Ángela Álvarez (June 13, 1927 – December 6, 2024) was a Cuban-born American singer and the oldest

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winner ever. She shared the 2022 award with

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at the

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. Her songs were first recorded on an album produced by her grandson, film composer and producer Carlos José Alvarez. Álvarez appeared in the 2022 remake of ''

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'' (which stars

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) singing the beloved Cuban musical standard "Quiéreme mucho".

Life and career

Álvarez was born in

Camagüey Camagüey () is a city and municipality in central Cuba and is the nation's third-largest city with more than 333,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of the Camagüey Province. It was founded as Santa María del Puerto del Príncipe in 1514, by Sp ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

, on June 13, 1927. She developed an interest in music early on in her life. Álvarez came to the United States in 1965 and took up a job as a bank janitor. Her four children were able to come into the United States in 1962 as part of Monsignor Bryan Walsh’s

Operation Pedro Pan Operation Peter Pan (or Operación Pedro Pan) was a clandestine exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors ages 6 to 18 to the United States over a two-year span from 1960 to 1962. They were sent by parents who feared, on the basis of unsu ...

. They spent three years in an orphanage in

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before her arrival. While living in the United States, Álvarez took up residency in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where her late husband found work as a mechanical engineer in the sugar industry. Prior to settling in Baton Rouge, Álvarez's husband, who had also been forced to wait behind, reunited with the family in Mexico, and then hopped around Houston, Miami, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and El Salvador before getting his well-paying job in Baton Rouge. Both her husband and only daughter died from cancer years before her. Prior to her death, Álvarez's daughter, who died of cancer in 1999, married, with her wedding day marking the first time Álvarez sang her song, ''Maria''. At the time of her death in December 2024, she had three living children, nine grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren. As of 2023, Álvarez was still living in the same

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home where she had lived from 1972. On December 6, 2024, Álvarez died in Baton Rouge at the age of 97.

References

External links

* * 1927 births 2024 deaths American musicians of Cuban descent Cuban emigrants to the United States Latin Grammy Award for Best New Artist 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American singers Women in Latin music People from Camagüey People from Baton Rouge, Louisiana {{US-singer-stub