Gabriella de la Cruz

Gabriella de la Cruz is a fictional character on the soap opera Sunset Bay. Introduced in 2018, she is written by Nikki Petrie, and is portrayed by actress Isabella Gomez.

Characterization
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Background
Gabriella grew up in Puerto Rico with her parents, older brother Luis, and two younger sisters. They lived comfortably in a large house in one of the larger towns.

Summer 2018
Gabriella and her family moved to Sunset Bay at the beginning of Summer 2018, as it is where her mother's sister Theresa lives.

Gabriella and her parents and siblings are invited to dinner with Theresa and her family, where they all get along very well. Gabi especially likes her cousin Jocelyn, who she starts to emulate and idolise, and her soon-to-be step-cousin, Liam, who she has a little bit of a crush on.

Gabriella is bridesmaid at her aunt's wedding near the end of summer, where she relishes in the festivities, enjoying the attention and the glitz and glamour. During the ceremony when Harrison has a health problem, Gabriella consoles Luis who is struggling and helps him to work through his issues.

Later, at the reception, she discovers that Luis is drunk, and enlists Cristian Bradford's help to get Luis to the pool house, where she cares for him for the rest of the night. That is, after Luis says Tessa's name in his sleep, and Cristian dumps water over him, a coincidence that Gabriella explains away. Gabriella also becomes more wary of Jocelyn when she comes in the pool house and asks why Luis had said Tessa's name in his sleep.

Gabriella stays up half the night, checking on Luis to make sure that he is alright, then falls asleep for a large portion of the day. She and Luis talk about the events of the day before, with Gabi filling in some of the blanks for Luis, and she suggests counselling for Luis, telling him that alcohol is not the answer. They manage to cheer each other up a little, before their youngest sister, Valentina, interrupts and asks to go to the park, which they do.