CubaPLUS Magazine

Born on March 16, 1929, in a rural hamlet near the town of Jovellanos, Matanzas, Celina González, with the vigour of her authentic and resounding voice, and her authorial work, became the undeniable queen of country music or Cuban &punto". She took it to various stages of the world and her country in a fruitful career.

She began her artistic life in Santiago de Cuba, where she was taken by her family when she was very young. In her own house she learned to sing with her parents, who regularly held long parties and country songs. Her brothers also accompanied them with instruments as traditional as the &tres" and the lute.

She also from a very young age was linked to Afro-Cuban religious beliefs. It was almost a natural and consistent act then. She created one of her most famous songs: Santa Bárbara, very dear to her feelings, although today almost everyone considers the song written by her husband, Reutilio Domínguez, to be a hymn of Cubanness and identity: I am the Cuban point.

Santa Bárbara" and &I am the Cuban point" contributed to this couple of artists gaining fame and the dazzling and highly tuned voice of the girl began to occupy the place that, according to her, the orisha Changó (Santa Barbara in Catholic liturgy) predicted for her one day in a vision she had had in her youth.

She and her inseparable Reutilio Domínguez made a perfect duo from the beginning, around the 40's. In addition to her husband, he was an outstanding guitarist and a remarkable second voice. They were taken from Santiago de Cuba to Havana by the already famous guaracha and oriental composer Ñico Saquito.

From then on, they toured the Dominican Republic and New York and participated in Cuban films. Later in her career, she had the remarkable accompaniment of the Campo Alegre and Los Montunos ensembles. She did a duet and re-recorded her old repertoire together with her son Lázaro Reutilio.

Her professional advancement was a resounding process, in which there are no gray stages. She always performed successfully in TV shows, theaters, simple parties and various stages in Cuba and the world, until her death on February 4, 2015.