Marta Rueda

Marta De La Torre Rueda, 92, died peacefully on July 1, 2026.

She was born in Santiago De Las Vegas, Cuba, on June 1, 1934 to Roberto De La Torre and Otilia Alvarez.  Her parents had met while working at a cigar factory in Cuba (Roberto eventually became the Reader for the factory).  The middle of three sisters, Marta loved school, animals and needlework from an early age.  After graduating high school, she worked as a secretary during the day to help support her family, taking English classes at night in the hopes of becoming an English teacher in Cuba.  She was a voracious reader who would rather spend the afternoon reading than socializing - unusual in a family that loved socializing and hosting parties.  A handsome young man from the same town began courting her and she fell in love.  She and Luis Rueda were married in 1956 and she put her dreams of teaching to the side.  A year later, her first child, a son that she and her husband named Luis, was born.  The Communist Revolution destroyed all hopes of many happy years in her hometown.  Both she and her husband were vocal opponents of Communism and their livelihoods (as well as their lives) were under daily threat.  After the Bay of Pigs Invasion, her husband Luis was granted asylum in the Brazilian embassy.  Three months later he and all Cubans protected in the embassies in Havana were flown to Miami.  There, Luis washed dishes and saved every penny so that he could get his wife and son out of Cuba.  Marta and her son were able to follow him six months later.  Unable to find work as a lab technician in Miami, Luis brought Marta and their son to Staten Island, where he found work in St. Vincent's Hospital.  Marta would frequently say that their little neighborhood on Staten Island felt like a refuge after so many years of fear, uncertainty and threat of imprisonment.  Marta and Luis welcomed a daughter, Anna Maria, in 1965, and the family was complete.  While Marta never forgot Cuba, the town she came from or the much loved family that she was forced to leave behind, she, Luis and their son became US citizens.  Marta loved the United States as much as she did Cuba and was proud of being a citizen of this country.

In 1970, Marta began working for Metropolitan Life Insurance company, inking the insurance policy printing machines in the basement of its Staten Island headquarters.  After seeing a company posting looking for keypunch operators, Marta completed a night course in keypunch and was offered the job.  After many years as an operator, she became the manager of her department.  When keypunch machines were replaced with computers, Marta saw another company posting offering a Cobol programming course for employees who scored high on an IQ exam.  Not surprisingly, she received one of the highest scores among the employees who took the exam and once again found herself in a new role as a programmer.  She was always grateful for the opportunities that MetLife offered her and always took advantage of whatever new step forward presented itself.  After she and her husband had retired, they followed their daughter to Somerville, NJ to be close to her and her family, while her son Luis travelled the world with his family.  Marta remained married to Luis until he passed away in 2010.

Her life revolved around her family and friends.  While her circle was small, she loved deeply everyone who was in it - her husband, her children, her grandchildren, her extended family, her neighbors and friends.  When not working, Marta read classic novels in both English and Spanish, as well as Time Magazine, US News and World Report, and National Review.  She had an insatiable appetite for knowledge and was never without something to read.  With a fierce intelligence and steel trap logic, she could out-debate and out-argue others on almost every topic.  She loved gardening and took special pride in the roses and hydrangeas that filled her yards, as well as the many houseplants (especially African Violets) that always threatened to take over her homes.  The pets she welcomed into the house are too many to mention - cats, dogs, fish, canaries, rabbits, turtles, all were loved and cared for by Marta.  Needlework projects were never far from her side - she could knit, crochet, make lace, embroider, and sew.  She was always adding a new skill to her repertoire. 

She began to show signs of dementia a few years after her husband's death.  She was attended to at home by her daughter and the staff of ComForCare for as long as possible, then spent the last six years of her life in the tender and loving care of the staff at Parker at Somerset.

Marta is predeceased by her husband Luis, her parents Roberto and Otilia, her sisters Mayda and Ester Judith, her father- and mother-in-law, Luis C. Rueda and Ada Rueda, her brother-in-law Fr. Enrique Rueda, and niece Alina.  Marta is survived by her son Luis, his ex-wives Linda Rueda and Vaseema Nooruddin, and his four children - Anna Rueda, Alex Rueda and his family, Angela Rueda and Sophia Rueda.  She is also survived by her daughter Anna Maria, her husband James and ex-husband Jan, her three children Sean Barrie, his wife Sara and their son Benjamin, Sebastian Barrie and his fiance Nicolette Pizzigoni, and Jacob Barrie.  She is missed by her brother-in-law Guillermo and his wife Marta, their daughters Mercedes and Ada and their families, her nephews Arturo Martinez, Roberto Martinez, Jose Manuel Leon and their families as well as her nieces Niurka Alley, Mayda Rodriguez, Judith Rodriguez and their families.

As per her wishes (she never did like being the center of attention), a private prayer service and inurnment of her ashes are planned.