These days, Gonzalez-Torres is the symbolic center of the collection. His works are displayed in a chapel-like room with a glass ceiling at the very heart of the house. Bathed in sunlight, the room exhibits Gonzalez-Torres’ "Untitled (Portrait of Dad)" (1991), which consists of a pile of white candies, and an untitled work from 1989–90 comprised of two stacks of paper—from both of which visitors can take a sample. Also in the room is "Untitled (America #3)" (1992), a delicate light bulb string piece by the artist. For the U.S. pavilion at the last Venice Biennale, which was dedicated to Gonzalez-Torres, the de la Cruzes lent one of the artist’s large poetic billboards.

For the de la Cruzes, the other side of diligently "doing homework" before purchasing work is figuring out what to do with it afterward. For instance, throughout 2003, they acquired the sprawling Ann Lee project—a series of multi-media works produced by a group of internationally known artists that included Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno, Liam Gillick and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, among others. After being on display in the house for a year, it is now in the collections of London’s Tate Museum and North Miami’s MoCA. The couple donated the entire group to the two museums so that it would be co-owned by institutions that could care for it and display it adequately.

This future-oriented thinking also manifests itself in the way that Rosa approaches the Miami art community. For years, she privately funded student trips to major international exhibitions. She is a founding member of the alternative exhibition venue The Moore Space and now heads its board. She maintains close ties with the curatorial staffs of local museums. She also opens her residence in December, during the fairs, for three days of breakfasts so that the international community can become acquainted with a side of the city that is very different from the commercial context of the fairs. And most recently she has established, in partnership with DAAD in Berlin and La Plateau in Paris, a residency program for young Miami artists to spend time abroad. "One has to think of the future," she says, "of the new generation of artists."
 
Gean Moreno is an artist and writer in Miami.