In a conversation with Puerto Rican art critic Ernesto Ruiz de la Mata, Italian art dealer Luigi Marrozzini recounts his early days as the director of Galería Colibrí in Old San Juan. Marrozzini explains why he has chosen to set up a private office. He also asserts that educational work was extremely important to the gallery, which eventually came to be seen as a nonprofit organization geared to promoting art and culture. He remarks that after he moved to a larger space on Calle del Cristo in Old San Juan, he was able to house his office and studio, as well as the gallery’s backroom and exhibition space in the same venue, though that space is now a private office that can be visited by collectors with prior appointment. In the interview, Marrozzini calls himself a businessman, asserting categorically that the best business deal is one in which everyone involved makes money. As an intermediary between artist and collector, his work requires that everyone receives economic benefits.

In 1962, Luigi Marrozzini (Rome, Italy, 1933–San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1997) founded the Galería Colibrí in close collaboration with the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. Marrozzini also worked on the Bienal de San Juan del Grabado Latinoamericano [Latin American Print Biennial, San Juan] from the time of its founding in 1970 until 1979. In 1979, he opened the Galería Luigi Marrozzini in Old San Juan.Ernesto Ruiz de la Mata (San Juan, 1935–2008) worked as an art critic for the journal San Juan Review from 1965 to 1966, and for the daily newspapers, The San Juan Star, El Mundo, and El Reportero. He did his undergraduate work at the Universidad de Puerto Rico and then earned his master’s degree in Art History at Harvard University. He was a follower of the Spaniard painter Eugenio Fernández Granell, and a member of the Puerto Rican surrealist group, El Mirador Azul [The Blue Outlook]. He served as a juror for several biennials such as the Biennale Internationale d’Art de Menton in France, the International Biennial of Graphic Arts in Yugoslavia, and a consultant to the Bienal de São Paulo, In 1973, he was appointed special assistant for cultural affairs of the newly elected Resident Commissioner in Washington, D.C., Jaime Benítez, a job the art critic held until 1977. In that position, he was an active participant in the cultural life of the U.S. capital. Upon his death, the Puerto Rican daily newspaper, El Vocero, published this tribute: “De la Mata leaves a legacy of articles and writings on art, especially on art in Puerto Rico. These documents are worth gathering and publishing, not only for their erudition, but also for their literary style.”