Marco, 1972 (#1100)
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Well, to me, the idea of HIV
has changed a lot.
Very, very much.
I am not HIV positive
but, in my mind, I believe
I am HIV positive.
I started in 1996.
One of my best friends
got ill all of a sudden.
Unfortunately, life changed completely.
In less than three weeks, I lost him.
He vanished.
He almost went from
his house to the hospital,
and from the hospital
to the cementery.
Because it was something that I did not really understand,
I became depressed.
I had arrived in this country,
had no friends,
knew no people, so
it was like
a world of change comes into your life,
and simply goes through
half of your body
and you have to face people.
They speak of the person you love
in a negative way.
Refer to him as an outcast
who had to get out of your life.
So I arrived in San Francisco
looking for a lot
of answers.
And I found the answers with a person
who asked me if I wanted to
do something.
At night I began to travel from Sacramento
to San Francisco,
and I started helping distribute condoms in The Castro.
Then I met more people here
in the Bay Area
and I decided to move there
and to keep distributing condoms at night.
Later, there was a support group
and I started going
to the meetings,
and later on I started working with
that same group.
Since I had already been tested, I could be even more useful
in working with them.
So
I started distributing condoms,
spreading flyers
about getting tested.
I started to work more at an agency,
and now I already have...
and that was in 1998.
Since then, I have been working
as a case manager
for people who are positive.
I am very proud of what I do,
I am very proud of those
who have come along
my way all through the years, being their case manager.
I see people, how life
has changed them.
I see people who are happy,
people who have their families,
their children, their profession,
a good job.
They are happy people,
they are very optimistic,
and above all they have been my source of inspiration
to improve.
They have been my source of inspiration to fight, to live,
for things in life to be better.
I will always say it,
and I will always believe it:
My best experiences in life have been
working with positive people.
In two instances I tried to stop working in this field.
For two years
I paused my work there,
because it was very tiring.
However, experience brought me back to keep on
doing the same work.
I say it again,
in my experience it went
from less to more service,
and I hope to...
to continue to at least plant a little seed
in the lives of these people
and to make a difference
especially in their lifestyles.
And I think that there is a need for more inspiring people
because today it is someone else who
is in front of me,
and tomorrow I could be,
let's hope not,
on the other side of the table.
When I am sitting with a person
who hears that he or she is positive
for the first time,
I always tell them that
I am the one who
is ready right now to help them
but tomorrow maybe there will be someone else
giving me a hand to get up.
So those who are going to work on this project,
maybe it will be something that will have a lot
to give. A lot more
than in just one video.
And there is so much to give to
the community as well.