AIDS in the Barrio

Acquired for Alexandra Juhasz's doctoral dissertation, which then became her book entitled "AIDS TV." Although initially digitized for Alex's Fall 2018 VHS Archives class, her Spring 2020 VHS Archives class has found particular interest in this film's depiction of drug use and addiction.

My graduate students in the VHS Archives class at Brooklyn College in 2018 did a great project about this early intervention into community-based, community-specific AIDS educational materials. Frances Negron [Documentary Filmmaker & Professor at Columbia University] is a friend and colleague, at the time we were collaborating on a project revisiting "Women of Vision," my book and documentary about feminist media history, in which she was a subject.

Members of the Latino community in Philadelphia discuss the impact of the AIDS crisis on their lives in hopes of preventing others from acquiring the deadly disease. People Living with AIDS (PLWAs) honestly describe their own high-risk behavior - drug use and sexual promiscuity - which resulted in their infection with HIV. Family members reveal the heavy emotional and financial tolls the disease has taken on their lives. Participants also debate cultural factors, including machismo and traditional relations between men and women, that are ancillary factors in the epidemic. A minister/activist places the AIDS crisis within broader socio-economic contexts: unemployment, poverty, language barriers, and homophobia. He stresses the need for tolerance in the community as well as the use of condoms to halt the spread of the disease.

Frances Negron-Muntaner

Peter Biella

Review: AIDS in the Barrio: Eso no me pasa a mi by Peter Biella; Frances Negron

AIDS TV: Identity, Community, and Alternative Video Alexandra Juhasz, ‎Catherine Gund

Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora  Lawrence Martin La Fountain-Stokes - 2009 - ‎History