Celia Cruz Net Worth

As a teenager, an aunt took Celia Cruz and her cousin to cabarets to sing, but her father encouraged Cruz to attend school in the hopes that she would become a teacher. Cruz began singing in Havana’s radio station Radio Garcia-Serra’s popular Hora del Té daily broadcast, where she sang the tango nostalgias and won first place. She often won contests, which afforded new opportunities to participate in more contests. Her first recordings were in 1948 in Venezuela. On July 16, 2003, Cruz died of brain cancer at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey at the age of 77. On March 16, 2011, Celia Cruz was honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a commemorative postage stamp. The Cruz stamp was one of a group of five stamps honoring Latin music greats, which included Selena, Tito Puente, Carmen Miranda and Carlos Gardel. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History collaborated with photographer Robert Weingarten to create a portrait of Celia Cruz and the portrait was unveiled October 3, 2012.