Tap dancer, began performing at age 16 in the chorus line at the
Lafayette Theater in Harlem. She continued her career into the early
1940s, dancing for six years in the chorus line at the Apollo Theatre.
She served as advisor to the New York Committee to Celebrate National
Tap Dance Day from 1989 until her death.
Elvera's father, Marco Sanchez, was a Cuban immigrant, with Afro-Cuban ancestry. Elvera's mother, Luisa Valentina Aguiar, was born in New York, to an Afro-Cuban father, Enrique Aguiar, and an African-American mother, Ida Henderson.