Union Positiva & Love

It has been 22 years since Santos, 47, was diagnosed with HIV, but it was not until recently that with the help of a Latino support group called Union Positiva Inc, he finally had the courage to reveal to his children the truth.

“Whenever I’m having a bad day and I feel depressed, I come to Union Positiva to speak to my friends,” said Santos with a smile.

Union Positiva, is a non-profit organization located in the heart of Little Havana. They are a committed agency leading the fight against the devastating medical, social and economic effects that the HIV/AIDS epidemic inflict on the Latino community in South Florida.

“In Union Positiva we give HIV/AIDS patients the tools to disclose their status to their relatives,” said Union Positiva Program Manager, Christian Ocon.

But in addition they offer countless other services to the Latino community.

In 2000, Union Positiva began providing free HIV/AIDS testing. On average they administer 2,000 CTR/HIV Rapid Tests per year. According to their data collected, an average of 1 new HIV case for every 47 Latino that is tested results positive.


This alarming statistic differs from the stats that the CDC has recorded which states that 1 from every 102 Latino that is tested result HIV positive, said Ocon.

According to Union Positiva’s research, although all populations are equally affected by HIV/AIDS, men who have sex with men better known as (MSM) are ranked number one in reported cases with HIV. Next in line are heterosexual woman, and last are heterosexual man.

However, Ocon notes that there is a striking inconsistency with the aforementioned statistic, and that is that heterosexual men come in third place in regards to new reported cases of HIV simply because they are the least likely to get tested for HIV/AIDS.

Evidently, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is a serious threat to the Hispanic/Latino community. In addition to being a population seriously affected by HIV, Hispanics/Latinos continue to face challenges in accessing health care, prevention services, and HIV treatment.

That is why once a patient is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS at Union Positiva they generally refer them to the Ryan White Program.

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, makes the right care and treatment possible for low-income, uninsured and under-insured men, women, children and youth with no other way to meet their medical care and support needs.

The Program prioritizes lifesaving services for individuals living with HIV/AIDS, including HIV/AIDS medications and targets resources to areas that have the greatest needs.

“Here at Union Positiva we are 100 percent dedicated to the Latino community providing prevention, awareness, and offering help both psychologically as well as emotionally to those that suffer from HIV/ AIDS,” said Christian Ocon.

Ocon who is of Nicaraguan descent and whose brother died of AIDS many years back enjoys working at Union Positva.

“It fulfills me,” he said.

In his three years of working at Union Positiva he has countless anecdotes about the Latino community who are affected by HIV/AIDS.

He adds that the hardest part of his job, however, is telling people that they are HIV positive.

“HIV affects everyone differently,” Ocon said. “I remember once I told a gentleman that he was HIV positive and he just got up and said, “Oh okay thanks, well I need to go to the gym now.”’

But one anecdote that he will never forget was the story of Argentinean couple whose love super ceded HIV.

Ocon, decided to keep the identity of the couple confidential but their love story he told with great flair.

There was a middle aged man, who had been living with HIV for years and was in a relationship with a woman who did not have HIV. The couple after being together for a few years decided to work closely with doctors to bring up his T-Cells to the maximum level possible.

Once the T-Cells were at the level they aimed, the couple started having unprotected sex because they wanted to have their own baby.

Miraculously it turns out that the women became impregnated but not infected with the virus. In the end, both the lucky woman and the baby were HIV free.

“That case was unprecedented, I had never heard of anything like that before,” Ocon said with excitement.

But just like the Argentinean couple who were able to achieve their dream of having a baby. There is also the story of Santos and Eduardo, who met in Union Positiva and whose love for one another is what keeps them going in life.

Santos and Eduardo met while attending a support group meeting called “Grupo Reacción,” designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for men of all ages who have sex with men.

The program focuses on developing skills, building beliefs that they can make their situation better and creating hope for a positive and better future.
While attending the support group, Santos was at the verge of being diagnosed with full blown AIDS. He weighed 115 pounds, and had lost faith in life.

