Ana Cristina Vargas

On May 28, 2024, Ana Cristina (“Cristi”) Vargas Rojas, beloved wife and sister, walked gently into the soft glow of the setting sun. We share the news of her untimely passing with the deepest of sorrows.

Cristi came into the world on November 22, 1967, in San Jose, Costa Rica, to the great joy of her parents, Ismael A. Vargas Bonilla and Flora Rojas Van Dyck (both deceased), and her older sister, Silvia. She lived an idyllic youth, embraced by a large, loving extended family and many devoted friends who remain so to this day.

In 1989, she joined her sister at the University of Kansas (KU) in Lawrence, Kansas, as a student of the College of Liberal Arts, earning her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1991. She subsequently returned to Costa Rica, where she nurtured her interest in foreign cultures by working at the Japanese Embassy in San Jose. In 1997, she returned to KU to pursue a Master of Arts in Latin American Studies. Following graduate school, she moved to Miami, where her sister had preceded her, and embarked on a 20+ year career as an account and relationship manager, mostly focused on the Latin American and Caribbean hospitality industry.

In 2000, she met the love of her life, Gary J. Strich. They wedded in Davie, FL on February 1, 2001, surrounded by their family and friends. Cristi and Gary were blessed with 23 and a half years of harmonious union, during which time they traveled the world together, making friends wherever they went; and adopted three happy little dogs, whom they both adored.

Cristi is survived by her husband, Gary; by her sister and brother-in-law, Silvia Vargas and Eduardo Veliz; and by her aunt Aurea Vargas and numerous cousins in Costa Rica and abroad; as well as by her beloved Beagle, Spike, and Chihuahua Miniature Pinscher, Lincoln.

We invite you to join the family at a memorial service celebrating Cristi’s life, to be held at TM Ralph Funeral Home, 7001 NW 4th St, Plantation, FL 33317, on Saturday, July 13, 2024, starting at 2:30 pm.