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Speaker 1: Ola Latino USA listener, kbastaf, we are celebrating thirty years

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Speaker 1: on the ear. I mean it's huge three that anos,

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Speaker 1: and so we're celebrating with you because honestly, you, dear listener,

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Speaker 1: you made it happen.

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Speaker 2: So we want to hear from you.

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Speaker 1: What is an episode that you shared with someone else

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Speaker 1: You were like, oh my god, I just have to

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Speaker 1: and you sent it to your mom or your THEO

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Speaker 1: or your dea, your son, your daughter. Let us know.

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Speaker 1: Leave us a voicemail at six four six five seven

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Speaker 1: one one two two four. Again that's six four six

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Speaker 1: five seven one one two two four, and we might

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Speaker 1: just feature your call on an upcoming episode in Yes,

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Speaker 1: this is Latino USA, the Radio journal of News and

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Speaker 1: Kurtur Latino US six let Latino USA.

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Speaker 2: I'm Mariainojosa. We bring you stories that are underreported but

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Speaker 2: that mattered to you, overlooked by the rest of the media.

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Speaker 2: And while the country is struggling to deal with these, we.

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Speaker 1: Listen to the stories Black and Latino Studio United Latino Front,

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Speaker 1: a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement.

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Speaker 2: I'm Maria Ino Josa, Nosebayan.

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Speaker 3: Late last year at Latino USA. We started planning special

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Speaker 3: episodes to mark the show's thirtieth anniversary, and we were

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Speaker 3: given this four hundred page archival document with three decades

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Speaker 3: of audio from the show. It was a lot, and

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Speaker 3: we were supposed to explore potential ideas. I decided to

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Speaker 3: type HIV in the search bar. I'm not sure why.

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Speaker 3: I guess I was curious. I was wondering how Latino

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Speaker 3: USA had covered the HIV eights epidemic. And for a

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Speaker 3: little bit of context, I'm thirty two years old and

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Speaker 3: I'm an immigrant from Venezuela, so I learned about the

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Speaker 3: height of the epidemic in the US much later after

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Speaker 3: it had already happened. And the image that I had

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Speaker 3: was mainly of white gay men who were getting very sick,

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Speaker 3: and they were protesting about it.

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Speaker 4: The US government is abandoning people with.

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Speaker 2: Age getting worse.

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Speaker 3: Topping a list of likely victims are male homosexuals who

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Speaker 3: have many partners and drug users who inject themselves with needle.

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Speaker 4: All over the country, homosexuals are reporting increased discrimination.

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Speaker 3: I expected Latino USA to have covered this differently, and

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Speaker 3: I wasn't wrong. In the archives, I found a segment

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Speaker 3: from nineteen ninety four about a nineteen year old Latino

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Speaker 3: from San Antonio. His name was Javier and he was

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Speaker 3: HIV positive, and Xavier was visiting classrooms to educate young

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Speaker 3: people like him about the disease.

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Speaker 2: I think maybe, like if I'd had someone come to

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Speaker 2: my school before I was infected and talked to me,

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Speaker 2: that probably would have changed.

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Speaker 3: I also found a very alarming report from our host

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Speaker 3: Maria J. Jos in Puerto Rico from nineteen ninety five.

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Speaker 2: Has changed.

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Speaker 5: That year, the.

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Speaker 3: Island actually had the highest rate of HIV infections in

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Speaker 3: the whole country, and Maria was there to focus on

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Speaker 3: the increasing number of women getting infected. I learned from

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Speaker 3: her report that sexism was a big part of the

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Speaker 3: problem there.

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Speaker 6: I used to tell him I would never forgive him

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Speaker 6: if he got me infected.

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Speaker 3: I kept digging in Latino USA's archives, and then I

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Speaker 3: found her.

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Speaker 5: Her name was Ilka Dania Payan.

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Speaker 7: Those who still believe that you can get AIDS from

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Speaker 7: a kiss or from a food place that exists today

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Speaker 7: sixteen years later. There is too much ignorance, too much discrimination,

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Speaker 7: too much in humanity.

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Speaker 3: The strength in her voice really stopped me in my tracks.

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Speaker 3: I was like, who's this fierce woman?

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Speaker 7: I want to outlive eights and I want all of

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Speaker 7: us to outlive a thank you.

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Speaker 3: After listening to Ilka in that speech in San Francisco

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Speaker 3: in October of nineteen ninety five, I just had to

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Speaker 3: know more about her. What else did Latino USA have

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Speaker 3: on Ilka Dania Payan, So I searched to see if

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Speaker 3: I found her again, and I did.

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Speaker 8: The famous actress from telenovelas, the lawyer who defended immigrants' rights,

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Speaker 8: and most recently, the most outspoken Latina on AIDS issues,

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Speaker 8: died on April sixth of AIDS.

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Speaker 3: Just months after delivering that powerful speech. Ilka was gone.

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Speaker 3: She was fifty three years old.

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Speaker 8: She told Latinas that there was one thing they could

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Speaker 8: do to try to save their own lives. Get an

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Speaker 8: AIDS test and insist that your partner do the same.

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Speaker 8: I followed her words. I know of many other Latinas

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Speaker 8: who got tested after they heard Ilga speak. Thanks to Ilga,

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Speaker 8: at least some things have changed.

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Speaker 3: I couldn't imagine how Ilka was able to face the

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Speaker 3: world with this force while she was battling the most

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Speaker 3: stigmatized and hopeless illness of her time. So I was

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Speaker 3: left wondering how did she become the most outspoken Latina

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Speaker 3: living with HIV?

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Speaker 5: What was her story?

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Speaker 3: And what would life look like for Ilka if she

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Speaker 3: were still around us today.

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Speaker 1: From Fudromidia and PRX, It's Latino USA. I'm Mariaino Posa

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Speaker 1: today the HIV age epidemic and women. A story of

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Speaker 1: two Latinas breaking stigma from yesterday and today. Latino USA

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Speaker 1: producer Patrisa Sulbran has the story and here she is.

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Speaker 3: Picture this. It's nineteen ninety three. We're twelve years into

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Speaker 3: the epidemic of HIV. Eights New York City is the

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Speaker 3: epicenter of infections. Per capita, more than forty six thousand

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Speaker 3: people have died in the city since the first case

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Speaker 3: was officially reported in black and Latino communities. Two major

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Speaker 3: public health crisis are colliding. The crack epidemic has already

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Speaker 3: separated families and ended lives, and the HIV virus is

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Speaker 3: attacking people immune systems with no proper treatment. More and

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Speaker 3: more people are developing AIDS, which is putting them at

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Speaker 3: a higher risk of dying. It's June nineteenth and the

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Speaker 3: summer is about to get real hot and sticky. Inside

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Speaker 3: the Cardinal Spellman AIDS pavilion at Saint Clair's Hospital in Manhattan,

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Speaker 3: most of the patients are Latinos and Latinas. One patient's

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Speaker 3: name is Ector Lavo. He dies on this day. Ector

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Speaker 3: Lavo doesn't need much of an introduction. He was a

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Speaker 3: salsa giant. He died from complications with AIDS, but his

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Speaker 3: obituaries don't mention aids. Larga and fermidad, a long illness,

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Speaker 3: said the Spanish newspaper. At bais cardiac arrest, The New

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Speaker 3: York Times reported, and this is not a story about him,

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Speaker 3: as I'm sure you realize by now, but his death

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Speaker 3: speaks of the times, times of secrecy and stigma. Speaking

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Speaker 3: up was unthinkable, But Ilka Tania Payan is about to

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Speaker 3: do just that.

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Speaker 1: Live and one person who has already learned her HIV

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Speaker 1: status is now using the information to help others.

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Speaker 5: She's speaking out with courage and conviction.

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Speaker 9: HIV virus was sexually transmitted to me by a young

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Speaker 9: Puerto Rican artist whom I respected and loved dearly. It

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Speaker 9: happens sometime between June of eighty one.

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Speaker 3: It's October fourteenth, we're still in nineteen ninety three. That morning,

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Speaker 3: Ilka appears at the Human Rights Commission office in Lower Manhattan.

