By La Voz Staff
Everyone in the Puerto Rican Cultural Center joins our Board of Directors’ member, Veronica Ocasio, in the bereavement on the physical loss of her beloved mother, Katherine Ortiz.
Kathy (as all who knew her called her) was a very active member of our Puerto Rican community, from a community activist and organizer to a self-actualized Puerto Rican entrepreneur. She was involved early on in the work of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, as well as our high school, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos.
Even though we cannot count on her physical presence, her essence, her energy, her commitment, and her love will live on in every person she touched- particularly those who have worked in the Puerto Rican Cultural Center.
A celebration of her life will be held at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture at 3015 W. Division St. on Friday, June 20, between 2 and 4 p.m.
From Veronica Ocasio
Dear Friends and Museum Family,
It is with a heart full of love and deep sorrow that I share the passing of my beloved Queen, my mother, my best friend, my rock, Katherine Ortiz (78 years young), who passed peacefully in her sleep on the morning of Tuesday, May 19, 2026 in Puerto Rico
She is deeply and eternally loved and will forever be missed by my sister, Iliana and me. She leaves behind a legacy more beautiful than words can hold in her grandchildren who will carry her fierce spirit and beautiful light forward: Dessere Ortiz, Ramón Rodríguez, Ismael A. Sánchez, Gabriel Albizu Ocasio, Antonio Betances Ocasio, and her 8 precious great-grandchildren.
As the eldest of her siblings, she also leaves behind her dear sisters Diana Estevez Segarra and Alicia Segarra, daughters of her beloved mother Alicia Aponte Segarra and beloved stepfather William Segarra; and her siblings Gloria Ortiz, Juan J. Ortiz (Jr.), Wilfredo Ortiz, Marilyn Ortiz, and Juan B. Ortiz (Jany), children of her beloved father Juan Ortiz, as well as her prima-hermanas Aidita Ortiz and Janet Ortiz, and many family members she loved immensely.
We find great peace knowing she is fully healed, reunited with those we lost and loved, with our ancestors rejoicing, exactly where she always knew she was headed: Heaven.
We are so grateful for your prayers, your kindness, and your love during this time. At this moment, I am on the island she loved so much, fulfilling her final wishes and holding her close one last time in the place where her heart always lived. In the gentleness of your understanding, I ask that you hold space for my beloved husband, Billy, whom she loved as her own, and for our family, as we wrap ourselves in grief, in gratitude, and in the grace she so beautifully showed us every day of her life.
