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May 1962 was a key moment in Ángela Álvarez’s life. She then had to resign herself to seeing her four younger children leave Cuba alone for Miami, after an airport official denied her the possibility of boarding the plane.
The family wanted to flee the island in the face of the communist drift that the revolution was taking, but in principle only the children could follow it and were welcomed by the so-called “Operation Peter Pan”, which allowed thousands of unaccompanied minors from the island to enter the United States.
Angela escaped years later to the United States, forced to leave her husband and her beloved island behind. Displaced to a foreign land and struggling to survive, she worked long hours to rebuild her life and recover her children.
As a young girl in 1930’s Cuba with a musical gift, she had developed a burning desire to become a professional composer and singer, only to have it all crushed by her father’s traditional views. Undaunted, Angela kept writing her songs, a journal of her rich and tumultuous life. What once started as a dream, soon became a way of coping with the intolerable tragedies of life. Sadly, once her life settled, Angela would face the untimely loss of her beloved husband and daughter to the ravages of cancer.
Her music laments the pain of loss with a delicate intimacy and a fiery defiance, while celebrating love, family and the joys of life. Her heartfelt songs and enchanting voice were to remain forever hidden, but for the passion and determination of her grandson - film composer Carlos José Alvarez, who urgently felt the importance to preserve Angela’s legacy before it was too late. Inspired by his grandmother’s dream to share her music with the world, Carlos assembled a world-class lineup of Grammy-winning musicians who came together to record her music for all the world to hear.
Now in her 95’s, Angela Alvarez has finally fulfilled a lifelong ambition.
And it didn’t stop there, filmmakers Paul Toogood and Lloyd Stanton recognized the beauty in Angela’s story and her music, directing the documentary on her incredible life, ‘Miss Angela’.
Meanwhile, legendary actor Andy Garcia caught wind of her music, and not long after that Angela appeared on stage with him, performing her music to a full house at the historic Avalon theater in Los Angeles.
Upon the release of her album and film, Angela landed the role of Tia Pili in ‘Father of the Bride’ (2022), starring Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan, performing ‘Quiéreme Mucho’ in the father-daughter dance.
And now, to crown all these truly incredible achievements, Angela Alvarez won the 2022 Latin Grammy in the revelation category, alongside 25-year-old Mexican Silvana Estrada. The announcement was made on the evening of Thursday, on November 17, at the ceremony in Las Vegas.
