Celia Cruz Research Paper

On February 22, 1971 Fernandez was born in Long Beach, California to her father, a Cuban baseball star and her mother, a Puerto Rican softball player. At the age of seven she started out in a local children's league where she tried out as a pitcher. However, her coach told her that she will never make it because of her size and build. In 1986 she moved to Lakewood,

One of the many questions brought up while reading this book was the relationship between Celia and her

Still a major star in her own right, Celia became an inspiration for numerous younger performers (such as Gloria Estefan) in the 1990s; her audience hardly aged along with her. "We've never had to attract these kids," she told Time. "They come by themselves. Rock is a strong influence on them, but they still want to know about their roots." For most Latin Americans, indeed, Celia Cruz has been and remains a much-loved figure, an icon of Latin culture.

His first time singing was in one of his father’s concerts, he was supposed to sing Alejandra but in the middle of the song he forgot the lyrics and had a panic attack, Vicente then got on the stage and sang with him.

Selena practiced sing in Spanish and when she perfected it, she performed it. Selena started to become big, performing with her family all over. Her father Abraham being the manager they ended up meeting Chris Pérez, who was a very good guitarist. They considered Chris Pérez joining the

Salomé Ureña de Henríquez was born 21 October 1850 in the city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to Nicolás Ureña de Mendoza and Gregoria Díaz y León. Her father was a well-educated man: a lawyer, a teacher, a poet, and as a journalist founded newspaper El Progreso in 1853. She was born in a very turbulent time, surrounded by political uncertainty. Salomé Ureña was born

The main character in the film “Selena” is a woman named Selena. Everyone else in the movie is a sub character that plays off of the role of Selena. The movie is about Selena’s life and the movie begins with her as a little girl and ends with her as a Mexican-American pop star loved by both the Mexican and American communities. Selena goes from being a young girl who’s band is compromised of her brothers and sisters to a mega star known by fans all over the world. As Selena became more successful she faced many obstacles in her career. First, Selena had to learn Spanish in order to sing in Spanish to connect with the Mexican community as her father felt she had the best chance to make it big if she tried to appeal to the Mexican community. Once she became a huge star with her Spanish singing music, she then did a crossover album in English, which helped to make her a pop star worldwide. Since Selena was Mexican-American, not Mexican, it was an obstacle for her to be seen as authentic by the Mexican community. Selena’s second big obstacle was that she was a woman. Mexico is traditionally a male dominant society and before Selena there had never been a Spanish singing female to evolve into a superstar. In the movie, Selena overcomes both of these obstacles and she does become one of the greatest

Unfortunatly after the Texas Oil Bust of 1981, the restaurant went bankrupt and had to be shut down. So Abraham bought a bus and “Selena Y Los Dinos” began to tour the Texas countryside. At age 13 Selena had to leave 8th grade and start taking high school correspondence courses by mail. Selena sang almost exclusively Spanish. She sang a Tex-Mex pop called Tejano. They made there first recording in 1984, slowly people started to notice and love Selena, but by her being a female Tejano performer, no one thought she would actually last, because the Tejano industry of music was ruled over by men, and although many women had tried, they rarely made it to stardom. Little did they know that “Selena Y Los Dinos” would climb the charts and end up being the top Tejano band in the country. It was in 1987, that they really started to make it to the top. All the recording and touring throughout the 80’s finally paid off, because in 1987 “Selena y Los Dinos” came to national attention, when Selena won a Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist and Performer of the Year. It was a great accomplishment for a 15 year old girl. Until then the two categories didn’t even exist. Her fame was definitely being brought to the Latino communities, but Selena wanted more. In 1989, Selena and her band were signed to EMI, also known as Capitol Records, releasing there album a year later. Over the next few years

Trujillo. She is respected throughout the Dominican Republic. In every aspect of her life, she

As well as being a singer, Selena Quintanilla also made her own fashion line and became a designer in 1993. Coca-Cola saw something in her and reached out asking for her to become a spokesperson for them in 1994. She even managed to snag a role in the movie Don Juan Demarco in 1995. Since Selena Quintanilla had to drop-out of school, she found it extremely important to stay in school. She went to tons of schools to inform them how important it is to stay in school. So to influence kids in a positive way she made educational videos titled My Music, and Selena Agrees. Selena Quintanilla also showed her support for CHC, homeless people, people in abusive relationships, and victims of Hurricane Andrew. She even helped raise funds for D.A.R.E, DEP corporation, and Teach the Children, by performing fund raising concerts. Overall, she was known as an amazing singer and an even better person.

Selena’s talent was distributed to a larger audience and was no longer confined to the walls of the family business when Primo Ledesma, a disc jockey, who hosted a weekly Spanish-language radio show, drifted into Papa Gayo’s for a listen. Lesdema recorded Selena singing, telling her father, Abraham, that “she was going places” (Patoski 42). There were numerous responses and intrigues about the new voice that was played when Ledesma broadcasted the tape on his show the following day. The incident with Ledesma was the beginning of the fame Selena would come to know. After Papa Gayo’s was shut down due to foreclosure, the Quintanilla family went bankrupt as well. This hapless circumstance came to be the initiation of Selena’s musical career: Selena recounts, “Basically, my musical career started when my family went bankrupt, and had to resort to music for money” (Patoski 43-45). The Quintanilla children hit the road, performing throughout southern Texas as Selena y Los Dinos with their father Abraham as their manager. Their venues consisted of weddings, cantinas and honky-tonks, and even when the audience was less than ten people, the group never passed up an opportunity to perform; the family’s means of survival lied in those performances (“Selena”).

Celia Cruz born Ursula Hilaria Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso, a female Cuban singer born October 21, 1925 in Havana Cuba was one of the most influential figures in Latin music. She started her musical career in her native country in the late 1940’s early 1950’s performing for various Cuban radio shows and traveling with the orchestra accompanying the dancing group “Las Mulatas del Fuego.” Her big break came in 1950 when she joined “La Sonora Matancera” the most famous orchestra in Cuba at the time. Celia traveled all over Latin America in the 1950’s with “La Sonora” gaining great success in countries like Venezuela and Mexico. She recorded various albums with the orchestra and gained great popularity during that time with songs like “Caramelo”, “Burundanga”, and

Selena Quintanilla was such an amazing person inside and out more known as the queen of tejano music. She won the hearts of many people young and old in the little time she was here on earth. Blessing many people with her contagious smile, and positive upbeat attitude. Selena has always had where to pull from when it came to being musically talented. Her father Abraham Quintanilla played in a band called Los Dinos which means the boys in Spanish. He had to give his life up as an artist because he got married and had his first kid. Therefore he had to find a better support system for his family. So when he saw that Selena had talent he focused all his goals and dreams on her. Therefore selena had to make a lot of sacrifices and not live a normal childhood.

The second reason is simply a generation difference. One might assume that due to the very different upbringings and the societies that the two were brought up in, that very conflicting morals and values may have been molded. Celia grew up in a Cuba under the rule of a dictator-like, oppressive leader. Celia saw Cuba’s true poverty stricken state and long for a new regime. Reasons for Lourdes’s rebellious attitude toward her mother and Cuba in general are much more abundant and clear. Though Lourdes was raised in a very similar society as of that of her mother’s upbringing, but the severity of the government that ruled during her childhood produced a different view of the country all together. Lourdes is a very strong, independent woman whom has man complaints of the method of rule in Cuba. “Lourdes never accepted the life designated

She was born in the small town of Los Toldos on the