Proyecto ContraSIDA por Vida

Proyecto ContraSIDA por Vida (also known as PCPV and Proyecto) was a non-profit HIV-prevention agency located in the Mission District of San Francisco that provided community-based healthcare for the Latino/a and LGBT communities. It was one of several community-based health organizations that emerged in response to the AIDS crisis. Proyecto ContraSIDA por Vida emerged from a variety of organizations that aimed to reduce the spread of HIV in communities of color. Some of the predecessors of PCPV were the National Task Force on AIDS Prevention (NTFAP), the Gay Latino Alliance (GALA), and Community United in Responding to AIDS/SIDA (CURAS), among other organizations. Some of the leaders who came together to create PCPV include Ricardo Bracho, Diane Felix, Jesse Johnson, Hector León, Reggie Williams, and Martín Ornellas-Quintero.[1]

Contributions to Activist Methodologies

Three interrelated components distinguish its unique contributions to LGBT organizations and AIDS advocacy efforts: a commitment to multi-gender organizing, sex-positive programming, and principles of harm reduction. Operated from 1993 to 2005, the agency merged from the organization CURAS (Community Responding to AIDS/SIDA) and targeted those under-served by existing HIV prevention resources including transgender women, Spanish-speaking immigrants, Latino youth, and neighborhood sex workers.

PCPV was committed to new forms of community building. They promoted health education by addressing differences in age, language, class, immigrant status, and gender. Their dynamic approach to community engagement, education, and outreach was inspired by Paulo Freire, the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies Birmingham School, ACT-UP and El movimiento de liberación gay based in Mexico City.

PCPV's approach, programming, and materials were characterized by multilingualism, neologism, bold social marketing, and enacting cultural fluency.[1] Organized as a constellation of community agents committed to creative care-taking and activist intervention, PCPV served as a springboard for many notable Latinx artists, activists, academics, and allies. The distinctive tone of its mission statement, drafted by Chicano playwright Ricardo Bracho, captures the multi-lingual flavor and political urgency of the group's radical vision:

"Proyecto ContraSIDA is coming to you--you joto, you macha, you vestigial, you queer, you femme, you girls and boys and boygirls and girlboys de ambiente, con la fé and fearlessness that we can combat AIDS, determine our own destinos, and love ourselves and each other con dignidad, humor, y lujuria."[1]

This mission statement recognizes the complex ways that people identify their gender and sexuality in culturally specific ways. The organization's name includes references to two important concepts in Chicana/o street culture, "con safos," often written as C/S, and "por vida," often written as P/V.

Scholarly Attention

PCPV's model of innovative community engagement attracted the attention of several scholars; many of whom had formal and informal ties within the organization. University of California, Berkeley professor, Juana María Rodríguez devotes a chapter of her book Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces[2] to the organization; focusing on its inventive use of linguistic and visual practices, and outlining how PCPV organizing practices challenged existing identity-based models of community engagement. Oral historian Horacio Roque Ramirez documents the lives of numerous PCPV members and outlines the related cultural and social movements that contributed to its formation in his book, Queer Latino San Francisco: An Oral History, 1960s-1990s.[3]

Several healthcare advocates have also noted the importance of the PCPV’s approach to community well-being and HIV prevention, stressing the impact of its "bottom-up" approach, and its ability to reach and serve marginalized communities.[4][5][6] After PCPV closed, several of its staff and volunteers went on to create "El/La Para Translatinas"[7] an organization dedicated to supporting and advocating for transgender Latinas.

The archives of PCPV are currently held in the Ethnic Studies Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

People

Organized as a constellation of community agents committed to creative care and activist intervention, PCPV served as a springboard for many notable queer Latino artists, activists, academics, and allies including: Juana María Rodríguez,[8] Marcia Ochoa,[9] Ricardo Bracho,[10] Diane Felix,[11] Horacio Roque Ramirez,[12] Adela Vazquez,[13][14][15] Jaime Cortez,[16] Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Aurora Guerrero, Patrick "Pato" Hebert,[17] Al Lujan,[18] Wuru-Natasha Ogunji,[19] Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa,[20] Nao Bustamente,[21] Veronica Majano,[22] Janelle Rodríguez,[23] and many others.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rodríguez, Juana María. Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces. New York: NYU Press, 2003.
  2. ↑ Rodríguez, Juana María. Queer Latinidad: Identity Practices, Discursive Spaces. New York: NYU Press, 2003.http://nyupress.org/books/9780814775509/
  3. ↑ Roque-Ramirez, Horacio N. Queer Latino San Francisco: An Oral History, 1960s-1990s. S.l.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
  4. ↑ Ochoa Camacho, Ariana, Yep, Gust A., Gomez, Prado Y., and Velez, Elissa. “El Poder Y La Fuerza de La Pasión: Toward a Model of HIV/AIDS Education and Service Delivery from the ‘Bottom-Up.’” In Emerging Perspectives in Health Communication: Meaning, Culture, and Power, edited by Heather Zoller and Mohan J. Dutta. Routledge, 2011.
  5. ↑ Zoller, Heather, and Mohan J. Dutta. Emerging Perspectives in Health Communication: Meaning, Culture, and Power. Routledge, 2011.
  6. ↑ Nemoto, Tooru, Don Operario, J. Keatley, and David Villegas. "Social context of HIV risk behaviours among male-to-female transgenders of colour." AIDS care 16, no. 6 (2004): 724-735.
  7. ↑ "El/La Para TransLatinas". yolasite.com. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  8. ↑ "Department of Gender & Women's Studies". berkeley.edu. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  9. ↑ "Marcia Ochoa". ucsc.edu. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  10. ↑ "Ricardo Bracho". doollee.com. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  11. ↑ "The Bay Area Reporter Online - Music's the life for Chili D". Bay Area Reporter. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  12. ↑ http://www.chicst.ucsb.edu/faculty/staff/ramirez.shtml
  13. ↑ "Sexile – A Graphic Novel Biography of Adela Vazquez". Transas City. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  14. ↑ "Cuentamelo: An Oral History of Queer Latin Immigrants in San Francisco". SF Weekly. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  15. ↑ Vázquez, Adela. “Finding a Home in Transgender Activism in San Francisco.” In Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o LGBT Activism, edited by Uriel Quesada, Letitia Gomez, and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Jaime Cortez: Artist, Writer, Friend". sff.org. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  17. ↑ http://galeriadelaraza.org/eng/exhibits2/archive/artists.php?op=view&id=108&name=h&media=info
  18. ↑ "Galería de la Raza: Al Lujan". galeriadelaraza.org. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  19. ↑ http://www.gf.org/fellows/17280-wura-natasha-ogunji
  20. ↑ "Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa". CCA's Graduate Program in Visual + Critical Studies. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  21. ↑ "Nao Bustamante". hemisphericinstitute.org. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  22. ↑ "Veronica Majano". vdb.org. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  23. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5583843/awards
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