Celeste Mendoza, born on April 6, 1930 in Santiago de Cuba, is a singer and dancer. She started her career as a dancer in cabarets, including shows choreographed by Rodney Neyras at the Tropicana. Her breakthrough came with recordings of guaguancos, a form of street rumba music traditionally dominated by male singers. Mendoza signed with Gema Records in the late 1950s and released several albums with orchestras led by Bebo Valdés and Ernesto Duarte Brito. She toured internationally, notably appearing at the Olympia de Paris in 1965 with Orquesta Aragón and Los Zafiros. Her career faced challenges in the late 1960s but she continued to release albums such as Mi Rumba (1988) and Cuba (1993). She passed away on November 22, 1998 in Havana, Cuba.