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Speaker 3: She's a familiar face. Ilka's famous for her role in

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Speaker 3: at Telenovela on Telemundo. She's wearing a yellow blazer. Her

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Speaker 3: lips are painted in a red wine color. Her beautiful,

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Speaker 3: peppered and wavy hair is loose. Her hazel eyes are

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Speaker 3: wide open.

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Speaker 5: Ilka Tanya Payan live with her secret and now in

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Speaker 5: a very public way.

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Speaker 10: She was telling the world that she was HIV positive,

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Speaker 10: sometimes with humor.

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Speaker 9: Look at me, you know, I can't give a life.

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Speaker 3: Ka took the HIV test in nineteen eighty six. A

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Speaker 3: reporter asked her why she decided to wait seven years

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Speaker 3: to publicly disclose her diagnosis.

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Speaker 11: I think we all know the answer, don't we. You

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Speaker 11: know the answer.

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Speaker 2: It's fear of discrimination.

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Speaker 5: It is fear of rejection. Her sisters in the Dominican Republic.

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Speaker 3: Ka's home country had already heard reports about her illness.

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Speaker 9: I was afraid that once they found out what was

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Speaker 9: my condition, they would get up and in the beds

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Speaker 9: and spray the sheets.

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Speaker 11: Sat next Terminusian.

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Speaker 3: Says she will continue her work as a member of

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Speaker 3: the New York City.

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Speaker 2: Human Rights Commission.

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Speaker 3: The next year, nineteen ninety four, AIDS would become the

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Speaker 3: leading cause of death for all young Americans. Black people

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Speaker 3: and Latinos were the most impacted. It would take one

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Speaker 3: more year and tens of thousands of more lives lost

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Speaker 3: before the FDA finally approved an anti viral drug to

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Speaker 3: treat HIV. It was the first clear sign of hope

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Speaker 3: in fourteen long years for Ilka and many in her generation,

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Speaker 3: though it was already too late.

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Speaker 12: Me as you must already know, and your new bilingual teacher,

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Speaker 12: my name is miss Margarita.

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Speaker 3: And before the press conference, many people only knew Ilga

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Speaker 3: as an actress. She was a pioneer of the Spanish

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Speaker 3: speaking theater scene in New York. She also starred in

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Speaker 3: movies and TV shows, both in English and Spanish.

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Speaker 6: Pector you come.

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Speaker 9: Out of there right now and don't give these people

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Speaker 9: no more trouble.

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Speaker 3: That was only one side of who she was, though.

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Speaker 3: IgA was also a prominent advocate for HIV positive Latinos

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Speaker 3: and immigrants. She was an attorney. She created an important

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Speaker 3: legal clinic for immigrants in the mid eighties at the

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Speaker 3: Gay Men's Health Crisis Center, perhaps the most important ango

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Speaker 3: helping HIV patients back then.

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Speaker 9: I must say that I am not grateful to be here.

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Speaker 2: I am very angry, and I am in more.

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Speaker 3: She even went to the United Nations in December of

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Speaker 3: nineteen ninety three.

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Speaker 9: We don't need any more experts without HIV or aces,

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Speaker 9: and we don't need any more task forces.

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Speaker 3: She showed up wearing a stunning v neck black dress

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Speaker 3: with big shoulder pads and a large white and black

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Speaker 3: flower embroidered on one of the sides.

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Speaker 9: It work is not done to quickly remove the stigma

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Speaker 9: of eights while we still look good. It's going to

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Speaker 9: get harder for everyone to deal with it. It's pretty

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Speaker 9: ugly already.

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Speaker 3: I wanted to know more about Ika, but I wasn't

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Speaker 3: finding much. After her passing. There were no longer specials

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Speaker 3: about her on TV or documentaries on her life. I

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Speaker 3: got excited when I came across an article titled these

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Speaker 3: women are Forgotten HIV Warriors, but there was no mention

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Speaker 3: of her. Instead, the article featured Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana.

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Speaker 3: But then I found a person quoted in Ilka's obituary

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Speaker 3: in the New York Times. The article read quote a friend,

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Speaker 3: Carla Fine said the cause of death was AIDS. It

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Speaker 3: was just that, but it was something I started researching

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Speaker 3: and discovered that Carla Fine was a published author.

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Speaker 5: I looked her.

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Speaker 3: Up online and I sent her an email. Because of her,

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Speaker 3: I was going to be able to get to know

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Speaker 3: Ilka beyond the headlines.

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Speaker 2: Coming up on Latino USA.

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Speaker 1: Ilka seeks treatment, but soon she realizes that healthcare for

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Speaker 1: women with HIV is last on the list of priorities.

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Speaker 2: Stay with us, Yes, Olato is.

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Speaker 13: I'm Gini Montaro. I'm senior producer for Futuro Studios and

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Speaker 13: also moonlight occasionally for a Latino USA.

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Speaker 2: I've been with the.

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Speaker 13: Company since twenty sixteen, and I actually started as our

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Speaker 13: company's engineer. I love all things audio and sound design,

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Speaker 13: which means when I go to write stories, I'm always

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Speaker 13: thinking about fun ways to play with effects and music,

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Speaker 13: because how you hear a story.

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Speaker 2: Makes a difference.

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Speaker 13: The newsroom at Futuru was a breath of fresh air

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Speaker 13: from the news spaces that I was used.

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Speaker 5: To working in.

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Speaker 2: People like me with Feeaten.

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Speaker 13: Two worlds and two languages, it felt like home. Happy anniversary,

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Speaker 13: Latino Usa Gerrace Port and thank you listener for celebrating

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Speaker 13: with us.

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Speaker 1: Hey, we're back. And before the break, we met the

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Speaker 1: famous actress and activist Ilka Danya Bayan, who in nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety three went public about being HIV positive. Later, she

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Speaker 1: went on to become one of the most outspoken Latinas

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Speaker 1: in the country and the world about HIV AIDS issues.

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Speaker 1: Here's producer Patricia Subran once.

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Speaker 5: Again, guys, and then I went down the rabbit hole.

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Speaker 3: Basically days after Carla Fine and I exchanged emails, she

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Speaker 3: welcomes me to her apartment in Chelsea on the West

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Speaker 3: side of Manhattan. She's now seventy seven years old. She

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Speaker 3: has a soothing voice and a petite figure.

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Speaker 14: You know it's late, but it's you know, she's rediscovered.

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Speaker 3: It's a breezy afternoon in May. Now I learned that

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Speaker 3: Carla and Ilka were really close, so much so that

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Speaker 3: Ilka specifically asked Carla to make sure that the press

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Speaker 3: reported she had died of AIDS.

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Speaker 5: She said she wanted that we're not alone today.

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Speaker 6: My kids are great.

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Speaker 3: Carla invited someone else to our meeting. It's Gigi, Ilka's

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Speaker 3: only daughter. I immediately recognize her from the press conference in

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Speaker 3: nineteen ninety three because she was standing right behind her mom.

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Speaker 3: She was only twenty nine back then. Now it's the

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Speaker 3: three of us sitting in Carla's cozy living room, surrounded

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Speaker 3: by books. For the next three hours, they share with

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Speaker 3: me their most treasured memories of Ilka, from her childhood

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Speaker 3: in the Dominican Republic to her last days in New

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Speaker 3: York City. But as it happens, memory doesn't work in

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Speaker 3: a straight line, so our conversation doesn't really follow a chronology.

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Speaker 3: Carla and Gigi start sharing caring anecdotes of Ilka when

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Speaker 3: she was sick.

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Speaker 5: Gig warns me, as if it were a bad thing,

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Speaker 5: that she'll probably cry a lot.

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Speaker 3: Surprisingly, we actually end up laughing a lot. Gig remembers

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Speaker 3: this one time when Ilka had a fever and they

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Speaker 3: had to call the ambulance.

