Right now, though, It's time for the Way Black History Fact and Today's Way Black History Fact is sponsored by Major Threads. For innovative, fashionable sportswear. Checkmajor threads dot com. Today, I'm going to share with you a bit from Time magazine. First, so I'll start here. The limited edition Celia Cruz quoters are officially in circulation starting Monday, the first US coins to feature an Afro Latina figure. So this is kind of ebony excellence, kind of way Black History fact that'll
come later. Give me a second, all right. Cruz, the four time Latin Grammy Award winner known for her salsa hits including Lavida Essuna Carnival and La Negratienne Tumbao, was selected as one of twenty women whose image will appear on the back of a quarter as part of the American Women's Quarters Program AWQP. Other twenty twenty four recipients include doctor Mary Edwards Walker, a surgeon an abolitionist, and Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first Asian American woman to serve
in Congress. The Elizabeth C. Babcock, director of the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, says the AWQP is another way to document history. Quote, it's been an absolutely amazing opportunity for us to help in our mission, which is to make sure that as we think about American history, we tell the complete history, which obviously includes the story of the many ways women have been a part of our
history and continue being involved unquote, she says. The US Mint says they cannot predict the exact amount of Celiacruz quarters they will ship out, as that depends on orders they receive from the Federal Reserve, but they say typically they produce anywhere between two hundred and five hundred million of each quarter. Quarters with the Queen of Salsa are only going to be made for a limited time until mid October. Quote. We will continue to mint Seliacruz quarters
until we transition to our next honoree. After that, no more Celiacruz quarters will be minted. Women have long been underrepresented when it comes to national currency. The first woman to be featured on a US coin was Spanish Queen Isabella in eighteen ninety three, though the next coin with a female figure would not come again until nineteen seventy nine,
per the US Mint. To combat this, Congress passed the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of twenty twenty, which are authorized the US meant to create new designs on the quarter dollar coin to commemorate five American women a year. That program has been running since twenty twenty two and will come to an end in twenty twenty five, and
the next reading comes from US mint dot Org. In nineteen seventy four, Cruz joined a new record label, Fania, which was devoted solely to the genre she was in. She was the only woman in the Fania All Stars and one of few women to succeed in the male dominated salsa world. She also appeared in several Hollywood movies and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Cruz's numerous honors and awards include four Latin Grammy Awards, a Presidential Medal of Arts, and three Grammy Awards, including
posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy. She was inducted into Billboard's Latin Music Hall of Fame and the International Latin Music Hall of Fame. Celia Cruz died in New Jersey on July sixteen, two thousand and three. Her song's performances and spirit remained international treasures Cruz's influence reached well beyond her music. She was and is a cultural icon celebrating her Cuban culture, which helped her other April Latino Americans embrace their heritage.
I want to share something with you that maybe I haven't shared on the show, but my grandma's from Cuba and Celyi Acruz is her and her being on a quarter is something that I wish my grandma could have lived to see. So this is indeed ebony excellence. This
is of course a way Black history fact. And if you get a chance to listen to some of Celia A. Cruz's music, especially Labina essnor Carnovo, which is kind of the big song that she's known for, it's such a happy song and it's such a danceable song if you're into dancing, and you don't have to be good at dancing, but it's a really good song. And if you hear it, you'll know it because it's when they say she's a
cultural icon, she absolutely is. So as soon as you hear the first few notes, you'll be like, oh, I know this song. This is a great song. She's the one singing it, and we're happy to be able to share this with you today