Editing Celia Cruz (section)

===Later years===
[[Image:Cruz and Ros-Lehtinen1992a.jpg|thumb|[[Dexter Lehtinen]], Celia Cruz, Alonso R. del Portillo, Rep. [[Ileana Ros-Lehtinen]], and Pedro Knight in May 1992]]
In 1990, Cruz managed to return to Cuba. She was invited to make a presentation at the [[Guantanamo Bay Naval Base]]. When she came out of this presentation she took a few grams of Cuban soil in a bag; at her request, this bag would later be placed in her coffin when she died. In 1994, she received the [[National Endowment for the Arts]] award from the then President [[Bill Clinton]], which is the highest recognition granted by the United States government to an artist.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-04-24|title=Celia Cruz|url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/medals/celia-cruz|access-date=2020-07-17|website=NEA|language=en}}</ref>
Having made musical presentations in Mexican and Cuban films, in 1992 Celia participated as an actress in the American film ''[[Mambo Kings]]'', along with [[Armand Assante]] and [[Antonio Banderas]]. A year later she made her debut as a television actress in the Mexican [[telenovela]] ''[[Valentina (1993 telenovela)|Valentina]]'', along with [[Verónica Castro]] for the [[Televisa]] network. In 1995, Celia made a guest appearance in the American film ''[[The Perez Family]]'', along with [[Alfred Molina]] and [[Anjelica Huston]]. In 1997, she starred again for Televisa in the Mexican telenovela {{lang|es|[[El alma no tiene color]]}}, a remake of the classic Mexican film ''[[Angelitos negros (1948 film)|Angelitos negros]]''. Cruz played the role of a black woman who gives birth to a white daughter. On 25 October 1997, the city of [[San Francisco]], [[California]], officially declared that date as "Celia Cruz Day".

In 1998, she released the album {{lang|es|Mi vida es cantar}}, which featured one of her most successful songs, {{lang|es|[[La vida es un carnaval]]}}. In 1999, she performed with [[Luciano Pavarotti]] for the ''[[Pavarotti and Friends]]'' concert. In 2000, Cruz released a new album under the auspices of [[Sony Music]], ''[[Celia Cruz and Friends: A Night of Salsa]]'', where she recorded again with Tito Puente, who died shortly after. Thanks to this album, Cruz was awarded her first [[Latin Grammy]]. In 2001, the album {{lang|es|[[Siempre viviré]]}} won her a second Latin Grammy. In that same year, she performed with [[Marc Anthony]] in a tribute to [[Aretha Franklin]] for [[VH1]]. In 2002, Cruz released the album, {{lang|es|[[La Negra Tiene Tumbao|La negra tiene tumbao]]}}, where she ventured into modern variants of Caribbean rhythms, influenced by rap and hip hop. For this record she won her third Latin Grammy and her second American Grammy.

On 16 July 2002, Cruz performed to a full house at the free outdoor performing arts festival [[Central Park SummerStage]] in New York City. During the performance she sang "{{lang|es|[[Bemba colorá]]}}".  A live recording of this song was subsequently made available in 2005 on a commemorative CD honoring the festival's then 20-year history entitled, "Central Park SummerStage: Live from the Heart of the City". Cruz appeared on the [[Dionne Warwick]] albums ''Dionne Sings Dionne'' and ''[[My Friends & Me]]'' with their Latin duet version of "(Do You Know The Way To) San José".