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Reuters
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
US military bases to restore names changed after racial justice protests, Trump says
FORT BRAGG, North Carolina, June 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the military would rename bases which were changed after racial justice protests in 2023, including reverting to Fort Lee originally named after Civil War-era Confederate commander Robert E. Lee. Under the Trump administration, the Pentagon has already renamed Fort Moore back to its original name of Fort Benning and Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been able to sidestep a Congressional provision that banned bases having Confederate names by renaming bases after people with the same names as the Confederate officials. "We are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort AP Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee," Trump said while speaking at Fort Bragg. "We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It's no time to change," Trump said as uniformed service members stood behind him. Fort Lee, located in Petersburg, Virginia, was renamed Fort Gregg-Adams in 2023. After Trump's announcement, the Army said that Fort Lee would be renamed after Private Fitz Lee, a Medal of Honor recipient from the Spanish-American War. During Trump's speech at Fort Bragg, some audience members, including those in uniform, cheered as the president made the announcement. They also jeered at the press as Trump pointed towards reporters and called them "Fake News" and applauded as he took shots at his predecessor, Joe Biden. Uniformed members of the U.S. armed forces are meant to be apolitical, carrying out the policies of Democratic and Republican administrations. The 2023 move to shed Confederate names for military bases came in the wake of nationwide protests after the 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Confederate flags and base names can be offensive to many Americans, who see them as reminders of the enslavement of Black Americans and symbols of white supremacy. Congress in 2021 passed legislation forbidding the naming of bases after anyone who voluntarily served or held leadership in the Confederate States of America, the breakaway republic of Southern states that fought against the U.S. in the Civil War in the 19th Century.
New York Times
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Two Decades After Her Death, Celia Cruz Lives On for Her Fans
Celia Cruz reigned for decades as the 'Queen of Salsa,' with her signature shout of '¡Azúúúcar!' expressing in Spanish her music's brand of joy and optimism. Twenty-two years after her death, the Cuban powerhouse singer still captivates her fans. The petite woman with a raspy voice wore tight, glittering dresses and colorful wigs and danced in high heels while singing her hit Spanish-language songs such as 'La negra tiene tumbao' and 'Ríe y llora.' Born Oct. 21, 1925, Ms. Cruz began her career in Cuba in 1940 and continued it in exile, producing more than 70 international albums and winning multiple Grammy Awards and Latin Grammys. She moved to New York in 1961, and brought her musical Cuban roots and mixed them with Puerto Rican and later Dominican rhythms, helping to usher the birth of salsa as a popular Latino genre in the United States. 'When people hear me sing,' she said in an interview with The New York Times in 1985, 'I want them to be happy, happy, happy. I don't want them thinking about when there's not any money, or when there's fighting at home. My message is always 'felicidad' — happiness.' Ms. Cruz died in 2003 at her longtime home in Fort Lee, N.J., from complications after a surgery for a brain tumor. She was 77. Following a tour of her coffin in Miami, masses of fans honored her at a public viewing in New York City. More than two decades later, her message still resonates, and she remains relevant in what would have been her birth's centennial this year. She has remained specially visible in Miami, where many Cuban exiles and their children revere her, and the sound of bongo drums are heard in private and public celebrations. 'I see Celia Cruz not only as a legendary performer but as an enduring symbol of cultural memory, resilience and diasporic pride,' Karen S. Veloz, a Cuban American music professor at Florida International University in Miami, said in an interview. 'She stands as a cultural icon whose music traverses generations, political borders and languages.' And beyond Miami, Ms. Cruz has maintained a digital audience too, with more than 6 million monthly listeners on Spotify and her official YouTube channel garnering about 493,000 subscribers. Here are some of the different ways that the grande dame of salsa, also referred to simply as Celia by her fans, has been honored recently. The Celia Bobblehead For a home baseball game on May 14, the Miami Marlins gave away 8,000 bobbleheads of Celia Cruz as part of the organization's annual Cuban Heritage Day. The doll featured a smiling Ms. Cruz holding a microphone and wearing a blue ruffled dress. As part of the ticket package, the team sold commemorative baseball jerseys with her image that were designed by a Miami artist known as Disem305. The team also hosted Lucrecia, a Celia Cruz tribute singer, who threw the ceremonial first pitch and performed her songs. A New Mural in Miami Artwork in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami captures Ms. Cruz's incandescent smile and her joie de vivre, with two portraits set to a backdrop in teal and pink. 'As an artist and a huge salsa and Celia Cruz fan, this is a huge honor for me,' its creator, Disem305, said of the mural, which measures 11-feet high and 45-feet wide. 'On the right side of the wall, there's a younger Celia with the Freedom Tower standing tall behind her to represent the Cuban community here in Miami,' he said, referring to the Miami landmark where many Cuban refugees arrived in the 1960s and '70s. 'On the left side, there's a portrait of an older, more mature Celia — the one that comes to mind when most of us hear her name — with her huge, contagious smile.' He said he was commissioned by the Marlins to design the mural and the commemorative jersey. A Commemorative Coin Ms. Cruz became the first Afro-Latina to appear on American quarters as part of the 2024 U.S. Mint's American Woman Quarters collection, which honored a diverse group of notable American women in a variety of fields. The U.S. Mint described Ms. Cruz as a 'cultural icon, and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century.' The quarter's tail shows her dazzling smile as she performs in a rumba-style dress. '¡Azúcar!' — which means 'Sugar!' — is inscribed on the right. A Posthumous Award In April, Ms. Cruz was posthumously honored with a 'Legend Award' at the Billboard Latin Women in Music gala in Miami. A montage highlighted her early days in Cuba as she broke gender barriers in a male-dominated industry, eventually elevating Afro-Cuban sounds on global stages. 'Celia Cruz made her life a carnival with a voice that seemed out of this world,' the singer Joya said on the show. The Puerto Rican performers Ivy Queen, La India and Olga Tañón paid tribute to Ms. Cruz by singing a medley of her songs. '¡Qué viva la reina!' La India shouted to the audience and viewers. Celia on Exhibit From January to February, the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College celebrated the singer with the exhibit 'Celia Cruz: Work.' The exhibit, which included videos, posters and Ms. Cruz's wigs and gowns, drew more than 400 people to the Hialeah campus, museum officials said. Pinecrest Gardens, a lush botanical oasis south of Miami, also remembered Ms. Cruz in January with a celebration that included a concert series featuring musicians. As part of the reopening after restoration of the Freedom Tower, which is operated by Miami Dade College, officials will host a Freedom Tower Family Day on Oct. 11 for visitors 'to experience Celia's story' through readings, art activities and performances. 'She is not only a global icon,' María Carla Chicuén, a college spokeswoman, said in a statement, 'but a cherished figure in Miami, whose life and legacy are deeply intertwined with the history of the Freedom Tower.'
