Romina Valeria Rivera Cruz was 9 years old and had already done what very few adults manage to do: play her violin in front of Pope Leo XIV, at the Vatican, during the canonization of José Gregorio Hernández.
It was October 2025 when she performed the solo from “Danzón”, by Arturo Márquez, before an audience that gave her a standing ovation. She had been training since the age of 4 at the Acarigua-Araure center, in Portuguesa state, and was already one of Venezuela’s greatest musical promises, a member of the National Children’s Symphony and the Regional Symphony “José Antonio Páez”.
Ten months later, on August 16, 2026, Romina died after spending 10 days hospitalized at Dr. Jesús María Casal Ramos Hospital. She suffered from cystic fibrosis, but her mother, Claribeth Cruz, publicly denounced that the girl did not receive the specialized medical care she needed. Venezuela’s System of Youth and Children’s Symphonic Orchestras confirmed her death and bid farewell to the little girl who, with a violin, had managed to silence the Vatican.