective work, I tracked down her hotel. I put in a call and miraculously, I soon found myself being connected to Celia Cruz’s hotel room. A man answered, and I boldly said, “Good afternoon, we are two Cuban-American boys from Miami living in London, and we’d like to meet Celia.” “Hold on,” he said. Before I knew what was happening, he had handed Celia the phone. In complete shock, I heard myself stammer a greeting and explain who we were. Without missing a beat, Celia said, “Why don’t you come visit me tomorrow? I’m having a press conference in the afternoon but we can meet up after that for tea.” My head was spinning from the excitement of it all as I accepted her invitation. The next day, Tico and I found ourselves in a hotel room having tea with La Reina de la Salsa herself! From the minute we met, Celia treated us as if we were long lost friends. She introduced us to her husband, Pedro Knight, who turned out to be the man who had answered the phone the day before. She plied us with more cakes and more tea. She wanted to know everything about us and what we were up to in London. As the afternoon came to an end, Celia asked if we were going to see her concert the next day. Tico and I hesitated. As struggling artists in London, we were literally living off bread and mayonnaise. It was an awkward moment, and I murmured “it wasn’t really in our budget.” “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Celia said. “I’ll make a few calls and will be in touch with you tomorrow.” Sure enough, Celia herself called the very next morning. “I don’t do this very often,” she explained, “but it was so nice to meet both of you yesterday. Go to the box office tonight and there will be a pair of tickets waiting for you.” That evening,we went to the box office of the Hammersmith Palais and found she had left two tickets to the concert along with V.I.P. backstage passes—Access All Areas. Tico and I were thrilled. We were even more surprised when we entered the arena and found it was packed with thousands of people, die-hard fans in London. At that moment we realized that Celia Cruz was more than just a singer from Cuba. She was the Queen of Cuban music. That night, we danced to her music again, and this time, there was no shame. This time, we danced with pride to the warmth and the colors and the pure joy of her music. It was the start of an amazing friendship and collaboration. For the next 15 years, I had the privilege of knowing Celia, of sharing some of the best of times with her, and capturing her on film. This collection of photographs is a record of the precious moments I spent with her, but more importantly it is a personal tribute to the incredible woman who reconnected me to my past and my heritage. The woman who brought me home again. Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte New York

Presenting

CELIA CRUZ

ALEXIS RODRIGUEZ-DUARTE

IN COLLABORATION WITH

EN COLABORACIÓN CON

TICO TORRES

FEATURING ESSAYS BY

PRESENTANDO ENSAYOS DE

LIZ BALMASEDA

GUILLERMO CABRERA INFANTE

LYDIA MARTIN

A KEVIN KWAN PROJECT

CLARKSON POTTER PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

A L E X I S R O D R I G U E Z-D U A R T E

P H O T O G R A P H Y f o t o g r a f i a

A stunning tribute as the final curtain is pulled back on a music legend…

“How magically Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte has captured the energy, life and

spirit of Celia Cruz—her voice sings to us on every page!”

—Gloria Vanderbilt

PRESENTING

CELIA CRUZ

By Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte

Celia Cruz used to say when she was alive, “My name is Celia Cruz,” and those words still resound today. A year after her death, we pause to remember the life of Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, the famed “Queen of Salsa,” who helped reinvent the sound of modern Latin music and influenced a generation of musicians. In a career that spanned more than fifty years and produced more than 70 albums—including a bounty of gold and platinum records—Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte’s definitive pictorial tribute PRESENTING CELIA CRUZ (Clarkson Potter/Publishers, October 26, 2004) captures the many facets of Celia’s extraordinary life.

Noticing a sparkle in her eye early on, Rodriguez-Duarte cold-called Celia in London over fifteen years ago and soon became her one-and-only personal photographer and ultimately a close confidant; PRESENTING CELIA CRUZ gives us the unfetted access never seen before. Presented in over 100 full color photographs, Rodriguez-Duarte’s stunning photography shines as different aspects from Celia’s life are depicted—from her obsession to wearing nine inch high heel shoes to her displays of public affection towards her husband, Pedro Knight, to a rare, behind-the-scenes look to a pre-Grammy Awards dress fitting by acclaimed designer Narciso Rodriguez. PRESENTING CELIA CRUZ is also a thrilling front row look at Celia’s music career, taking us back to her electric, live performances, including duets with Marc Anthony and the legendary Tito Puente, and the infamous Diva Concert in Manhattan. Perhaps more intimately, Rodriguez-Duarte’s unlimited access shows us a range of never-before-seen photos of Celia readying before her performances. With a watchful eye, he captures another side that fans never saw in quiet, hushed moments as she prepared herself backstage.

