Veronica De La Cruz has spent much of her career telling other people’s stories. But some of the experiences that shaped her most deeply began much closer to home—with her mother’s Filipino heritage, the values passed through generations of her family, and the loss of her only brother, Eric.
In this Soulivity conversation, the award-winning journalist reflects on the stories her mother carried from the Philippines, the importance of education and family, and the historical presence of Filipinos in America. She also shares how her brother’s struggle to receive a heart transplant transformed grief into advocacy and reinforced a lesson that has remained central to her life: each of us has a voice, and how we choose to use it matters.
What emerges is not simply a story about heritage. It is a story about inheritance—what families pass forward through memory, sacrifice, values, courage, and love.
Veronica De La Cruz is an award-winning broadcast journalist, anchor, speaker, host, emcee, and early pioneer in streaming video and social media. Her career has included roles with CNN, NBC News, MSNBC, CBS San Francisco, and Newsy, along with extensive work covering breaking news, technology, healthcare, diversity, and culture. She has received an Emmy Award and contributed to work recognized with DuPont and Peabody Awards.
While at CNN, De La Cruz helped launch and anchor CNN Pipeline, the network’s early streaming news product, and created the “Dotcom Desk.” She was also among the early broadcast journalists to incorporate social media into live television reporting, using emerging digital platforms to gather information and connect audiences to breaking stories.
Her commitment to healthcare advocacy became deeply personal after the loss of her only brother, Eric, who needed a heart transplant and struggled to obtain adequate insurance coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition. De La Cruz used social media to tell his story, generating widespread public support before ultimately taking her advocacy to Washington, D.C. She later created the Eric De La Cruz Hope for Hearts Foundation in his memory.
Her experience also connects naturally to Soulivity’s broader work around health equity and healthcare access, where questions of access, affordability, and equitable treatment continue to shape the lives of families and communities.
Tragically, her brother lost his battle, inspiring Veronica to travel to Washington, D.C., where she met with lawmakers and shared his story. During that time, she made numerous appearances across national talk shows, newspapers and magazines to promote health care reform. She spent considerable time in Europe reporting and researching the international differences in health care policy and continues to raise money for pediatric heart transplant patients in memory of her brother through a non-profit she created, the Eric De La Cruz Hope for Hearts Foundation.
Brian Westley Johnson: Would you share a story about your heritage or something you learned about your family that you want to preserve?
Veronica De La Cruz: Before my mother died, she left me with a few stories that will stay with me forever. One story was about the importance of education in her family. My mother grew up in the Philippines and was the fourth of eighteen children. She told me they would save money to send each child to school by storing cash and coins in bamboo shoots. When someone was ready to go to school, they would cut the bamboo stalk and all the coins would come raining down.
Though I never got to see it for myself, I will never forget the visual. It taught me the importance of hard work, saving and education.
Years later, my mother came to the United States as a registered nurse and worked hard to bring her siblings to North America. I watched her save diligently. Her loyalty and dedication to her family is something she instilled in me. One of my mother's greatest lessons was that anything in life is possible as long as you work hard, believe in yourself, have faith and persevere. She also taught me that, no matter what, family is everything.
Brian Westley Johnson: What is a historical lesson you would like to share with Americans to mark Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month?
Veronica De La Cruz: The history of Filipino Americans began in the 16th century when Filipinos first came to what is now the United States. They traveled on merchant ships coming from Spain and Britain. In the 1700s, they set up a fishing village in Saint-Malo, Louisiana, about 40 minutes from New Orleans in Saint Bernard Parish. Historical markers exist there today acknowledging the fishing village as one of the first Asian American settlements in what is now known as the United States of America.
If more people knew Filipinos were here even before the United States was established in 1776, perhaps the same amount of racism and xenophobia wouldn't exist. Filipinos were perhaps the first Asian Americans to settle here.
Brian Westley Johnson: What is an important event that shaped your life?
Veronica De La Cruz: My only brother Eric was my hero. He passed away more than ten years ago after being denied a heart transplant because of a pre-existing condition. He was a college kid with minimal health insurance and private insurers denied him coverage. At the time I was working at CNN as the technology correspondent and had just started using social media to tell news stories.
I started tweeting about his plight and amazingly, in what was most likely the earliest form of crowdsourcing online, strangers started rallying around him. Led by Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, Tony Hawk, the professional skateboarder, and a few other celebrities, thousands of dollars were raised for my brother. People started wearing banners on their social media profiles that said #<3Eric or hashtag, heart for Eric.
A heart never came soon enough for my brother and he passed away after a few months of struggling. In his name I went to Washington to lobby Congress for change in the healthcare system. I wanted to see the end of insurance companies denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. I pushed for change until the Affordable Care Act passed.
I set up a nonprofit in his memory, The Eric De La Cruz Hope for Hearts Foundation, to help others facing the same plight. Today, I am lucky enough to have a young son in my life. I named him Hartley Eric in memory of my brother. I will never forget the way thousands of strangers rallied around Eric in support. Even though Eric is gone, his memory lives on in everything I do. He lives on through a nephew he never knew, yet looks like him.
He lives on through the music we still listen to, the lives we are grateful to live, and the help I will always continue providing others. My brother's story, spirit and legacy have shaped my life completely. I pray it shapes my son's life as well. It's his namesake now, so I hope it teaches him to always love and treat others with the same kindness and compassion that was provided for his uncle in his time of need.
Veronica’s decision to turn personal loss into advocacy reflects something Soulivity explores often: the possibility of using our experiences to create something that reaches beyond ourselves. In 10 Ways to Make a Positive Impact, we explore some of the everyday ways intention can become meaningful action.
Brian Westley Johnson: What’s a note of positivity that you would like to leave our readers with?
Veronica De La Cruz: “We are all born with a voice. How you use it can impact the world.”
Veronica De La Cruz’s story is a reminder that heritage is not simply something we inherit from the people who came before us. It is something we carry forward through the values we preserve, the stories we remember, the people we honor, and the choices we make with the opportunities we have been given.
The bamboo filled with coins that Veronica’s mother remembered from her childhood became more than a family story. It carried lessons about sacrifice, education, perseverance, and responsibility across generations. Eric’s life became part of another inheritance—one that transformed grief into service and gave Veronica a reason to use her public voice on behalf of families confronting similar challenges.
Our histories shape us, but they do not have to remain behind us. Sometimes the most meaningful way to honor where we come from is to decide what we will carry forward.
And, as Veronica reminds us, each of us already possesses one of the tools capable of doing that:
Our voice.