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Speaker 6: And she's like up on the bed, sick as a dog,

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Speaker 6: weighs ninety pounds, soaking wet because she's so sick, and

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Speaker 6: she's got her leg up in the air and she's

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Speaker 6: trying to put on pantyhose, and then she's got the

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Speaker 6: lipstick over here, and I'm like Mitra muhe. I'm like,

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Speaker 6: what is wrong with you? You are going to the hospital.

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Speaker 6: We are putting you in an ambulance and she's like,

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Speaker 6: oh no, they cannot see me like this.

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Speaker 3: When they finally go downstairs, the EMT waiting by the

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Speaker 3: ambulance sees Ilka and tells her, oh, you're so beautiful today,

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Speaker 3: and she was like.

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Speaker 6: You know, I'll like see I still got it. And

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Speaker 6: I'm like, yep, she still got it. Wow, you know,

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Speaker 6: and he was lovely.

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Speaker 3: And there was this other time when Gigi had this

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Speaker 3: somber conversation with Ilka after she came out with her diagnosis.

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Speaker 3: Gigi asked her to please avoid becoming the AIDS poster girl.

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Speaker 3: Ika was like, do not worry, it's not going to happen.

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Speaker 3: But her activism, Gigi says, was so big that she

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Speaker 3: wasn't shying away.

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Speaker 5: So one day I'm down.

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Speaker 6: In the subway and I look and there's this huge

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Speaker 6: postress and I was like, you know, there were no

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Speaker 6: cell phones back then, So I get out of the

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Speaker 6: train and pick up the public phone and a caller.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, what.

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Speaker 6: Happens to not be the AIDS poster girl? I just

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Speaker 6: literally saw a poster of you as the AIDS poster girl.

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Speaker 14: Even in her most passionate she had a twinkle. There

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Speaker 14: was a twinkle to her kind of thing. There was

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Speaker 14: this way of talking that she just it. I mean,

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Speaker 14: I guess it's the definition of charisma, you know.

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Speaker 2: She just sparkled.

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Speaker 3: Carla and Ilka became friends in the early nineties, when

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Speaker 3: Ilka was about to turn fifty. It was a very

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Speaker 3: difficult time because Ika already knew about her diagnosis, but

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Speaker 3: it was also an exciting time. New York City had

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Speaker 3: elected its first black mayor.

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Speaker 2: The Honorable David N.

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Speaker 3: Lincoln's, and by then Ilka had become so prominent in

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Speaker 3: political and civic circles that she actually paused her acting

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Speaker 3: career to work for the Mayor's office as a Commissioner

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Speaker 3: on Human Rights. Carla was in charge of the press

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Speaker 3: office for the commission.

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Speaker 14: They started getting involved with anything that was discriminatory.

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Speaker 11: Every day there was a new cause.

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Speaker 6: She would see a fight happening, She'd be like, Oh,

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Speaker 6: let me go over there and get an that thing

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Speaker 6: over there, you know what I mean. And then the

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Speaker 6: next thing you knew she was leading.

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Speaker 11: The whole of the.

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Speaker 3: Town knew firsthand what it was like to be a

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Speaker 3: struggling New Yorker trying to make against meet. Before devoting

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Speaker 3: herself to theater and law and activism, she kept many

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Speaker 3: jobs in her life, including being a secretary and a

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Speaker 3: flight attendant. In the seventies, she lived in a tenement

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Speaker 3: with her daughter Gigi. These were tough times for women.

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Speaker 3: Congress was just starting to pass laws protecting women against

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Speaker 3: sex discrimination, but discrimination still happened. So when Ilka applied

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Speaker 3: for public housing, she was forced to lie in her application.

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Speaker 3: She said that her child was actually a boy so

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Speaker 3: they could be considered for a two bedroom apartment. Twenty

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Speaker 3: years later, in the nineties, some things hadn't changed much

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Speaker 3: for women, and the AIDS epidemic was making that clear.

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Speaker 3: There was widespread anecdotal evidence suggesting that women were getting

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Speaker 3: persie distant guide ncological infections that were correlated with HIV. However,

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Speaker 3: the CDC didn't include invasive cervical cancer in their AIDS

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Speaker 3: surveillance definition until nineteen ninety three, and yet women wouldn't

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Speaker 3: become part of clinical trials of HIV medication until the

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Speaker 3: mid nineties. Before that, they were often blocked, mostly out

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Speaker 3: of a fear in the medical world of exposing onborn children.

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Speaker 3: Ika was vocal about this. She was working closely with

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Speaker 3: mostly white activists who were opening prevention and treatment centers.

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Speaker 3: A few months before she died, she gave an interview

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Speaker 3: to Pause, that's a magazine that chronicles the lives of

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Speaker 3: people affected by HIV AIDS, and in that interview, Ika

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Speaker 3: said that this centers quote came out of white, gay,

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Speaker 3: middle class activism, because those are the people who know

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Speaker 3: how to function in the system, and there's nothing wrong

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Speaker 3: with that. If this had been a disease which started

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Speaker 3: with women, nothing would have been done. So when Eka

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Speaker 3: was diagnosed, Gigi says that their first thought was that

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Speaker 3: she needed to get on medication right away.

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Speaker 6: And that's when she started realizing, oh, they're not thinking

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Speaker 6: about me yet. So even if they do come up

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Speaker 6: with something, it's not going to be for me, it's

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Speaker 6: going to be for a gay white man who many

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Speaker 6: of in that community. She loved dearly. So it wasn't

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Speaker 6: us against them thing. It was like the priorities are skewed,

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Speaker 6: as they always have been.

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Speaker 3: Still today, almost three decades after IGA's death, HIV treatments

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Speaker 3: are not entirely available for sisgender women. PREP, one of

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Speaker 3: the most effective medications for HIV prevention, is an example

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Speaker 3: of that. PREP has been around for over ten years

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Speaker 3: and it's prescribed to people who are HIV negative but

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Speaker 3: at risk of infection.

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Speaker 5: But hear this.

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Speaker 3: Out of the three PREP medications available, one has never

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Speaker 3: been studied in people assigned female at birth. The CDC

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Speaker 3: warns it as critical to achieve equal PREP coverage, especially

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Speaker 3: when cisgender women account for almost twenty percent of all

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Speaker 3: new HIV diagnoses.

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Speaker 6: We were losing so many of our community.

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Speaker 3: Remember a lot of Ilka's friends were immigrants like her.

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Speaker 3: Some of them were exiled, they had no family members

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Speaker 3: in the US, some didn't speak English fluently. Others got

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Speaker 3: lost in the healthcare system. This is how Carla Ilka's

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Speaker 3: friend remembers it.

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Speaker 10: They were neglected by the government. Nothing was being done

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Speaker 10: because it was basically, we're dying. We're dying here, and

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Speaker 10: no one's doing anything because look at the population.

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Speaker 6: That's time and they were young between nineteen eighty and

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Speaker 6: eighty six, and she had already lost so so many people,

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Speaker 6: including her best friend mand Alita Martinez, right like yeah,

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Speaker 6: So for her, it was I'm losing my community, my

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Speaker 6: artists community, and I'm an artist.

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Speaker 5: Ilka spoke for them, she spoke for her.

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Speaker 9: I have brought to the New York City Human Rights

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Speaker 9: Commission the concern of immigrants, of women, of people with

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Speaker 9: ads and gays. I have made people laugh and cry

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Speaker 9: and sink from my stage and television work. I have

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Speaker 9: legally represented people who know very little about the so

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Speaker 9: called justice system and still believe in it. I don't

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Speaker 9: deserve to be ignored by governments. So I am using

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Speaker 9: this forum to demand that governments and the powerful with

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Speaker 9: the money get their act together in time. Go ahead,

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Speaker 9: United Nations and governments of the world act now on

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Speaker 9: these issues, because tomorrow is too late. Time to act

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Speaker 9: was yesterday.

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Speaker 3: It's a Saturday morning in May, and I've crossed the

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Speaker 3: Lincoln Tunnel to visit Gigi, Ilga's daughter, at her house

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Speaker 3: in Jersey City. The last time I saw Gigi, she

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Speaker 3: and Carla told me stories about IgA and how resilient

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Speaker 3: she was when she was ill. Now I want to

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Speaker 3: know more about Ika's origins, and Gigi promised to look

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Speaker 3: through some boxes of photos and letters with me. Okay,

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Speaker 3: gg takes me to the basement, so we start going

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Speaker 3: down the stairs and all of a sudden, I freeze.

