Alicia Parla

Alicia Parlá (1914 – October 6, 1998) was a Cuban rhumba dancer and hospital administrator who was called "the Queen of Rumba" by the press. Born into a strict middle-class Cuban family, she and her family moved to Miami when Cuba became politically turbulent in the 1920s. Parla began dancing with Don Justo Angel Azpiazú in 1930 and toured the United States and Europe during the first half of the decade. She taught rhumba to Edward, Prince of Wales at his Monte Carlo villa in 1932 before her European tour ended in 1933. Parla returned to Cuba as per her father's instruction in 1934 and went into a domesticated life. She briefly came back into public view in two films and the occasional nostalgic show.

Biography

Parla was born in Havana, Cuba in 1914 to a middle-class family. Her father worked as an ophthalmologist, and her uncle was Cuba's first aviator. the family moved to Miami, and Parla was sent to convent school in Key West, while her father remained in Havana.

After graduating, Parla and her mother moved to New York, she won the audition to be part of Azpiatzú's dance team because of "her gyrating hips". On Bastille Day on July 14, 1932, Parla spent 1934 dancing at Mon Paris nightclub, before complying with the wishes of her father at the end of the year to return to Havana and marry a millionaire rancher. and said wanted Edward to visit Havana. She became friends with Ernest Hemingway, and featured in two films in Mexico, The Angry God and The Black Privateer, After Fidel Castro took power in Cuba in 1959, Parla and her family fled to the United States and settled in Miami, Walter Winchell, the journalist, called Parla "that lovely Havana torso flipper".