Cruz left Cuba in 1959

The "Freedom Tower" in Miami, where Cuban migrants were processed during the first wave of exiles after President Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, flew its Cuban flag at half-staff.

Mourners laid flowers at a small stone marked with the singer's name in Little Havana, the neighborhood viewed as the heart of Miami's Cuban community.

But in Havana, the tributes were more muted with the Communist Party newspaper calling the Cuban-born singer an "important" performer in a two-paragraph story.

Cruz's music was banned in Cuba after she left the island in 1959.

"I don't want to say that we've lost Celia because her music, her spirit and her 'azucar' will always be with us," said Cuban-born singer Gloria Estefan, referring to Cruz's exuberant shout of "azucar", Spanish for "sugar".

A moruner leaves a tribute

"I am sad and I miss her a lot," said a 72-year-old exile who identified himself only as Mr Martinez.

He had traveled the 225 miles from his home in Orlando, Florida, to attend a church service in Cruz's honour on Thursday.

Spanish-language radio stations in Miami aired hours of tributes and the daily newspaper El Nuevo Herald devoted its entire front page to a photo of the singer and an elegy to "Eternal Celia".

Known as the Queen of Salsa and considered the most influential woman in the history of Afro-Cuban music, she is credited with bringing salsa to a wide audience.