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Speaker 3: The poster of Ika that Gigi saw in the New

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Speaker 3: York City subway thirty years ago is right there hanging

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Speaker 3: on the wall. It's a black and white photo of

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Speaker 3: Ilka's face. She's smirking and looks defiant. I feel like

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Speaker 3: she's looking at me with her hazel eyes. There's a

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Speaker 3: line on top of the poster that says, quote, I'm

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Speaker 3: HIV positive. I hope to meet more angels. We get

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Speaker 3: downstairs and Gigi starts pooling dozens.

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Speaker 5: Of photos out of the boxes.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, but she's over here in the corner. This is

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Speaker 6: one of the Premiu's assay events.

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Speaker 2: So she's here.

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Speaker 6: This is the seventies, looking very much like Arita Hayworth.

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Speaker 6: You know, she was very fabulous and tall.

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Speaker 2: Yes, she was tall. She's like five to seven.

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Speaker 5: Wow, she looks gorgeous.

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Speaker 3: Here there's a photo of Ilka standing next to the

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Speaker 3: legendary Puerto Rican actor Raoul Julia. Turns out they were

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Speaker 3: friends and they were also colleagues. They were both cast

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Speaker 3: for the HBO movie Florida Straits in nineteen eighty six,

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Speaker 3: the same year that Ika was diagnosed with HIV.

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Speaker 6: I'm just trying to find some of the other things here.

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Speaker 5: Gigi also shows me more personal photos.

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Speaker 6: And these are This is her with her sisters. This

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Speaker 6: is me with my mom and her brothers on a

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Speaker 6: trip to the Dominican Republic in La rom Mamosaveraci. This

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Speaker 6: is her with Hilberto in Puerto Rico, who she married

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Speaker 6: when I was eighteen. This is so tiny, but this

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Speaker 6: is my mom and my dad at their wedding. I

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Speaker 6: kept this photo because I think I look like her

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Speaker 6: in this photo. This was her favorite houseware style. Even

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Speaker 6: in the house, she was fabulous. This is my mom's father.

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Speaker 6: My mom's mother died in childbirth.

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Speaker 3: After her mother died during childbirth in the Dominican Republic

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Speaker 3: in nineteen forty five, Ika was raised by her grandmother,

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Speaker 3: who sold lottery, tickets and gasoline to get by. Ilka

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Speaker 3: wrote in a collection of essays that she would spend

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Speaker 3: the summers with her father, his nine other daughters, his wife,

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Speaker 3: and his mistress. She said quote, we lived in a

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Speaker 3: world of women, but not a woman's world. When at thirteen,

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Speaker 3: she and her sisters were sent to New York City

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Speaker 3: to live with an aunt and uncle. They settled in

442
00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:50,040
Speaker 3: Washington Heights. This was way before the area became the

443
00:28:50,040 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 3: home of most Dominicans in the city. Ika had been

444
00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:56,800
Speaker 3: living in New York for a year when she began

445
00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,480
Speaker 3: showing romantic interest in boys.

446
00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 5: She wrote that her.

447
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 3: Uncle suggested that she got used to drinking liquor so

448
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 3: no men would get her drunk and try to seduce

449
00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 3: her without her consent.

450
00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:14,720
Speaker 5: She wrote, quote that was.

451
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 3: The only form of sex education I received. There was

452
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:22,200
Speaker 3: no discussion of contraception, either in school or at home.

453
00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 3: Although there was a great deal of talk of the

454
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:30,600
Speaker 3: holiness of virginity and marriage, the condom as word or

455
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:39,640
Speaker 3: object was taboo, and education, of course, was discouraged about this.

456
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 3: Ilka said, quote, my teacher and uncle urged me to

457
00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:50,240
Speaker 3: choose as secretarial rather than an academic or general diploma, since,

458
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,320
Speaker 3: as I was reminded, I was a Spanish girl whose

459
00:29:54,360 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 3: family needed my financial help, and who would eventually get

460
00:29:58,760 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 3: married anyway.

461
00:30:00,720 --> 00:30:01,800
Speaker 5: And that's what happened.

462
00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:06,200
Speaker 3: By twenty one, Ilka was already married and about to

463
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:07,920
Speaker 3: give birth to Gigi.

464
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 6: And then she completely went kind of what her family

465
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:11,240
Speaker 6: considers off the rails.

466
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 3: Ika married a wealthy man in the Dominican Republic, but

467
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:18,680
Speaker 3: she soon realized that she didn't want that life, so

468
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:21,880
Speaker 3: she separated and went back to New York City when

469
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:25,200
Speaker 3: she was eight months pregnant. For the next eighteen years,

470
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 3: she'd support her daughter, sisters, and grandmother working as a secretary.

471
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 3: On the side, she'd fall in love with acting. Fast

472
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 3: forward to nineteen seventy six. Ika auditions for a TV

473
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,680
Speaker 3: pilot and gets the part. So, with just a few

474
00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 3: bags and little money, off she goes.

475
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 6: We were up on this tiny, little one bedroom apartment.

476
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 6: It was like a box.

477
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:04,520
Speaker 3: Ika arrived in Hollywood to make it in the movie industry,

478
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,520
Speaker 3: But there was one thing that was actually more important

479
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:12,320
Speaker 3: to her than that, something she had long been denied.

480
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:17,560
Speaker 6: Education was really important for her. You must get good grades,

481
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 6: you must be educated. You must learn as much as

482
00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:25,719
Speaker 6: you can. Be curious, right, ask questions.

483
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,720
Speaker 3: I can imagine Ika saying those words to herself when

484
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:32,560
Speaker 3: she stepped foot at the People's College of Law in

485
00:31:32,640 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 3: downtown Los Angeles. The college was an unaccredited school training

486
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:40,440
Speaker 3: lawyers from underserved communities.

487
00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 6: I remember her studying for the bar. She was stressed,

488
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:47,840
Speaker 6: she was studying, and she passed it the first time

489
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:49,720
Speaker 6: out which is very hard to do.

490
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:53,760
Speaker 3: After getting her law degree, Ika went back to New

491
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 3: York City in nineteen eighty one. That same year, she

492
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,520
Speaker 3: had a romantic relationship with a Puerto Rican art artists.

493
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:05,280
Speaker 3: He was using injectable drugs. Ilka didn't know it, but

494
00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:11,080
Speaker 3: he transmitted HIV to her. Life went on for Ilga.

495
00:32:11,760 --> 00:32:14,920
Speaker 3: In the following years. She opened a law clinic and

496
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:20,040
Speaker 3: represented Salvadorians who were seeking amnesty and Haitian immigrants, too

497
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:26,040
Speaker 3: many of them, by the way, infected with HIV. Meanwhile,

498
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 3: over two thousand people had died of complications with AIDS

499
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 3: in the country. By nineteen eighty four, that number more

500
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 3: than doubled, and that same year, the Secretary of Health

501
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:42,600
Speaker 3: and Human Services said that an AIDS vaccine was going

502
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:46,120
Speaker 3: to be available within the next two years, and of

503
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:51,520
Speaker 3: course we know that didn't happen. Instead, two years later,

504
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 3: Ika had already lost two of her best friends to

505
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 3: AIDS and something told her that she should get tested

506
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:04,960
Speaker 3: to In the same nineteen ninety five interview for Pause

507
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:09,120
Speaker 3: magazine that I mentioned before it got described the moment

508
00:33:09,280 --> 00:33:14,560
Speaker 3: she got the results. Quote the doctor called me and

509
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,239
Speaker 3: he wouldn't tell me the results over the phone, so

510
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 3: I knew. He told me you have five years to live,

511
00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:29,520
Speaker 3: relax and make your will. There was no counseling, no intervention, nothing.

512
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:32,480
Speaker 3: I don't know how I got home.

