the street is our gallery

This land art work was recently finished by Jorge Rodriguez Gerada and his team. It is titled “Somos La Luz” and it strives to give a deeper meaning to the loss of a stranger’s life,it strives to remind us that we are all part of the “One Nation, Under God.”

Along with the impressive images, the artist has published a letter with true words and a call for sensitivity in what is being experienced in New York city. Enjoy the artwork and take a  minute to read the artist’s words!

We all love, laugh, cry and mourn. Each life is important and unique. Every life is incalculably more than just a number to be tallied up into a statistic.

The world is experiencing a terrible time. We are suffering through a global pandemic. You would expect that this should mean that we are all at the same risk of infection, but it has become evident that this is not the case. The virus finds it easier to spread among minorities and our society is set up to make it that way. Covid-19 has made the underlying inequity in our nation more evident now than ever.

In New York City the corona virus is killing Hispanics and African Americans at double the rate that it is killing Whites and Asians. This might be due to the fact that the Hispanic and Black populations represent 75% of front-line city workers who are at high risk (more than 60 percent of people who work as cleaners and caretakers are hispanic, and more than 40 percent of transit employees are black). I am creating this piece because of the disproportionate amount of Latinos that have died in the area.

But this is not only about New York City, the disproportionate loss of life is now evident across the nation. The anti-immigrant discourse that has been omnipresent during the last three years has serious repercussions on the health of minority communities: the lack of health insurance, the fear of deportation and the inability to pay, discourages
undocumented migrants from promptly calling for help or to attempt accessing a hospital.

The disparate rate of new cases and death between their low income and wealthier zip codes across the nation is evidence of this. Not everyone can decide to not go to work, not everyone can just stay home and still have the money to buy food and necessities for months on end.

Economic inequality is a crucial factor that influences diet and in the long run, compromises the immune system. Isolation and social distancing is impossible when there are large extended families or many unrelated people forced to share a small apartment due to their financial plight.

This project is an homage to Doctor Yldefonso Decoo, a pediatrician who died when fighting the virus in New York City, as well as all of the Hispanic caregivers that risk their lives to save others. It highlights their contribution while at the same time calling for action. These are the people that make our city move, the people that care for us, these are the people that contribute socially, culturally and economically to the nation. They are part of this “American Experiment”, just like all the waves of immigration that came before them. In the year 2020, where hindsight should not be clearer, it is amazing to me that we must continue to ask ourselves…how it is that minorities today still have to suffer the same injustices of the minorities of the past.

As an artist, I am committed to bringing attention to social issues that need to be addressed. The large-scale works that I have created around the world all convey that we need to come together to make the world a better place. The size of my large-scale works is directly related to the importance of the theme.

@gerada_art
CURATOR
Henry Muñoz III
SPONSORS
SOMOS Care and its Chairman of the Board, Dr. Ramon Tallaj
PARTNERS
Make the Road New York
El Museo del Barrio
Queens Museum
NYC Parks
Green Point Earth
FOOTAGE AND PHOTO CREDIT:
GreenPoint Innovations (Stephen Donofrio / Eduardo Amorim) para Gerada Art

@gerada_art