El Cerro

Since 2002, Rosado-Seijo has worked with residents of the El Cerro community in painting the houses in the village in different shades of green, while developing different workshops and artist projects that relate directly to the community.

Most recently, they’ve been working to transform the community of El Cerro into a “Green Barriada” — a self-sustaining and environmentally resilient community. El Cerro: From Metaphor to Reality seeks to transform El Cerro into a model for energy, hydric, and food sovereignty by building and teaching residents how to sustain energy- and water-resilient homes through harvesting solar energy and rainwater.

History
El Cerro community predates the founding of the municipality of Naranjito in 1812, by coffee plantation workers, and it is still inhabited by descendants of these workers and a few other families that have moved here over the years.

El Cerro Project pays homage to a community that respects the nature and topography of the territory where it stands and is an example of respectful and conscious development. Since those first weeks working in El Cerro, we started doing some informal workshops. The themes were mostly about the community itself and were given by friends, students, professors, and volunteers, to people of all ages.

Color
In Puerto Rico, color carries political significance: green is linked to the pro-independence party, blue to the pro-statehood party, and red to the pro-colony party. That is why painting the first house was so significant. It was Ivette Serrano’s house. Her house was blue. She became the leader of the project, recognized by the community and by the government.

Collaborators
We are currently working in collaboration with the Institute for Community Development at the University of Puerto Rico – Mayagüez Campus, an institution where professors and students from different disciplines — civil, mechanical, electrical engineering, social work, psychology, and others — work closely with residents from disadvantaged communities to improve them, always listening to what they have to say.

We also collaborate with AMANESER 2025, a non-for-profit organization dedicated to teaching and installing solar energy systems in partnership with the community members that will use them.