513
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:36,560
Speaker 6: It was one thing to advocate for the people she

514
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:38,320
Speaker 6: loved and she was losing, and to want to take

515
00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:40,760
Speaker 6: care of them. But then it was for one thing

516
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:47,520
Speaker 6: for her to become a person with hib They didn't

517
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:52,200
Speaker 6: understand transmission. So would someone want to be on a

518
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 6: stage with her sweating under lights?

519
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 2: Right?

520
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:06,480
Speaker 6: The Rayah aspect of it, Nobody wanted nobody.

521
00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:12,560
Speaker 3: Jigi, in her late twenties, was also hurting. She remembers

522
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,960
Speaker 3: that they had a huge fight about Ilka's decision to

523
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:17,720
Speaker 3: go public with her diagnosis.

524
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:22,960
Speaker 6: I did not want her to do that. Oh, I

525
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,200
Speaker 6: did not want her to do it. My fear is

526
00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:29,640
Speaker 6: not the stigma. My fear is your swift and imminent death.

527
00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:35,160
Speaker 6: I took this position of superstition. I took this position

528
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:39,240
Speaker 6: of if you give it credit, if you give it life,

529
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:42,600
Speaker 6: if you tell it that it's here, it's going to

530
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:45,920
Speaker 6: come for you. And I don't want to come for you.

531
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:51,960
Speaker 6: I like it the way it is now. If you

532
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:54,600
Speaker 6: had it this long and you were Okay, this long

533
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:58,319
Speaker 6: and you start talking about it. Now it's coming for

534
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:02,160
Speaker 6: you and you will die, And that she did three

535
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:02,680
Speaker 6: years later.

536
00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:08,719
Speaker 3: I get why Gigi has kept her mother's things in

537
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:09,840
Speaker 3: these boxes.

538
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:10,880
Speaker 5: For many years.

539
00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:15,520
Speaker 3: Opening each box is unlocking feelings she's been dealing with

540
00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:21,040
Speaker 3: for decades. Most of all, the boxes are a reminder

541
00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:22,919
Speaker 3: that Ilka is no longer here.

542
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 6: There is a part of me that is still angry,

543
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:33,239
Speaker 6: and there is a part of me that maybe what's

544
00:35:33,239 --> 00:35:35,320
Speaker 6: the word I'm looking for, maybe in a temper tentrum

545
00:35:35,400 --> 00:35:38,640
Speaker 6: kind of way, says and I want no part of it,

546
00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:40,320
Speaker 6: and I'm not going to do it. And if somebody

547
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:42,160
Speaker 6: wants to keep her alive and do all this, you

548
00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:45,480
Speaker 6: do it. I wanted a mom. I wanted grandmother from

549
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 6: my kids. I wanted stories for them about their crazy grandma.

550
00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:58,880
Speaker 6: I didn't want this. Yes, she was amazing, She was amazing,

551
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:02,279
Speaker 6: but her being amazing also took her away from me.

552
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:09,319
Speaker 3: Ilga was amazing at her sickest. She still put on

553
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:12,520
Speaker 3: her heels and her bright colored outfits to go to

554
00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:15,840
Speaker 3: her niece's wedding and one of her best friend's birthday parties.

555
00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:19,480
Speaker 6: She didn't fighte all my friends all her friends, thirty people,

556
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,760
Speaker 6: forty people inside her apartment. You know, before she died,

557
00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:25,360
Speaker 6: she had a party and she looked at scene like

558
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:27,359
Speaker 6: she was eighty three, even though she was fifty three,

559
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:29,920
Speaker 6: and she had a party, and there's all these pictures

560
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:31,239
Speaker 6: of her, and they're devastating.

561
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 3: Ilkad would come in and out of the eights pavilion

562
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:39,760
Speaker 3: at Saint Clair's Hospital, the same hospital where salsa legend

563
00:36:39,800 --> 00:36:44,560
Speaker 3: Ector Lavo died. She would fight different kinds of infections

564
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:48,320
Speaker 3: and pneumonia. She would spend her last Christmas in Puerto

565
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 3: Rico and grudgingly returned to the cold in New York City.

566
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:57,600
Speaker 3: On April sixth, nineteen ninety six, Ilga died surrounded by

567
00:36:57,640 --> 00:37:02,160
Speaker 3: loved ones in her home. She was forty three when

568
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:04,759
Speaker 3: the doctor told her that she had only five more

569
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:05,520
Speaker 3: years to live.

570
00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 5: In nineteen eighty six. She lived double that time.

571
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:16,440
Speaker 14: That's her fabulousness.

572
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:18,440
Speaker 5: Gig takes me back upstairs.

573
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:22,000
Speaker 3: She shares that at some point in her life she

574
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:25,239
Speaker 3: was a professional singer and had her own band, and

575
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:29,640
Speaker 3: that after losing her mother, she performed this song at

576
00:37:29,640 --> 00:37:30,400
Speaker 3: her memorial.

577
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:45,440
Speaker 5: I was your morning stuff.

578
00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 6: You help me that I watched you grow, You struggled

579
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:52,440
Speaker 6: with my sad hands.

580
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:55,120
Speaker 5: It was an no time to let.

581
00:37:55,040 --> 00:37:55,480
Speaker 8: You know that.

582
00:37:55,719 --> 00:37:59,920
Speaker 3: I walk out of Gigi's house feeling heavy and sad.

583
00:38:02,160 --> 00:38:03,320
Speaker 5: I think about how.

584
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:07,279
Speaker 3: Ika lived such a full life and how it was

585
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:09,239
Speaker 3: just cut short too soon.

586
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 5: As I closed the door behind me.

587
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:19,600
Speaker 3: I choose to believe, though, that she accomplished something big.

588
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:24,719
Speaker 3: She didn't let people reduce her to an illness, but

589
00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:29,160
Speaker 3: at the same time, she didn't escape from it. Ika

590
00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:33,280
Speaker 3: fully embraced who she was, and she paved the path

591
00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:38,360
Speaker 3: and led the way for many after her. Days later

592
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:41,640
Speaker 3: I would meet one of them.

593
00:38:42,719 --> 00:38:44,960
Speaker 2: That's after the break. Stay with us.

594
00:38:45,640 --> 00:39:04,759
Speaker 15: Yes, Hello, this is Pauline Nuniez Colley from Colorado. The

595
00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:09,120
Speaker 15: first time I listened to Latino USA was probably several

596
00:39:09,239 --> 00:39:14,000
Speaker 15: years ago. I just remember Maria Na Hossaseining, not dee Vaya,

597
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:16,880
Speaker 15: And this program has taught me about my history, the

598
00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:20,800
Speaker 15: hint and the grason of my community, which is gratch it.

599
00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:35,840
Speaker 1: Hey, we're back And now for a little bit of context.

600
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:40,800
Speaker 1: During Ika's time, there was little hope for HIV treatment,

601
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:45,960
Speaker 1: much less for surviving AIDS. Today, though there's medication that

602
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 1: allows HIV positive patients to keep an undetectable viral load,

603
00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:54,959
Speaker 1: and it prevents them from transmitting the virus. There's also

604
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:58,520
Speaker 1: prep a medication available for people at risk so they

605
00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:01,920
Speaker 1: can avoid getting infected. And all of this has allowed

606
00:40:01,960 --> 00:40:05,160
Speaker 1: the US to set a new goal to end the

607
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:09,839
Speaker 1: epidemic by reducing new infections by ninety percent over the

608
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:16,080
Speaker 1: next seven years. Still, some things remain the same. People

609
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:20,160
Speaker 1: who are not white continue to be disproportionately impacted. They're

610
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 1: not getting equal access to testing, to prevention, or to treatment,

611
00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:28,320
Speaker 1: something that the CDC says is largely due to systemic

612
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:33,719
Speaker 1: racism and structural issues like poverty and housing instability. For

613
00:40:33,760 --> 00:40:38,279
Speaker 1: women who are not white, the disparities are staggering. Black

614
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:41,400
Speaker 1: women are fifteen times more likely to develop AIDS than

615
00:40:41,440 --> 00:40:44,919
Speaker 1: white women, and for latinas it's four times as likely,

616
00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:49,400
Speaker 1: and some recent research has shown that in medical settings,

617
00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:54,439
Speaker 1: women were receiving less HIV screenings and prep orientation than men.

