Cuban-American singer Celia Cruz, who passed away in 2003, has become the first Afro-Latina to be featured on a U.S. quarter, as issued by the United States Mint.
The coin was recently unveiled on the Mint’s website.
Cruz is the 14th woman honored in the American Women Quarters program, which began in 2022. Other notable figures who have received this recognition include writer and activist Maya Angelou, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mexican American journalist Jovita Idar.
The coin depicts Cruz smiling alongside her famous catchphrase, “¡Azúcar!” On the reverse side, an image of George Washington, designed by artist Laura Gardin Fraser in 1932, commemorates the 200th anniversary of the first U.S. president’s birth.
The American Women Quarters program, which runs through 2025, aims to celebrate the achievements and contributions of women to the United States.
The U.S. Embassy in Cuba marked the occasion with a statement in Spanish on X, celebrating the historic moment and the legacy of the Queen of Salsa.
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