Celia Cruz has remained an icon of the Afro-Latinx music scene and her popularity in the United States has endured as a result of her legacy and endless influence throughout the Americas.

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Specifically, the song "La Negra Tiene Tumbao" skyrocketed among audiences in the United States as it peaked at number thirty on the Billboard Latin Songs chart and rose to number four on the Billboard Tropical Songs chart. The lyrics of the song are unique as they uplift the figure of the Afro-Latinx woman through its title and repeated chorus "la negra tiene tumbao" which loosely translates to "the black woman walks with grace/swagger". 

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This declaration of confidence in her lyrics embodies the bold, revolutionary, and pioneering work of Celia Cruz as an Afro-Latina artist. This sentiment was incorporated heavily into her artistry and stardom with even her iconic musical "battle cry" of shouting "AZUCAR" serving as an illusion to the sugar cane plantations that her African ancestors labored on in Cuba and throughout the Americas.

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In this way, the bold expression of her Afro-Latinx identity in her music exemplifies a unique modern marronage where by openly claiming history aspects of enslavement (such as Cruz's shouts of  "Azucar" referencing sugar cane plantations) there is a newly found freedom and pride in her constructed identity; it is a pride manifested through resilience and grace as expressed in many songs from Celia Cruz. Marronage provides an escape from the space of white supremacy by instead diverting all efforts and expressions to create an anti-colonial and subversive space that instead welcomes the expression of Blackness.

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Afro-Latinx music can be a conduit for other contemporary expressions of marronage such as in the call-and-response features of many songs which draw their origins from the same call-and-response songs sung by groups of enslaved Africans throughout the Americas. The continuation of these colonial features of cultural Afro-Latinx expression are reshaped and reclaimed as a blatant display of continued rebellion and resilience.