Cuban art collector Rosa de la Cruz dies in Miami

Specialists highlight her contributions to cultural life and the internationalization of Miami as an artistic destination.

The Cuban-American art collector Rosa de la Cruz died this Sunday at the age of 81 while she was on the phone with her husband, from her home in Key Biscayne, Florida, from a massive pulmonary thromboembolism. The illness that she had suffered for a long time had not affected either her spirit or her desire to promote culture.

Rosa de la Cruz was born in Havana, although as a child she spent long periods in the La Esperanza neighborhood, Sancti Spíritus, on a property owned by her father. Her life experience reflects a life dedicated to art, a passion inherited and enhanced in her adult life. On the side of Carlos, her husband, her artistic passion was no less; even her mother treasured a piece by Salvador Dalí that is today exhibited in the family museum, De la Cruz Collection.

The life of the Cuban collector also testifies to her attachment to her homeland. In 1955, as a teenager in Havana, Rosa met someone who, a few years later, would become her life partner. Both belonged to wealthy families in Cuba before the Revolution, with land and sugar mills. After being plundered, the clans went into exile. Rosa and Carlos married in 1962 and lived between Philadelphia, New York and Madrid, until they moved to Miami in 1975. Rosa lived with Carlos for 60 years and they had five children, who gave her 17 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

The local Miami press highlights this Monday the contribution of Rosa de la Cruz to the cultural life of the city and the internationalization of Miami as an artistic destination, where its museum, which opened its doors in 2009, in the exclusive Miami Design District, serves as a pole of attraction and meeting point for contemporary art.

Her collection brings together works and pieces from various places around the world, especially Europe and the United States, but she did not leave aside Latin American art.

Her collection brings together works and pieces from various places around the world, especially Europe and the United States, but she did not leave aside Latin American art. In this regard, Elvis Fuentes, executive director of the Coral Gables Museum, in conversation with 14ymedio, estimates that Rosa's most important contribution, “in addition to her museum and its wonderful collection, was the internationalization of Félix González-Torres, the most important Cuban-American artist of the last 40 or 50 years and whom she supported unconditionally, not only in life, she also did so after he died in 1996. Rosa also took care of making Ana Mendieta's work internationally visible.”

The piece that started her path as a collector was Mirador de estrellas, by the Mexican Rufino Tamayo. Initially Rosa was going to focus on creating a large collection of Latin American art, but she ended up including all universal contemporary art, with notable interest in post-war German painting.

Her collection brings together works by Mark Bradford, Christopher Wool, Nate Lowman, Albert Oehlen, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Schutte, Christina Quarles, Tauba Auerbach, His Hers. In addition to Eddie Arroyo, Consuelo Castañeda, Glenn Ligon, Wade Guyton, Wifredo Lam and Salvador Dalí, according to Alex Greenberger.

Wilfredo Cancio Isla, who was a close friend of the family, highlighted that De la Cruz channeled her work as a cultural manager through the Moore Space organization and that she is indebted to the prestigious Art Basel world fair that has taken place in Miami Beach since 2002. one of the events that brings notable dividends to the city.

The De la Cruzes built their economic emporium Eagle Brands, a beer and beverage distribution corporation in Florida. Carlos currently chairs CC1 Companies, a Coca-Cola and other beverage distribution conglomerate in the Caribbean.