Cuban-American painter Jorge Rodríguez puts a face on Covid-19 victims in New York

June 1, 2020

The Cuban-American artist Jorge Rodríguez Gerada put the finishing touches on a colossal portrait of Latin American pediatrician Ydelfonso Decoo, one of the first healthcare workers who died in New York from coronavirus.

Rodríguez intends for his 2,230 square meter portrait to be the face that represents the tens of thousands of victims whose lives have been claimed by Covid-19, as explained to the EFE agency by Henry Muñoz, co-founder of the Somos organization in the United States and commissioner of the work.

"Muñoz, who now works with the Somos foundation, asked me if I would be interested in creating a tribute to a doctor who died from the virus, a pediatrician who was one of the first to die, and to make it almost like an altar, as a way that people can go and leave candles and things like that to give thanks to all the people who are giving their lives," the painter commented to the aforementioned agency.

For the construction of the work printed in the Queens museum parking lot, the painter relied on a drone that showed him images of the painting since it cannot be perceived well unless viewed "from a bird's eye view" or from a great height.

This large-scale artistic work reflects "that this really is an important moment and this work speaks to this, the tribute we owe to these people."