(CNN Spanish) — The Cuban-American Celia Cruz will be the first Latina singer to receive a tribute through the ‘American Women Quarters Program’, for which she will have her own 25-cent coin, as announced by the United States Mint.
The agency announced on February 1 the women who will be part of said program in 2024 and one of them is Cruz, who was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1925 and died in 2003 in New Jersey, United States.
The ‘American Women Quarters Program’ is a program “that celebrates the achievements and contributions of America’s women,” according to the Mint. It will last four years: it started in 2022 and will continue until 2025.
In addition to Celia Cruz, the program’s 2024 generation also includes the following women:
- Patsy Takemoto Mink, “the first woman of color to hold a seat in Congress.”
- Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, “Civil War surgeon, women’s rights advocate, and abolitionist.”
- Pauli Murray, “poet, writer, activist, lawyer, and Episcopal priestess, as well as a staunch defender of civil rights, fighting against racial and sexual discrimination.”
- Zitkala-Ša, “also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was a writer, composer, educator, and political activist who championed Native Americans’ right to American citizenship and other civil rights long denied to them.”
The designs for the coins of Celia Cruz and the rest of the honorees will be published in mid-2023.
