31 01 02    “Ten Years in the Cause”

By Silvio Aguilar

NOTICIAS, Oaxaca

In the ten years of fighting against AIDS, against intolerance and homophobia of AIDS patients, saving the lives of hundreds by the spreading of information and the use of the condom, the founders of the Frente Común are breathing oxygen and planning their next assault.

At this distance of ten years, the creators of the project to combat HIV/AIDS have returned to fight again.  NOT to party, they assured us, or to congratulate themselves, but to analyze what has been done and what is still to do.  To date, 1,483 cases of AIDS have been reported.  Of these, 956 have died and some 516 are living still, infected with the virus.

            The meeting was held in the offices of the Frente Común, last Monday the 28 of January.  In attendance, among many, the grand promoter of the project, Nancy Mayagoitia, veteran Bill Wolf, Doctor Miguel Angel Ramírez Almanza, the first president of the Frente, Doctor Bertha Elena Muñoz, theater director Sergio Santamaría, volunteer Pedro Salvador Vásquez and others who have collaborated from the beginning, altruistically for the cause, a cause which seemed difficult, long and uncertain.

            In 1986 the first case of AIDS was detected in the city of Oaxaca.  It was cause for alarm among the population, but not in the extremes as found in the United States and Africa, and it was felt the disease was one of vice and homosexuality, like in the United States where unchained passions and free love reigned.

            For many, Oaxaca was far from being touched by this AIDS virus.  The first case was, indeed, a foreigner which only confirmed that this was a foreign problem, NOT that of a developing country like Mexico.

            But new information soon became available and cases increased, until a group of concerned Oaxaqueños, among them Nancy Mayagoitia, formed a common front, and called themselves the Frente Común Contra el SIDA.

At first, not many people wanted to involve themselves.  It appeared a group of persons infected with the virus.  Their first office opened on Morelos Street, in a building owned by the city, and few people came, ashamed to be seen setting foot in the door.

In this situation was begun the efforts to promote the use of the condom, a project for safe sex and safer sex.

At first, it was not easy to convince the public to use a condom.  It ran counter to the idea of the macho Mexican, and a threat to his power.  But soon information about AIDS and the strategies of protection became the principle arms in the fight of the Frente and through them hundreds of lives have been saved.

Today, ten years have passed in this effort and since that time, deaths from AIDS have continued though not at the rate first foreseen, nor at the current international prediction.

The first promoters of this effort were charged with disseminating information to young people, workers, parents, students and friends.

The work proved worth the effort.  Today, the people of Oaxaca speak freely about AIDS and seek protection.  The use of the condom has multiplied and the health sector has become involved, through its medical prevention campaigns.

The most important is that those infected with HIV, who were rejected by society and their own families, are now accepted.

Besides their education programs, The Frente has formed programs to help patients travel to this city to receive their medicines from COESIDA.

Pedro Salvador Vásquez, an early volunteer, remembers those first steps which the Frente took.  There was much misinformation in the public, he said, and little didactic material to combat it.  He mentioned the early support of Alfonso Gómez Sandoval, then Mayor of the city.

They began training their personnel in the entrance of the city building, a small space with two tables and six chairs.  The ignorance of the public was total.  They thought you could contact AIDS by shaking hands with a carrier.

The group began to give talks in public, to come nearer to the people, and then the campaigns of AIDS walks, “Walk For Life” attracted much attention and they began to loose their fear of being seen in the offices of the Frente Común Contra el SIDA.

It was understandable, at first, this fear and rejection, given the great lack of information that the public had about AIDS, he said.  It was a difficult work at the beginning.

 Since that time, intolerance and homophobia has been much reduced because there is information and a place to go like the Frente Común.

Little by little, taboos are being broken, though Oaxaca is a place with many.  It is impossible change the mentality of a people in a day.

            Today, the Frente is recharging its batteries.  They look to increase their participation and raise their goals for 2002, because to work for this cause an honor and a privilege.