Celeste Mendoza (born

Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba is the second-largest city in Cuba and the capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province. It lies in the southeastern area of the island, some southeast of the Cuban capital of Havana. The municipality extends over , and contains t ...

6 April 1930, died

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

22 November 1998), was a Cuban singer.

Biography

Celeste Mendoza was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1930. She was best known for her singing of guaguancos, the music of the street rumbas, a form of music previously almost exclusively associated with male singers. She started her professional career as a dancer, appearing at various cabarets, including shows choreographed by "Rodney" Neyras at the Tropicana. In the late 1950s she signed with Gema Records, and made a series of recordings with Bebo Valdez's orchestra. She also recorded with

Ernesto Duarte Brito Ernesto Duarte Brito (Jovellanos (Cuba), November 7, 1922 – Madrid, Spain, March 4, 1988) was a Cuban musician, author of the bolero ''Cómo fue'', whose performance by Benny Moré became very famous. There are many versions of this bolero all ...

's band. Mendoza toured internationally, and, in 1965, appeared at the Olympia in Paris with the

Orquesta Aragón Orquesta Aragón is a Cuban musical band formed on 30 September 1939, by Orestes Aragón Cantero in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The band originally had the name ''Ritmica 39'', then ''Ritmica Aragón'' before settling on its final form. Though they did not ...

and Los Zafiros as part of the show ''Gran Music Hall de Cuba''. Her career flagged in the late 1960s, but she returned to public attention in the 1980s, performing at festivals and making recordings with the son revival group

Sierra Maestra The Sierra Maestra is a mountain range that runs westward across the south of the old Oriente Province in southeast Cuba, rising abruptly from the coast. The range falls mainly within the Santiago de Cuba and in Granma Provinces. Some view it a ...

. She went on to record with Los Papines and Clave Y Guaguanco.

References

1930 births 1998 deaths Cuban musicians People from Santiago de Cuba {{Cuba-musician-stub