DINO DINCO : WORLD AIDS DAY 05

Are you still one of those people who think that HIV / AIDS won’t affect you? That it’s still something that happens to "those people"? Well, as we’ve experienced, that network of "those people" has grown and diversified exponentially and the type of people the virus has affected has now included just about every "type." What did you do to commemorate World AIDS Day?

I remember when World AIDS Day also included A Day Without Art, when galleries and museums would shut down for the day, to acknowledge how HIV and AIDS had affected the creative community. Others would dim their lights or cover artworks with black cloth. Sadly, the tradition never stuck and it’s business as usual.

Last night, my friend Nacho and I attended the 12th Annual Noche de las Memorias in Lincoln Park, just outside of downtown Los Angeles, founded by The Wall / Las Memorias Project, an organization that, among other things, was instrumental in having a physical momument built to represent the presence of HIV and AIDS in our world, as well as providing HIV / AIDS education to the Latino community. Etched within the marble panels are names of some of those who have died from AIDS. (www.thewalllasmemorias.org/main.html )

At 7pm, Aztec dancers led a candlelight procession through the luminaria-lined pathways of the park, burning bundles of sage along the way. The procession finished at the monument itself, where the dancers performed a ritual dance to honor the dead and bless the land. Community and religious representatives spoke about the presence of HIV and AIDS in our world, calling out to increase tolerance and education about the disease. Oddly enough, just the night before, I was hollering the name "Apollonia" as a joke to Nacho, when out of the blue, THE Apollonia stepped up to the mic and spoke about her own experience with losing a relative to AIDS.

A plea to the ether: Find a cure.