Maricela De La Cruz

Maricela De La Cruz joined the KCRA 3 News team in March 2021.

Maricela knows Sacramento well; she joins the team with prior experience reporting and anchoring in Spanish. She’s been covering issues affecting Hispanic and Latino communities throughout the course of her career, and has interviewed California leaders that include Xavier Becerra, Alex Padilla, and Gov. Gavin Newsom to get accurate information to Spanish speakers across the state.

Before moving to the Golden State in 2018, Maricela worked in South Texas as a bilingual news anchor and reporter, and focused on investigative reporting, politics and immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Maricela was born and raised in Mission, Texas, located near the Texas-Tamaulipas border. She’s a first-generation Mexican-American and also the first in her family to complete a college education. Maricela is a graduate of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where she earned a degree in mass communication.

Maricela is very close to her family and holds her culture dear to her heart – especially food. She’s always attempting to cook her parents’ recipes; she believes cooking is her family’s love language.

As a daughter of immigrants, her heroes are her parents, who have overcome adversity time and time again. She hopes that her own experience and those who have allowed her to tell their stories helps to contribute, educate, and bring awareness about issues that affect Hispanics and Latinos.

Maricela has a lot of hobbies so you might spot her at the gym, on a hike, at some lake or beach in NorCal, on a spontaneous road trip, attempting to read your birth chart, or always searching for the best coffee.