Queens, New York, 2020

This land art piece memorializes the late Dr.Decoo, a Latino physician who lost his life after battling the pandemic in NYC, and also all the Hispanic and African American communities who are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 virus.

In New York City the Coronavirus is killing Hispanics and African Americans at double the rate than 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.