The full title of this article by Edwin Flores (NBC News) is “The design for the U.S. coin featuring ‘Queen of Salsa’ Celia Cruz is out — and it includes her iconic slogan.” Flores writes that “The musical legend’s likeness and the word that made her famous will be in a U.S. quarter, delighting fans of the Afro Cuban icon.”

Fans of the late Celia Cruz, widely regarded as the Queen of Salsa, can now see what a U.S. coin bearing the singer’s likeness will look like.

The Cuban megastar, who will be the first Afro Latina to be featured on a U.S. coin, will be depicted on the reverse side of the quarter wearing a rumba-style dress as she boasts a dazzling smile with her signature slogan “¡AZÚCAR!” (which means “sugar”) inscribed along with her name.

The U.S. Mint unveiled the design for Cruz as well as four other notable American women who were selected as the 2024 honorees for the American Women Quarters Program.

Although salsa was a genre dominated by male artists, the Cuban American singer and musician became a celebrated star and helped increase the popularity of salsa and Latin music in general. Cruz died at the age of 77 on July 16, 2003, at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Cruz, who gained worldwide acclaim, recorded over 80 albums — and 23 of them went gold. She was a three-time Grammy winner and four-time Latin Grammy recipient.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton awarded Cruz the President’s National Medal of Arts and she received a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 Grammys.

Online users took to social media to express their excitement after the design’s announcement came out. [. . .]

Celia Cruz was born in Havana in 1925 and began singing in the 1940s. After the 1959 Cuban revolution, she exiled in the U.S. after a performance tour in Mexico. [. . .]

For full article, see https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/celia-cruz-us-coin-design-features-iconic-slogan-rcna96002