Elvera Sanchez
Encyclopedia
Elvera Sanchez was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
dancer and the mother of Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
Sammy Davis, Jr. often stated that his mother was Puerto Rican
Puerto Rican people
A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...
and born in San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
. However, the 2003 biography In Black and White states that he made these statements due to the political sensitivities of the 1960s and his mother was instead born in New York of Cuban ancestry. The book states that Elvera was in fact born in New York, the daughter of Cuban American
Cuban American
A Cuban American is a United States citizen who traces his or her "national origin" to Cuba. Cuban Americans are also considered native born Americans with Cuban parents or Cuban-born persons who were raised and educated in US...
s Marco Sanchez, a cigar salesman, and Luisa Aguiar (1884-1996), information which was obtained from the daughter and granddaughter of Elvera's sister Julia and from contemporary documentation.
Elvera Sanchez began her career as a chorus-line dancer at the Lafayette Theater in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
. She married Sammy Davis, Sr.
Sammy Davis, Sr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis, Sr. was an American dancer and the father of Sammy Davis, Jr..-Birth and Personal Life:...
, also a dancer, in 1923. In 1925 their son and only child Sammy Davis, Jr., was born. When the child was three, the couple split up and the father obtained sole custody of his son taking him on the road. Elvera Sanchez was a chorus-line dancer at Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
for six years. She continued to dance until the 1940s.
From 1989 until her death, she was an adviser to the New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance
Tap dance
Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sound of one's tap shoes hitting the floor as a percussive instrument. As such, it is also commonly considered to be a form of music. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses more on the...
Day. Her own mother, Luisa Sanchez, died in 1996 at the age of 112. She was survived by her daughter Ramona.