Chilenan trader and collector. Son of Giovanni della Croce Bernardotte and Silveria Bahamonde y Herrera. His father was a Geonese soldier at the service of the Spanish's Crown. He was the seventh son of a total of fifteen children, even though only twelve reach adulthood, and translated their surname to Spanish to de la Cruz. Their parents died in 1765 and 1768, and he was sent to the school that the Society of Jesus had in his hometown. He began his career as a soldier, but soon he decided to become a trader and sell goods in Santiago de Chile and Cádiz.

In 1810, he married Joaquina Ximénez de Velasco y Boneo, with whom he had a daughter named Joaquina. That same year, in 1811, he received from the regency the title of the Count of Maule. A few years later, in 1814, he donated a copy of his work "Viaje por España, Francia e Italia" to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando after which he asked to be named honor academic member of.

For Chilenian history, the fact that has the greatest impact on him is his friendship at a young age with Ambrosio O'Higgins, the Irishman who settled in South America in the service of the Crown of Spain and became Viceroy of Peru, Marquis of Osorno and Baron of Ballenar. Due to this bonded friendship, O'Higgins chose De la Cruz to be his representative in Spain, and to watch over his son Bernardo Riquelme, who later became one of the members who fought for the Independence of Chile and changed his mother's surname for O'Higgins.

Moreover, he was sponsor of Cádiz and the whole province. He contributed to the building of the church of Rosario and San José of Cádiz; he paid the dome of the church of San Juan Bautista of Chiclana de la Frontera and the main altar of Santa Rosa; he also rebuilt the church of San Francisco of Paula of El Puerto de Santa María; he promoted the Escuela de Nobles Artes of Cádiz, but failed on his actual purpose of turning it into a National Academy under the name of Real Academia Herculana of Cadiz.

Furthermore, he translated and funded some publications. During the last years of his life, he started a political career and became a government representative for the Cortes during the Trienio Liberal (Liberal Triennium), as he wanted to help his Jesuits friends that had been exiled. He died in Cádiz at the age of 60. His grandson, Joaquín Aymeruch y de la Cruz, sold all the possessions of the family: house, library and painting's collection, including the ones from relevant painters such as Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Teniers or Van Loo.