618
00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,560
Speaker 1: Here again is our producer Patricia Surubaran with the last

619
00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:00,480
Speaker 1: part of our story.

620
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:05,480
Speaker 3: That's vp'st I'm in a conference room at the Latino

621
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:08,880
Speaker 3: Commission on AIDS in Manhattan. This organization has been around

622
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:12,880
Speaker 3: since nineteen ninety and its history is intimately tied to

623
00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:16,719
Speaker 3: Ilka Dania Bayan because her friend and colleague at the

624
00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:20,719
Speaker 3: Human Rights Commission, Denis de Leon, was one of its founders.

625
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:24,360
Speaker 3: The Commission would later create the Ilka Award that the

626
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:27,959
Speaker 3: grant to an outspoken and supportive celebrity who advocates for.

627
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:30,160
Speaker 5: HIV and AIDS causes.

628
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 3: I initially came here to meet the president of the

629
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:34,879
Speaker 3: Commission and what you.

630
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:38,200
Speaker 6: Do, Guillermo chacom and the third President.

631
00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:41,040
Speaker 3: But then he tells me that a woman named Araceli

632
00:41:41,080 --> 00:41:44,440
Speaker 3: Skinnones is about to start a presentation and that her

633
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:47,640
Speaker 3: talks are great. She's a volunteer at the Commission now,

634
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:51,279
Speaker 3: but she worked here for more than twenty years. I

635
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:54,600
Speaker 3: introduce myself to the people in the room. They say

636
00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:59,120
Speaker 3: hello with kisses on the cheek. Some people identify as

637
00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:04,000
Speaker 3: trans women, gay men, sis gender women. They greet each

638
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:10,800
Speaker 3: other like it's a party. Someone gives out metro cards

639
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:14,920
Speaker 3: with free trips for the subway. Most of them are

640
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:18,799
Speaker 3: between their forties and sixties, and they all have two

641
00:42:18,800 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 3: things in common, their HIV positive and their latinos. Aracelis

642
00:42:29,800 --> 00:42:33,480
Speaker 3: comes in and it's like Madonna has just arrived.

643
00:42:34,520 --> 00:42:36,640
Speaker 5: People rush to say hello to her.

644
00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:41,239
Speaker 3: Everyone wants a kiss, and then she starts the presentation

645
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:55,200
Speaker 3: with slides included. She starts by saying that many people

646
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:58,480
Speaker 3: assume that an elderly person is not gonna get HIV

647
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:02,280
Speaker 3: because they're no longer saidually active, but that's not true,

648
00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:06,520
Speaker 3: and people in the room start nodding. Aracelis goes on

649
00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:09,840
Speaker 3: to say that many of the people there contracted HIV

650
00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 3: more than twenty years ago, including her.

651
00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:18,759
Speaker 5: She was diagnosed when she was twenty three. Today she's

652
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:19,479
Speaker 5: fifty eight.

653
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:22,720
Speaker 3: Most of the people in the room have been taking

654
00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:26,040
Speaker 3: medication to treat HIV or AIDS for a long time,

655
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:28,920
Speaker 3: and they know about the side effects.

656
00:43:29,320 --> 00:43:30,399
Speaker 5: For at Assellis, for.

657
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:35,040
Speaker 3: Example, it has meant gaining abdominal weight, looking ten years older,

658
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:41,840
Speaker 3: and developing a painful hump.

659
00:43:41,680 --> 00:43:42,239
Speaker 5: In her back.

660
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:46,440
Speaker 3: She talks about really hard things, but she does it

661
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 3: with humor, so by now she's got everyone in her pocket.

662
00:43:56,520 --> 00:43:59,920
Speaker 3: She talks about a rectile dysfunction and aging with ag

663
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:03,480
Speaker 3: V as a former substance abuser, but she's not here

664
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:06,440
Speaker 3: to bring people down. She wants them to go on

665
00:44:06,520 --> 00:44:23,960
Speaker 3: treatment and stay on their meds. By now gets serious,

666
00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:28,360
Speaker 3: she tells her crowd that between two evils, it's better

667
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:31,600
Speaker 3: to go with the side effects instead of dying of AIDS.

668
00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:34,880
Speaker 3: She then shows a slide with the word stigma in

669
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:35,640
Speaker 3: big letters.

670
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:39,200
Speaker 7: Okay in beace In.

671
00:44:41,440 --> 00:44:50,360
Speaker 3: ISAs that the stigma is a true deadly disease. I

672
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:53,719
Speaker 3: leave Alis continue with her presentation, and we agreed to

673
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:58,600
Speaker 3: meet some other time. I walk out of that conference

674
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:02,319
Speaker 3: room thinking Ilka could have been here. If she had

675
00:45:02,360 --> 00:45:06,640
Speaker 3: been able to access effective medication on time, she could

676
00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:24,600
Speaker 3: have been here laughing, making people laugh too. A few

677
00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:28,000
Speaker 3: days later, I'm sitting in Araceli's living room in a

678
00:45:28,080 --> 00:45:32,880
Speaker 3: public housing complex in Queens. Her cute chiwawa is running around.

679
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:41,640
Speaker 3: Her name, coincidentally is Gigi. Aracelis never knew Ilka in person.

680
00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:45,160
Speaker 3: They moved in the same circles, and she is very

681
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:46,560
Speaker 3: aware of who she was.

682
00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:49,400
Speaker 4: We lost her too early, but yet she will be

683
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:50,839
Speaker 4: doing the same thing that I've been doing.

684
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:52,120
Speaker 11: Ire sure.

685
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 3: When Ilka passed away in nineteen ninety six, Aracelis was

686
00:45:56,760 --> 00:45:59,799
Speaker 3: thirty one years old. She was the same age as

687
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:04,560
Speaker 3: Ilka's daughter, Gigi. Arascelis has short and straight hair and

688
00:46:04,600 --> 00:46:07,920
Speaker 3: a sweet expression in her eyes. She smiles at you

689
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:11,439
Speaker 3: like she's telling you, I see you. I ask about

690
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:15,440
Speaker 3: a tattoo on her arm. It's a symbol that I

691
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:16,880
Speaker 3: can't really figure out.

692
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:20,080
Speaker 11: La Queen.

693
00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:24,880
Speaker 3: She tells me that she's a fan of World of Warcraft,

694
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:29,760
Speaker 3: a role playing video game. Her tattoo is a symbol

695
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:34,520
Speaker 3: of Sylvana's, one of the characters Sylvana's is a warrior

696
00:46:34,680 --> 00:46:38,960
Speaker 3: queen with martial power. A Dacelli takes a pill every

697
00:46:39,080 --> 00:46:41,839
Speaker 3: night before going to bed in order to treat her

698
00:46:42,000 --> 00:46:46,160
Speaker 3: HIV and keep AIDS away. She developed and lived with

699
00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:49,200
Speaker 3: AIDS for twenty years, so she has gone on a

700
00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:51,920
Speaker 3: lot of treatments to stay virally suppressed.

701
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:59,640
Speaker 4: I started with ACT, then I tried DDI viacept Sigean

702
00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:00,680
Speaker 4: serve it.

703
00:47:01,080 --> 00:47:01,919
Speaker 11: Now it's big TV.

704
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:06,280
Speaker 4: Then before Big Tavy, it was oh, I got persist

705
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:08,680
Speaker 4: that stribled TRYOMEG.

706
00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:11,560
Speaker 2: It was a bad.

707
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:21,080
Speaker 3: Sometimes the medication didn't work, or it did, but with

708
00:47:21,440 --> 00:47:22,680
Speaker 3: terrible side effects.

