On April 1st, creative director Kevin Llanes will present the exhibition VIHSIBLE, a 20-minute journey about the passage and the fight against HIV/AIDS in Yucatan, the meeting point will be the headquarters of HIV Care Network (Red para la Atención de Personas con VIH, RepaVIH).
Behind this exhibition there is an arduous work of documentary research in the newspaper library of the Biblioteca Yucatanense, which yielded information about the first years of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Yucatan, the difficulties, the discrimination of society, as well as the position of the church on the subject.
“A line of research was opened in the newspaper library of the Biblioteca Yucatanense, to document the passage of HIV in Yucatan, we want to share the information that is archived, there are journalistic testimonies, about the arrival of HIV/AIDS in Merida, among other things.”
He added that it is mostly information from 1983 to 2003, and focuses on what was the reaction of the agencies to the arrival of the disease in the state, and what was said in society and the church.
“There will be a multimedia exhibition with audio and journalistic testimonies, about the position of society and especially the church, which at that time had a lot of influence in Yucatan and it was a scandal to talk about a disease that was given to homosexuals, what we are looking for is that people can be informed of this other history of Yucatan.
Finally, the creative director commented that they will also highlight the work of activists and key moments in the fight, such as the founding of the State Council for HIV Prevention.
“One of the reasons to talk about this topic is that seeing how social movements are developing today, it is important to take into account that social struggles are not from now, from what we see today, the LGBT and HIV struggles come from long before and we have to tell that part of the story”.
TYT Newsroom
