MIAMI, July 19 (UPI) -- Thousands of people lined up outside Freedom Tower Saturday to pay their last respects to Grammy winner Celia Cruz, the acknowledged queen of salsa music.
Cruz, who died of brain cancer Wednesday at her home in Fort Lee, N.J., wanted a public viewing in Miami, home to the largest Cuban-exile community in the nation.
"She would always tell me, 'If I can't return to Cuba, then I want to go to Miami,'" Omar Pardillo, her friend and manager, told The New York Times.
"Toward the end she was at peace with the knowledge that she would die in the United States," he said. "'If I can't be in Cuba,' she told me, 'why not die in this country that has given me so much.'"
Cruz sang in Spanish, but became a huge crossover star.
Her coffin will go back to New York for a funeral Mass on Tuesday.
