The top American diplomat in Cuba, Embassy Charge d’Affairs Mike Hammer, was among hundreds who attended a Catholic Mass on Tuesday to honor what would have been the hundredth birthday of Celia Cruz, one of Cuba’s most iconic and beloved singers.

Cruz made her mark in the 1950s pre-Castro Cuban music scene, joining the longstanding Sonona Matancera. As part of that band, she was forced into exile in 1960, becoming a prominent and stalwart voice against communism around the world. Cruz would go on to find even greater international success, performing with the legendary Nuyorican salsa collective Fania All-Stars, and she enjoyed a career renaissance in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the hits “La Negra Tiene Tumbao” and “ La Vida es un Carnaval .” She died in her adoptive New Jers

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