SOMOS LA LUZ 2020
27,500 Square Foot Memorial to Honor COVID-19 Victims Who Died on the Front Lines Battling Coronavirus in Minority Communities

Artist: @GERADA_ART

Curator: Henry Muñoz III

Underwriter: SOMOS Care

GreenPoint Innovations / GreenPoint EARTH was honored to support Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada’s painting of this incredible mural as the project management and documentation team.

Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, one of the world’s most prominent contemporary artists, has completed a 27,500 square foot ground mural honoring those who lost their lives to COVID-19 in the epicenter of the pandemic. Rodriguez-Gerada is best known for his massive, viewed-from-above portrait of President Barack Obama, and his monumental piece, Out of Many, One on the National Mall in 2014 that detailed American diversity and the immigrant experience.

The eyes of the portrait are based upon one of the first minority doctors who passed treating his hard-hit community. Dr. Ydelfonso Decoo was part of the SOMOS Community Care network in NYC that is comprised mainly of immigrant Latino and Chinese doctors treating those in marginalized communities. The project was designed based on conversations with community leaders to highlight what’s happening to communities of color in this pandemic.

 
 

WHO:

  • Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada – Artist

  • Official sponsors of the project are Dr. Ramon Tallaj, SOMOS Community Care and Mr. Henry Muñoz.

  • Henry R. Munoz III – Co-Founder of SOMOS, curator of the installation and Chairman Emeritus of the Smithsonian National Latino Board.

  • Dr. Ramon Tallaj, SOMOS Community Care - SOMOS is the country’s largest physician-led health delivery network with nearly 3,000 physicians and 800,000 patients, nearly all are immigrants or first-generation Americans, and over two-thirds are Latino.

  • Make the Road New York (MRNY) builds the power of immigrant and working-class communities to achieve dignity and justice through organizing, policy innovation, transformative education, and survival services.

  • GreenPoint Innovations - project management and documentation

  • Other sponsors and partners - The Queens Museum, El Museo del Barrio, and NYC Parks.