Rita Montaner

Rita Montaner was a symbol of Cuban popular music, film and vernacular theater in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Guanabacoa, a suburb of Havana, she made her debut on Cuban radio in the 1920s and went on to appear in several films and musicals including stints in Paris with Josephine Baker's Revue and in the U.S. with Al Jolson.

One of her most celebrated songs was "Mamá Inés" from Eliseo Grenet's famous zarzuela (Cuban operetta) Niña Rita. Montaner was also renowned for her interpretations of other celebrated Cuban composers, including Ernesto Lecuona. Among her well-known recordings is the Cuban classic "El Manisero" ("The Peanut Vendor"), written for her by composer Moisés Simons. Her collaboration with pianist-singer Bola de Nieve (whom she nicknamed) brought her to cabarets throughout the world, including the Tropicana in Havana, where she was a major fixture during the 1950s before her death in 1958.

Much of her legacy is attributed to her successful reign as a diva in the midst of racial and gender stereotyping during the early 20th century. Cuban vernacular theater was bent on preserving the minstrel genre—complete with white and black Cubans dressed in blackface. A mulata herself, Montaner was able to move past that phase of Cuba's history and make her mark during the birth of Afro-Cubanism in the decades of the '40s and '50s, when Cuba was just beginning to celebrate its biracial heritage. —Rebeca Mauleon