But his life made a 360 turn when he found love.

“It was in here in Union Positiva where I met Eduardo,” said Santos with a smile.

That friendship later developed into a stronger bond and soon Eduardo started helping Santos take his medicine, which he often neglected to take.

“Eduardo helped me a lot,” Santos said, as he patted his chubby stomach.

Both Santos and Eduardo are grateful of being able to go to a place such as Union Positiva where the staff welcomes them with open arms.

Whenever the couple is in the area of Little Havana, Union Positiva is one of their stops.

And For Ocon, talking and helping couples like Santos and Eduardo simply makes his day.

AIDS:WE COULD ALL BE VICTIMS.

About six months ago, I was driving on my way to school when I heard on a local radio station that a South Beach club promoter (the name at this moment escapes me) infected with HIV was arrested for deliberately sleeping with countless women without protection. The radio station was asking women who knew the club promoter to either call the radio station or get tested immediately.

In my opinion, HIV is a chain reaction in which all it takes is for one person to have AIDS and all those people who come into sexual contact with that individual are exposed to the deadly virus.

It’s alarming the rate in which HIV is spreading among people in South Florida.

According to CDC, the South Florida metropolitan area -- which includes Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties -- had the highest rate of new AIDS cases per 100,000 people in the U.S. from 2003 to 2005. Only New York City and San Juan, Puerto Rico, had more new reported AIDS cases among Hispanic women in 2004.

But, I would like to dig deeper into the subject about HIV, because I think is not a matter of ethnicity or language barrier but a matter of choice, like everything else in this world. Government can spend millions of dollars on PSA’s but in the end HIV can affect anyone, and everyone at some point, from promiscuous women and men to married couples, to people who have sex only once a year.

I think that in the heat of the moment, and especially in the arms of the man or woman that one desires and perhaps even love, thinking about whether one may contract HIV if one has unprotected sex is at the bottom of the barrel.

So, I guess that is why each time one goes to get checked for HIV despite, perhaps, not having many sexual partners, waiting for the test results may seem endless and far from painless. It’s at that moment that people stop thinking with the emotions and begin to think realistically.

I will never forget the fall of 05’ when also on my way to school, an unknown woman called a local Spanish radio station to say that she was pregnant. The radio host, Enrique Santos, congratulated the caller when suddenly she bursted into tears and said, “I’m pregnant and I’m going to die.”

At that moment, I know it took Santos by surprise because he didn’t know what to say. Normally his morning show was filled of people calling to do pranks on other people but this call was definitely an unusual one.

The unknown caller continued by telling her story and she said that she had just discovered that she had HIV because it showed twice on the blood results that she had taken as part of her regular pregnancy evaluation.

The caller did not reveal her identity but she told her story. She had been married for various years and at first she was ecstatic at the news that she was going to be a mother for the first time.

But little did she know that her husband was cheating on her. She discovered her husband’s infidelity the moment that her test results came out positive.
In vengeance she called the radio station to scream out to the world that her husband was a perro, Spanish word for dog.

She asked the host to call her husband so that she can humiliate him on air and with thousands of people listening. The host asked her to rethink her decision but the determined caller wanted to continue with her mission.

The phone rang and after about the third ring a man with a rough and cheerful voice answered the phone. The desperate woman greeted him in a cold manner. The man at first seemed happy to hear his wife, but his mood changed in a matter of seconds.

She told him that she was leaving him and that he needed to get tested for HIV. Her words were sharp and filled with pain, “I’m leaving you and it is because of you that your son and I will die. I have HIV,” she said screaming and crying simultaneously.

The man began to cry as well and then all we heard was the phone disconnect.
After that dramatic episode, the station remained quiet for a few minutes. It was the first time that I had heard something so dramatic and powerful over the radio.

It made me realize something very important and is that we are all at risk of contracting HIV including those that think that they are in a monogamous relationship and that their spouses will never cheat on them.