Celia Cruz will be the first Afro Latina to appear on US quarters: NPR

Cuban-American salsa singer Celia Cruz on stage at VH1 Divas Live: The One and Only Aretha Franklin in New York in 2001. Cruz is honored in the United States in 2024.

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Cuban-American salsa singer Celia Cruz on stage at VH1 Divas Live: The One and Only Aretha Franklin in New York in 2001. Cruz is honored in the United States in 2024.

Scott Gries/Getty Images

Celia Cruz used to make history. The late Cuban-American icon recorded more than 80 albums, won 23 gold records, won five Grammy Awards and received the President’s National Medal of Arts. And now the U.S. Mint is honoring Cruz with a quarter of its own, making her the first Afro Latina to appear on the coin.

She is one of five honorees who are part of the American Women Quarters program for 2024. The program, which began in 2022 and will run through 2025, celebrates the achievements and contributions of American women. Other 2024 honorees include Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color to serve in Congress; Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, Civil War surgeon and suffragist; Pauli Murray, civil rights activist and lawyer; and Zitkala-Ša, a suffrage activist from the Yankton Sioux Nation.

“All of the honored women have lived remarkable and multi-faceted lives, and have had a significant impact on our nation in their own ways,” Mint Director Ventris C. Gibson said in a statement.

“Women who pioneered change over their lifetimes, not caving in to the status quo imposed over their lifetimes. By honoring these pioneering women, the Mint continues to connect America through coins that are like small works of art. ‘art in your pocket.’

Cruz was born in 1925 in Havana. She first made a splash in Cuba as the lead singer of the country’s most popular orchestra, La Sonora Matancera. After the Cuban Revolution, she immigrated to the United States in 1961 and helped define the sound of salsa music we know and love today. Her energetic stage presence, outlandish costumes and incredible voice have made her a household name in her more than 60-year career. She died in 2003 at the age of 77.

Designs for the 2024 American Women Quarters will be released in mid-2023.