709
00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:26,239
Speaker 4: There was a medication that everybody, let's say, from one

710
00:47:26,280 --> 00:47:29,520
Speaker 4: hundred people ninety nine people will look a key on

711
00:47:29,600 --> 00:47:30,680
Speaker 4: themselves on the street.

712
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:34,800
Speaker 11: It was so bad to the stomach and you have

713
00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:37,120
Speaker 11: to run. That was not a bathroom. You will learn

714
00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:39,320
Speaker 11: in yourself, and it happened to me like what like

715
00:47:39,440 --> 00:47:39,920
Speaker 11: ten times.

716
00:47:40,280 --> 00:47:43,080
Speaker 3: There was also the challenge of getting access to those

717
00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:44,600
Speaker 3: meds in the first place.

718
00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:47,000
Speaker 11: So let me be honest.

719
00:47:47,120 --> 00:47:50,240
Speaker 4: When I came here, I have to deal with the stigma,

720
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:54,560
Speaker 4: our positive our being a woman, because we women are

721
00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:58,720
Speaker 4: treated less, okay, plus being a Latina.

722
00:47:59,360 --> 00:48:01,719
Speaker 3: At asceles I first arrived in New York City from

723
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:04,960
Speaker 3: her hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rico. She was twenty

724
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:08,400
Speaker 3: three years old and eight months pregnant. She had been

725
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:11,239
Speaker 3: in a romantic relationship with a man who was using

726
00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:14,600
Speaker 3: injectable drugs. She wanted to get an abortion.

727
00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:14,840
Speaker 8: But.

728
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,600
Speaker 11: Like a week previews of the date of the abortion,

729
00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:23,759
Speaker 11: my baby was kicking inside and I said, I can

730
00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:24,080
Speaker 11: do this.

731
00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:25,120
Speaker 2: I can do this.

732
00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:28,319
Speaker 4: So I staid with the baby, and then months later

733
00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:30,920
Speaker 4: I found out that he was dying.

734
00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:38,719
Speaker 3: At Acelli's former partner died from complications with AIDS just

735
00:48:38,800 --> 00:48:42,200
Speaker 3: a few weeks before delivering her baby. At Ascelli sat

736
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:45,560
Speaker 3: in a room at the Metropolitan Hospital in Manhattan to

737
00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:48,880
Speaker 3: take an HIV test. It was a cold day in

738
00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:51,200
Speaker 3: February of nineteen eighty eight.

739
00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:53,120
Speaker 4: And they said to come back in two weeks, so

740
00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:55,719
Speaker 4: you can't imagine. It was the worst two weeks of

741
00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:56,160
Speaker 4: my life.

742
00:48:58,080 --> 00:49:01,880
Speaker 3: It wasn't until two thousand and too that a rapid

743
00:49:02,000 --> 00:49:05,759
Speaker 3: test was approved by the FDA to detect HIV in

744
00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:06,640
Speaker 3: twenty minutes.

745
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 11: And Let's called me and told me the results are positive.

746
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:14,319
Speaker 11: I was like, yes, thank you, And she was looking

747
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:17,439
Speaker 11: at me like what's wrong with her? You know what's

748
00:49:17,480 --> 00:49:20,400
Speaker 11: wrong with her? But she's so happy. And then when

749
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:21,080
Speaker 11: I saw her.

750
00:49:21,080 --> 00:49:24,759
Speaker 4: Expression, I was like, it's something wrong and she say, yes,

751
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:26,400
Speaker 4: thepacitive you know what that means?

752
00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:29,960
Speaker 11: And then I was like what that means?

753
00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:33,880
Speaker 4: And she said, the positive to HIV. That means that

754
00:49:34,080 --> 00:49:38,359
Speaker 4: you are infected with HIV. Then I asked the next

755
00:49:38,480 --> 00:49:40,560
Speaker 4: question was like how long am I going to live?

756
00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:42,759
Speaker 4: And she said maybe like a year.

757
00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:48,760
Speaker 3: Alascelis gave birth to a healthy boy, but she couldn't

758
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:52,360
Speaker 3: bear the idea of going back to Puerto Rico. She

759
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:55,279
Speaker 3: didn't want her family to see her get worse and die.

760
00:49:55,920 --> 00:49:58,680
Speaker 11: I also was in a lot of pain, and I

761
00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:04,360
Speaker 11: started using drugs. What kind of pain, No physical.

762
00:50:04,040 --> 00:50:09,920
Speaker 4: Pain, but pain of being so young and having that

763
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:13,120
Speaker 4: death sentence, because that's what it was at that time.

764
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:16,600
Speaker 4: It was a death sentence or my dreams, everything that

765
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:20,600
Speaker 4: I wanted to do was not going to happen. That

766
00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:27,040
Speaker 4: was scared very much so. And to hide all those

767
00:50:27,120 --> 00:50:33,160
Speaker 4: feelings of being afraid of being perceiving that I was

768
00:50:33,200 --> 00:50:38,560
Speaker 4: going to die anytime, I decided to gnomb that pain

769
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:39,440
Speaker 4: by using drugs.

770
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:43,200
Speaker 3: Her son was taken by Child Protection Services when he

771
00:50:43,320 --> 00:50:45,960
Speaker 3: was four years old and he would not return to

772
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:48,000
Speaker 3: live with her until he was thirteen.

773
00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:52,200
Speaker 4: When I quited drugs, when I got him back, when

774
00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:55,399
Speaker 4: I decided to do a lot of things, he kicked

775
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:56,840
Speaker 4: me that there is a lot of people like me

776
00:50:56,960 --> 00:50:57,239
Speaker 4: out there.

777
00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:02,520
Speaker 3: Arascells got certified as a council for alcoholism and substance abuse.

778
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:07,040
Speaker 3: She started commuting every day from Queens to Brooklyn to

779
00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:09,880
Speaker 3: work with a group of men. Then she went on

780
00:51:10,040 --> 00:51:13,960
Speaker 3: to counsel women, and with them it was different. She

781
00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:17,560
Speaker 3: could see herself in them. She helped some of them

782
00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 3: figure out where to leave their children if they could

783
00:51:20,880 --> 00:51:22,719
Speaker 3: no longer take care of them, and that.

784
00:51:22,880 --> 00:51:26,600
Speaker 4: Was very difficult for me and for them for them,

785
00:51:26,640 --> 00:51:33,680
Speaker 4: because they it was like like acknowledging that you was

786
00:51:33,719 --> 00:51:34,279
Speaker 4: going to die.

787
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:38,000
Speaker 3: With other women, the ones that still had a chance

788
00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:42,160
Speaker 3: to live. She'd be straightforward. She would let them know

789
00:51:42,280 --> 00:51:45,000
Speaker 3: that anybody could have HIV. You know that we need

790
00:51:45,080 --> 00:51:46,200
Speaker 3: to protect ourselves.

791
00:51:46,239 --> 00:51:50,560
Speaker 4: Then we need to empower ourselves because we live in

792
00:51:50,680 --> 00:51:54,160
Speaker 4: a community of a lot of ombres machistas. You know,

793
00:51:54,239 --> 00:51:58,080
Speaker 4: the machismo is like, so if Alma was carrying or

794
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:03,960
Speaker 4: is carrying a condom on her purse, chiza ho and no,

795
00:52:04,239 --> 00:52:06,759
Speaker 4: it's Neida is that we need to protect ourself because

796
00:52:06,760 --> 00:52:07,800
Speaker 4: if not, who's gonna do it.

797
00:52:09,880 --> 00:52:13,600
Speaker 3: More than half of HIV positive patients in the United

798
00:52:13,680 --> 00:52:18,799
Speaker 3: States are fifty years old and older. Forty percent rely

799
00:52:19,080 --> 00:52:25,000
Speaker 3: on Medicaid because they're low income patients, and Medicaid coverage

800
00:52:25,120 --> 00:52:29,279
Speaker 3: depends on your state of residence, so the rules can

801
00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:32,760
Speaker 3: change in each state in terms of getting HIV treatment.

802
00:52:35,800 --> 00:52:38,799
Speaker 3: Adaslisa has thought a lot about moving back to San Juan.

