Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico in 1945, Barreto first studied with the master printmaker and painter Domingo García at Galería Campeche in San Juan in 1965, the same year he participated in his first collective show at Galería Santiago.  He attended the University of Puerto Rico starting in 1967.  Ten years later he traveled to New York to study and work at the Printmaking Workshop under Krisna Reddy.

A well known abstractionist in Puerto Rico, his work figures in important public and private collections on the island.  Last year he was invited by the Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan: América Latina y el Caribe to exhibit his recent sikscreen explorations in a show titled Instantáneas Repeticiones, held from March to May 2004, in anticipation of the opening of the Trienal in December.