In the comments over at TMFTML, Robert Birnbaum points to this article from The Miami Herald about the significance of Cruz’s death for many Cubans in this country:

To Cubans on this side of the Florida Straits, her death is much more than the silencing of one of their homeland’s greatest musical figures.

Celia was the very embodiment of a fabled, nostalgia-hued Cuba, an icon in nine-inch heels and sky-high wigs whose heart always beat to the sway of those long-lost palm trees. Her death represents the shattered hopes of every abuelo and abuela who prayed they’d live long enough to see the end of Fidel Castro.