She also described becoming the first Latina artist to appear at New York s Carnegie Hall, in 1964. “Tony Bennett was there, a big group of artists,” Guillot recalled. “When the ushers saw all that they said, Who is she? ” “For us the artistic career was like the priesthood, like being an apostle,” she added. Today, however, “time passes so fast, the millions come so quickly.” She said she turned down repeated offers to record in English because “I think and feel in Spanish.

If I had accepted, my career would have been sunk in two years because it s simply not the same thing.” Guillot who maintains homes in Mexico City and Miami and has been an occasional critic of the government of Cuban leader Fidel Castro during decades in exile confessed to only one disappointment in her career. “It s a shame that in your own country, where you were born … there is a whole generation that doesn t know us,” she said.