Vilma D. Perez

Vilma Pérez passed away on Sunday, March 29, 2026, peacefully at home surrounded by her family. She was 83 years old.

Born Vilma Doris Cardona on March 28,1943 in Guatemala City, she moved with her parents and brothers to Tiquisate, Guatemala, where her father had secured a position with the United Fruit Company, and the family lived on the company's plantation.

Those early years became the stories she would return to again and again: afternoons at the community pool, sneaking onto the helicopters, having a shaved ice stand with her friends. She received an American education and became bilingual at an early age. From those days grew lifelong friendships, the "Tiki Kids" they call themselves. It's a circle that has endured across decades, gathering still in Guatemala for annual reunions to celebrate the special bond they never outgrew.

A self-proclaimed teacher's pet, she was nine years old when she embarked on a ten-day journey by sea for a trip to New York City accompanied by her teacher Ms. Harrell. It was there she got a taste for the big city. In her teen years, Vilma boarded the Great White Fleet for New Orleans with a small group of her fellow Tiki Kids. She spent four years at Annunciation High School - an all-girls convent where she was taught by Catholic nuns during the day and hit the streets of the Big Easy by night. After graduating, she returned to Guatemala where she attended secretarial school. Vilma moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey, to live with her Tia Ofelia and Tio Ramos. While she was pregnant with her first daughter, she learned to cook alongside her aunt, which would become a passion of hers, eventually starting her company Glamorous Foods, cooking for the likes of Toni Morrison, Miguel Algarin and catering private events.

In 1970, she applied for a housekeeping job at Rutgers University. Impressed by her charisma and perfect English, she was instead offered a position as the first secretary of the founding Puerto Rican Studies Department. It was in that role that she found purpose in her students. She was a steady presence for generations of youth, going beyond her duties by opening her home, kitchen and heart to become a staple in the department, which at the end of her tenure, was at the Center For Latino Arts and Culture (CLAC) until her retirement in 2015, being recognized for her contributions in 2022.

She enjoyed simple pleasures: listening to wind chimes, flexing her green thumb in her garden, collecting art, watching the news, making her famous flan and pecan tarts, finding new recipes, traveling, having a good scotch, and sipping a strong cup of coffee in the morning.

Vilma loved to celebrate life. She threw parties for any occasion, filled with salsa music, laughter, and dancing. Her home was open to everyone. "Come use the pool," she would say, and she meant it. To be welcomed by Vilma was to be made family.

She cherished long phone conversations with her best friend of 75 years Gail and emailing 100+ of her closest friends around the world, keeping them up-to-date on all the joyful and sorrowful moments in the lives of those she loved. She was the ultimate connector, bridging time and distance with her lively disposition.

Above all, she treasured her family.

In her retirement she spent the winters at the home she purchased in Antigua, Guatemala, with her husband of 51 years Julio. The summers and holidays were spent with her adoring family in Somerset, New Jersey. She took pride in her two children, spoke of her grandchildren at any opportunity and in recent years enjoyed the noise and chaos of the newest additions - her five great-grandchildren.

Vilma is preceded by her father Adalberto Cardona, mother Zoila Mendia and brother Adalberto Cardona.

She is survived by her husband Julio Pérez, brothers Rene Cardona, Marco Antonio Cardona and wife Sheny, daughters Glenda Daniel and her partner Ralph Normandia, and Vanessa Coleman and her husband Cliff Coleman. Her daughters took her to every doctor's visit, oncology appointment, and kept her smiling, upbeat, and dancing until the very end.

She is affectionately known as Mimi to her five grandchildren and their spouses, Tylere and Kristen Daniel, Travis and Jaye Daniel, Gabriella Daniel and partner Malcolm Ogunkoya, Kayla Brantley and Alexa Coleman, and her five great-grandchildren and counting, Cameron, Reyna, Wesley, Romy, Makenna.

Vilma's spirit was magnetic and her enthusiasm for life infectious, with a style that reflected her personality: sequins, pearls, berets, a Rutgers pin, and always lipstick.

In her own words, which remain her truest testament:

"I've done everything I wanted to do."

"I've lived a good life."

"I'm happy."

A memorial gathering will take place on Friday April 10th from 12pm-2pm at the Gleason Funeral Home, 1360 Hamilton Street, Somerset New Jersey 08873.