Rosa de la Cruz, a globally lauded collector of cutting-edge contemporary art who opened one of Miami’s first private art museum with her husband Carlos, has died following a long battle with an autoimmune disorder. She was 81.
De la Cruz died peacefully in her Miami home early Sunday morning, according to longtime family friend and family spokesperson Bruce Rubin. Arrangements for a service have not yet been determined.
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Although her health had deteriorated in recent years, de la Cruz remained actively involved in her family’s collection. She was at the museum just days before her death, Rubin said.
De la Cruz founded the nonprofit Moore Space in 2001 as one of Miami’s first private exhibition spaces. In 2009, she and her husband opened the De La Cruz Collection in 2009 in Miami’s Design District to showcase their expansive art collection and offer lectures to the public for free. Holdings include works by Christopher Wool, Mark Bradford and the late Ana Mendieta; many have been loaned for inclusion in international exhibitions.
Even before the 2002 inauguration of Art Basel Miami Beach, the de la Cruzes often opened their Key Biscayne home by appointment for to art enthusiasts and Miami-Dade public schoolchildren. During December’s annual Miami Art Week, they welcomed visiting VIPs and artists —including such well-known figures as the late John Baldessari — to their waterfront home to view installations by artists including Assume Vivid Astro Focus and Ugo Rondinone.
Rosa was born in 1944 in Havana, Cuba, where she met her future husband. They married in 1962 and lived in Madrid and New York City before coming to Miami in 1975. Together created a close-knit family of five children, 17 grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
Carlos is the chairman of CC1 Companies, Inc., a privately held bottling and distribution empire that distributes Coca-Cola in Puerto Rico and other beverages throughout the Caribbean. Rosa served as the company’s director and treasurer. In 2001, Rosa founded and chaired The Moore Space, a nonprofit in the Design District that produced exhibitions, commissioned artists’ projects and offered educational programming until 2008.
Today, the family’s collection is estimated to hold well over one thousand pieces, according to ARTnews.
The philanthropic couple was recently honored with the Excellence Award from FACE (Facts About Cuban Exiles) and were celebrated for their focus on education. For more than a decade, the De la Cruzes have paid to send dozens of students from the New World School of the Arts and Design and Architecture Senior High (DASH) to New York and Europe to further their studies. Carlos credits Rosa’s efforts with making the travel program a success.
Speaking by phone Sunday, Carlos remembered how they met. He had been attending boarding school in the United States and came back to Cuba in the 8th grade. Around Christmas, Rosa’s parents invited him to an agricultural fair. He was 14. She was 13. They’ve been together ever since.
Last Monday, Rosa hosted grandchildren at their home for a family, Carlos said. As the week went on, she felt worse and worse. A nurse called Carlos, who was traveling in Asia with his son, to speak with Rosa so he could convince her to leave an IV in her arm. The couple was speaking over the phone when she died of a massive pulmonary embolism.
Carlos described his wife as a persistent and strong willed woman who was always “seeking to improve other peoples’ lives...She was a person of principal who fought for what she believed was right, he said.
Still reeling from the news, Carlos said Sunday, “She speaks her mind. She doesn’t mince words,” he said. “She’s like a force in the river, a current.”
This is a developing story that will be updated.
Jane Wooldridge contributed to this report.
This story was produced with financial support from The Pérez Family Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
