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The Boulder County Aids Project are reaching out to Latinos

Host Intro: Host lead: National HIV testing day is June 27th and local AIDS/HIV outreach programs will be encouraging people to come along for confidential testing.  We?re now coming into the 3rd decade of the AIDS epidemic.  Started in the early ?80?s it was primarily a disease that affected gay white men, but the face of AIDs and HIV has changed considerably in the past 2 decades.  Nowadays people of color, youths in their teens and twenties and women are at increasing risk of infection.  KGNU?s Maeve Conran finds out how HIV and AIDS are affecting certain populations here in Colorado.

Groups Featured in this report include: El Futuro, 720-904-7125, http://www.elfuturoprogram.org/
Boulder County Aids Project, 303-444-0260, www.bcap.org
Latino Commission on Aids, www.latinoaids.org
Boulder County Health, www.BoulderCountyHealth.org




Full Text:

Narration:
According to the Latino Commission on Aids incidents of Aids and HIV are soaring in America?s Latino community.  In 2004 HIV infections amongst Latinos increased  by 30% .   While Colorado has not experienced this dramatic increase, yet, health officials warn that our State could soon follow suit.

Kate Storm:
?Colorado is definitely getting up there?

Narration: Kate Storm: STI HIV Outreach coordinator for Boulder Country Public Health.

Kate:
?our numbers are definitely increasing in Colorado at  a rate that is not succinct with our population growth, so we need to make sure that we start responding to this epidemic in the Latino community.?

Narration: Storm says, while the Latino community is just like any other group of people affected by AIDS and HIV, health officials used to overlook them..

Kate :
?The education and outreach an awareness that we do on HIV historically has been in English and also has been focused on the white community.?

Narration: That?s where bi-lingual case officers come in.  They include Rodolfo Martinez Puentes, a HIV prevention coordinator with the Boulder County Aids Project.

Rodolfo: ?I am going into the community to find them, I?m looking for groups, Latinos, and I go do an education presentation.?

Narration: While Speaking Spanish reaches across language barriers, Martinez says there are other cultural challenges.  

Rodolfo
"The Latino community is coming to the United States for the US dream, and they are working hard to making money and they don?t care about programs, education and what happens with HIV STD, because they have sex but they no talk about it"


Narration: Add in a reluctance to talk about homosexuality, and the barriers multiply.  

Rodolfo
?a lot of people are gay but don?t identify as gay, but they say bisexual or they say straight, but they are having sex with men and women.?

Narration: Seasonal migrant workers are at particular risk for contracting HIV and AIDS., in part, due to poverty and isolation.

Rodolfo
"In one apartment they live 8-10 people together, some times on the weekend they?re drunk, they have sex together and the next day, they don?t talk about it, they have sex but they don?t talk about it, Rodolfo 4: 41 seconds
In one apartment they live 8-10 people together, some times on the weekend they?re drunk, they have sex together and the next day, they don?t talk about it."


Narration: Kate Storm of Boulder County Health concurs.

Kate:
"a lot of the diagnoses here in Colorado can be attributed to men who have sex with men, and we know that in the Latino community, there is often an additional stigma of being gay and being Latino."

Narration: Attitudes towards homosexuality in the Latino Community are changing for the better, so says Jessie Ulibarri, Project specialist for El Futuro, Colorado?s leading program for gay and bisexual Latinos.   But says Ulibarri, it?s still hard for a Latino who?s trying to ?come out.?

Jesse
?it?s not just ?I need to come out to Mom and Dad, I need to come out to Mom and Dad,  and grandma and grandpa and my 12 aunts and uncles and my 42 cousins? instead of just ?I?m telling Mom and Dad? and that?s a big deal, so I think there?s a lot of issues wrapped up  in coming out as a gay or bisexual person of color, specifically Latino or latina."

Narration: But Rodolfo Martinez points out that men having sex with men while doing migrant work in the U-S often are motivated more by isolation, ignorance and overcrowding than by sexual orientation.  Many have wives back in their home country . . . or they become involved with women here in the U-S when they are able to . . . Often their lovers are Latina women, who, according to Kate Storm, are then at a much higher risk of becoming HIV positive.

Kate :
"HIV is not a standalone thing, it often comes with different issues, whether it be injection drug use, substance abuse issues, mental health issues, domestic violence and sexual assault, or other unsafe relationships."

Narration: What?s more, Latinos often can?t afford health care which can mean delays in testing and treatment of HIV.  This leads to more illness and early death.  According to Jessie Ulibarri of El Futuro, aside from precautions, such as using condoms or abstaining from sex, there?s one more thing that could save more lives.

Jesse 12 seconds
?I know it sounds so obvious but so many people are afraid to do it, it?s just?.get tested?I think the idea of being tested can be very scary for many people, but it?s also, so simple?

Narration: Ulibarri urges people to remember that National HIV testing day is June 27th with many outreach programs in both Spanish and English, and free, confidential testing.  For KGNU, this is Maeve Conran