Matched to these wonderful images are anecdotes and testimonies from Celia’s friends from all areas of life she bridged: music, fashion, the arts, the media, and even politics; these are complemented by well-known essayists who explore Cruz’s legacy and how she was an influence to so many people. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Liz Balmaseda writes about the time she interviewed Celia in Puerto Rico for a newspaper story and conveys a fascinating picture: “It is here, during this trip, that I learn what makes Celia truly regal…Celia doesn’t blitz through life. She savors it.” As other friends attest, such as well-known Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante, singers Jennifer Lopez and Patti LaBelle, and fashion gurus Oscar De La Renta and Thierry Mugler, we get a deeper understanding about how Celia’s influence went beyond the dance floor and music studio, as her style, creativity and success established her not only as an innovative entertainer but also an ambassador of Latino culture.

By the end of her life, Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso won five Grammys, two Latin Grammys, had countless hit songs, helped reinvent the sound of modern Latin music and lived life to the fullest—PRESENTING CELIA CRUZ is the ultimate tribute. Combining poignant recounts from her friends and intimate never-before-published images, La Reina de la Salsa is brought to life again as we remember Celia the Diva, the performer, the Latino ambassador, the friend, the wife, the collaborator, and the legend.

#####

Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte was born in Havana, Cuba, and left with his parents through the Freedom Flights in 1968. He was given his first camera, a Voightlander, by his grandfather when he was ten years old, sparking his interest in photography. His photography has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Town & Country, The New Yorker, Vogue and countless other publications. Rodriguez-Duarte has participated in a symposium at the Smithsonian Institute entitled American Voices: Latino Photographers in the United States. He is an adjunct professor at the International Center for Photography in New York City, where he currently lives.

PRESENTING CELIA CRUZ

By Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte

Clarkson Potter/Publishers

Introduction

The year was 1988. My partner Tico Torres and I were living in London, and exiting an underground tube station one day, we noticed a huge poster that announced Celia Cruz in Concert! My first thought was, “Celia Cruz? Who in London would go see Celia Cruz?” Tico looked just as surprised.

It’s not that we didn’t know who she was; quite the contrary. Tico and I were both born in Cuba, but we were young children when we left as part of the Freedom Flights in the late 1960s. Growing up in Miami, we wanted only to assimilate and be as all-American as possible—Celia Cruz was someone from our parents’ generation, part of the distant past. I associated her with the embarassment of being forced by my mother to dance with my little cousins to Celia’s tunes at every family gathering. While I would dance reluctantly to make my mother happy, Tico recalls being absolutely traumatized by similar experiences!

Yet all these years later, outside the Tottenham Court Road station, something about that poster called to us. Perhaps it was the wet and miserable weather that made us miss the sunshine and color of Miami. Maybe we were homesick for family and familiar sounds. We felt compelled somehow to try to meet her.

After a few hours of detective work, I tracked down her hotel. I put in a call and miraculously, I soon found myself being connected to Celia Cruz’s hotel room. A man answered, and I boldly said, “Good afternoon, we are two Cuban-American boys from Miami living in London, and we’d like to meet Celia.”

“Hold on,” he said. Before I knew what was happening, he had handed Celia the phone. In complete shock, I heard myself stammer a greeting and explain who we were. Without missing a beat, Celia said, “Why don’t you come visit me tomorrow? I’m having a press conference in the afternoon but we can meet up after that for tea.”

My head was spinning from the excitement of it all as I accepted her invitation. The next day, Tico and I found ourselves in a hotel room having tea with La Reina de la Salsa herself! From the minute we met, Celia treated us as if we were long lost friends. She introduced us to her husband, Pedro Knight, who turned out to be the man who had answered the phone the day before. She plied us with more cakes and more tea. She wanted to know everything about us and what we were up to in London.

As the afternoon came to an end, Celia asked if we were going to see her concert the next day. Tico and I hesitated. As struggling artists in London, we were literally living off bread and mayonnaise. It was an awkward moment, and I murmured “it wasn’t really in our budget.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Celia said. “I’ll make a few calls and will be in touch with you tomorrow.”

Sure enough, Celia herself called the very next morning. “I don’t do this very often,” she explained, “but it was so nice to meet both of you yesterday. Go to the box office tonight and there will be a pair of tickets waiting for you.”

That evening,we went to the box office of the Hammersmith Palais and found she had left two tickets to the concert along with V.I.P. backstage passes—Access All Areas. Tico and I were thrilled. We were even more surprised when we entered the arena and found it was packed with thousands of people, die-hard fans in London. At that moment we realized that Celia Cruz was more than just a singer from Cuba. She was the Queen of Cuban music. That night, we danced to her music again, and this time, there was no shame. This time, we danced with pride to the warmth and the colors and the pure joy of her music.

It was the start of an amazing friendship and collaboration. For the next 15 years, I had the privilege of knowing Celia, of sharing some of the best of times with her, and capturing her on film. This collection of photographs is a record of the precious moments I spent with her, but more importantly it is a personal tribute to the incredible woman who reconnected me to my past and my heritage. The woman who brought me home again.

Alexis Rodriguez-Duarte

New York