Maria Del Carmen "Carmita" De La Cruz

Maria del Carmen De La Cruz, a woman of unshakable faith and matriarch to a large, proud and dedicated family, passed away early Saturday after a short but intense battle with cancer. Honoring her final wish, she was surrounded by children and grandchildren. She was 87.

Carmita, as family and friends knew her, was a mainstay in the Roman Catholic community and a devoted member of Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Brownsville. She was friends with Monsignor Gus and Monsignor Bert, and had a decades-long friendship with iconic Brownsville priest and activist Armand Matthew. Carmita was also a wife and partner to renowned Brownsville pediatrician Dr. Rafael Marcos De La Cruz, who died in October. They were inseparable partners in both marriage and in a large pediatric practice that spanned more than 60 years.

The two met while students at the University of Havana in the turbulent years just prior to the Cuban Revolution. Carmita's mother feigned illness to convince Rafael, then a medical student, to visit their home. The romance that developed between the doctor and the high school teacher eventually crossed borders and spanned multiple cities in Cuba and the United States. To this day, people in the small Cuban town of Camajuaní, where they started their family, still remember the couple that once walked hand-in-hand down the main promenade, pushing a baby carriage. Their love affair lasted for 63 years until the death of Rafael -- exactly seven months to the day before Carmita passed. They were inextricably linked in life, love and even death.

But such a love can be overwhelming. Carmita never fully recovered from the passing of her partner, husband, confidante, business partner, and best friend. Shortly after his passing, she was diagnosed with incurable cancer.

Carmita was almost obsessively dedicated to her family. The most difficult moment of her life was the day she and Rafael took a gamble on freedom and a better life for their family, placing their two daughters on an airplane bound for the United States without knowing if they would ever see them again. Months later, when they could not get permission to leave the communist country, they chose to leave their homeland in a rickety 20-foot wooden fishing boat, with Carmita protectively carrying their four-year-old son, in order to reunite the family. That reunion eventually happened in Corpus Christi. Later, after one of her daughters went to medical school, she helped raise that daughter's toddler as a fourth child.

Her love of family was not only all-consuming, but fierce. The diminutive Carmita was a lioness who would take on anyone she perceived as a threat to those she loved. As a result, the extended clan, which included nephews, nieces, and cousins, stretched across the country and generations. For 57 years -- seemingly through sheer will and prayer -- she managed to gather together all her children and grandchildren for Noche Buena dinners and embarrassment-of-riches Christmas mornings. That adulation was returned to her as family flocked to her side in her final days.

Sharing in grief are her brother, Enidio Magel (Naomi) of Elgin, Texas, three adoring children, Maria De La Cruz (John) of Fredericksburg, Dr. Carmen Rocco (Jim) of Brownsville and Rafael De La Cruz Jr. (Maria) of Dallas, seven grandchildren -- Laura Rocco, Marcos Garza, Andres Goza, Julian Goza, Esteban Garza, Alexander De La Cruz and Sofia De La Cruz -- and two great-grandchildren, Pierce Grove and Michael Grove. She was also cherished by nieces and nephews: Alicia Bogart (Bruce), Enidio Magel (Mary), Maria Clendennen (Wayne), Liz Stehrenberg (Jamie), Benjamin DeJohn (Jennifer), great-nephews/nieces, Brian Bogart, Missy Magel, Nicolet Magel, Alexander Clendennen (Lina), Lauren Clendennen and friends and caretakers Goyo and Maria Garcia and Sagrario Garcia.

The recitation of the holy rosary will be at 8:00 p.m. today, Sunday, May 24, 2015, at St. Mary's Catholic Church, 1914 Barnard Road. The Funeral Mass will be at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, May 25, 2015, at St. Mary's. Entombment will follow in the Mausoleum at Buena Vista Burial Park.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to the De La Cruz Scholarship Fund @ UTRGV, One West University Blvd., Brownsville, Texas 78520.

Service

Recitation of the Holy Rosary

St. Mary Mother of the Church
1914 Barnard Road
Brownsville, TX  78520
Sunday, May 24, 2015
8:00 p.m.

Funeral Mass

St. Mary Mother of the Church
1914 Barnard Road
Brownsville, TX  78520
Monday, May 25, 2015
3:00 p.m.

Cemetery

Buena Vista Burial Park Mausoleum
5 McDavitt Blvd.
Brownsville, TX  78521

Memorial Contributions

One West University Blvd.
Brownsville, TX  78520