Maria Cuadrado, a member of Our Lady of Fatima parish, East Elmhurst, died Aug. 18.

Born in Bayamon in Puerto Rico, her family immigrated to New York in 1953.

She attended both Hunter College and Fordham University. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer working on community development in Ecuador.

Upon return to New York, she assisted Sister Eve Gillcrist, O.P., with the production of “Nuevo Amanecer,” the Spanish newspaper of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

She also worked with the “Agua de Rio Vivo Team” in the Charismatic Renewal. During the 1970s and ’80s, she also shepherded the “God With Us” community which  gathered in the homes with Father Rodrigo Velázquez.

In the late ’80s, she worked with Sister Marie Herman in prison ministry at “The Tombs,” and spent over 10 years visiting the prisons every Saturday with a sister of the community “Dios Con Nosotros.” They led the singing at Mass and preached to the prisoners when the celebrant priest did not speak Spanish.

When St. Gabriel’s parish needed a Spanish choir leader, she  assumed that service for almost 20 years.

In recent years, she has belonged to the charismatic community “Jesus is the Light” to continue sharing and growing together as brothers and sisters.