Ulises De La Cruz started playing football for his first team when he was 16 years old. He started in the junior division with Sociedad Deportivo Quito he later moved to the professional division. He moved to Scottish Premier League team Hibernian for a fee of 700,000 pounds in June 2001.He made 25 full league appearances and 7 substitute appearances and scored 2 goals. In his first season at Aston Villa he was selected a lot but in the 2003/04 season things picked up for him. During his third season there he was becoming frustrated at the lack of opportunities within the club and decided to leave in August 2006.