803
00:52:39,840 --> 00:52:43,520
Speaker 3: She misses the ocean breeze and her family, but she

804
00:52:43,640 --> 00:52:47,120
Speaker 3: knows that she would be putting herself at risk. Puerto Rico,

805
00:52:47,440 --> 00:52:51,160
Speaker 3: although a territory of the United States, still struggles with

806
00:52:51,320 --> 00:52:54,560
Speaker 3: providing access to care for HIV patients, and.

807
00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:57,759
Speaker 4: There is a lot of studies people who travel from

808
00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:01,800
Speaker 4: this center of the island to one which is the capital.

809
00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:04,239
Speaker 11: I mean like two hours or three hours to go

810
00:53:04,320 --> 00:53:05,600
Speaker 11: to a clinic in.

811
00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:09,600
Speaker 3: The continental US, States in the South allocate less money

812
00:53:09,640 --> 00:53:14,480
Speaker 3: for HIV programs than other regions. States like Georgia, Louisiana,

813
00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:18,279
Speaker 3: and Florida also have the highest rates of new infections

814
00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:26,400
Speaker 3: in the nation. In her talks, Arascelis insists that easy

815
00:53:26,600 --> 00:53:30,920
Speaker 3: and steady access to medication can make all the difference.

816
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:33,120
Speaker 11: Because of people like me that I have been living

817
00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:33,799
Speaker 11: for many years.

818
00:53:34,080 --> 00:53:36,160
Speaker 4: They season and said, Okay, so I'm gonna be like her,

819
00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:38,360
Speaker 4: and she lives for thirty five years, I'm going to

820
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:40,840
Speaker 4: be living twenty five years, two or forty or fifteen.

821
00:53:41,680 --> 00:53:45,840
Speaker 4: Not only they have better medications today, but then we

822
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:50,160
Speaker 4: have the proof of people can live longer and productive

823
00:53:50,600 --> 00:53:53,759
Speaker 4: lives living with HIV. I didn't know that I was

824
00:53:53,760 --> 00:53:58,080
Speaker 4: going to see my Grandora. Not only I saw my Grandora,

825
00:53:58,320 --> 00:54:01,799
Speaker 4: I see her graduating, see him going to college. She's

826
00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:04,200
Speaker 4: going to college. She's on Maryland going to college.

827
00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:13,919
Speaker 3: Adacellis tells me that lately she's been taking some time

828
00:54:14,200 --> 00:54:18,800
Speaker 3: for herself, but I immediately see that she can't help

829
00:54:19,080 --> 00:54:24,000
Speaker 3: taking care of others too. As we're starting to say goodbye.

830
00:54:24,600 --> 00:54:27,160
Speaker 3: She shows me a WhatsApp group chat on her phone.

831
00:54:27,920 --> 00:54:30,799
Speaker 3: It's made of family members of trans women who are

832
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:37,440
Speaker 3: HIV positive. She's constantly texting there, counseling the family members

833
00:54:37,600 --> 00:54:39,880
Speaker 3: on reconciliation and acceptance.

834
00:54:41,520 --> 00:54:42,239
Speaker 8: We know.

835
00:54:52,040 --> 00:54:54,520
Speaker 3: We are about to meet Marino Hossa and I I'm

836
00:54:54,560 --> 00:54:58,239
Speaker 3: waiting for her in a kind of secret meet up

837
00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:01,240
Speaker 3: point because I didn't want the address.

838
00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:04,440
Speaker 5: To reveal what the story is about. There's something I

839
00:55:04,520 --> 00:55:05,439
Speaker 5: haven't mentioned yet.

840
00:55:06,680 --> 00:55:12,160
Speaker 3: Ilka and Maria were friends, and of course Ilka's death

841
00:55:12,520 --> 00:55:15,840
Speaker 3: hit Maria in a personal way. Now I want to

842
00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:19,759
Speaker 3: take Maria to a special place in Washington Heights, Ilka's

843
00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:21,160
Speaker 3: old neighborhood.

844
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:24,520
Speaker 1: My old haunting grounds. Can we say, say, so where

845
00:55:24,520 --> 00:55:27,200
Speaker 1: I used to hang out? Is I used to live

846
00:55:27,239 --> 00:55:28,839
Speaker 1: in the Heights? Oh?

847
00:55:28,960 --> 00:55:30,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, I live in the Heights.

848
00:55:30,280 --> 00:55:31,760
Speaker 5: So Maria is pretty clueless.

849
00:55:32,680 --> 00:55:35,359
Speaker 3: We crossed the street from our meeting point and enter

850
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:39,719
Speaker 3: this tiny park with a few trees. We see a

851
00:55:39,760 --> 00:55:42,960
Speaker 3: group of behitos just spending the afternoons, sitting on the

852
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:48,600
Speaker 3: benches and talking. This is what all the puss is about.

853
00:55:49,120 --> 00:55:51,160
Speaker 2: Oh my god, Oh my god.

854
00:55:51,600 --> 00:55:54,719
Speaker 3: Finally Maria sees the sign that reads that this is

855
00:55:54,880 --> 00:55:59,120
Speaker 3: Ilka Dana Bayan's Park. It was renamed after her in

856
00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:00,239
Speaker 3: two thousand and It's just.

857
00:56:00,320 --> 00:56:02,400
Speaker 1: Like, you know how long it takes to get something

858
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:05,360
Speaker 1: like this in New York City, to get somebody to

859
00:56:05,520 --> 00:56:08,120
Speaker 1: name a part of Manhattan after you.

860
00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:11,600
Speaker 3: I didn't know exactly how Maria was going to react.

861
00:56:12,560 --> 00:56:15,200
Speaker 3: Now I feel bad because she's very emotional.

862
00:56:15,320 --> 00:56:17,440
Speaker 1: Oh, I knew we were going to be talking about age,

863
00:56:17,520 --> 00:56:21,279
Speaker 1: but I don't immediately think of right, I think of

864
00:56:22,719 --> 00:56:24,160
Speaker 1: all the other people who I knew.

865
00:56:24,680 --> 00:56:28,440
Speaker 2: Butt was my friend. She is from that.

866
00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:33,839
Speaker 1: That long tradition of Dominican women activists that people don't

867
00:56:33,880 --> 00:56:35,680
Speaker 1: necessarily know about. That is her.

868
00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:37,920
Speaker 2: I would look at her and I'd just be like,

869
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:42,560
Speaker 2: look all of her power, How is she doing this?

870
00:56:43,040 --> 00:56:45,920
Speaker 5: Like Maria couldn't believe that I had found Ika.

871
00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:49,279
Speaker 3: In thirty years of archival clips from Latino USA, I

872
00:56:49,320 --> 00:56:53,600
Speaker 3: mean that's a lot of clips, Maria believed that Ka

873
00:56:54,040 --> 00:56:54,680
Speaker 3: had found me.

874
00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:56,880
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that she made her way into the

875
00:56:57,040 --> 00:56:59,040
Speaker 1: editorial meeting and just be like, y'all are going to

876
00:56:59,080 --> 00:57:00,800
Speaker 1: talk about me to be so happy.

877
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:06,000
Speaker 3: I'm not superstitious. But as we were about to wrap

878
00:57:06,680 --> 00:57:07,800
Speaker 3: a bird, pooped on me.

879
00:57:08,200 --> 00:57:12,520
Speaker 1: Oh that Waska, thank you for pooping mine.

880
00:57:12,760 --> 00:57:16,919
Speaker 5: Maybe it was Ilka, maybe not, but something is for sure.

881
00:57:18,200 --> 00:57:21,960
Speaker 3: What Maria chose to say about IgA back in nineteen

882
00:57:22,040 --> 00:57:24,959
Speaker 3: ninety six, it remains true.

883
00:57:25,600 --> 00:57:28,400
Speaker 8: Too many of us are still silent and fearful and

884
00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:31,640
Speaker 8: full of shame. I wish you were still here, Ilga.

885
00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:35,800
Speaker 8: You were so good at fighting a Cilentzio and fighting

886
00:57:36,360 --> 00:57:36,840
Speaker 8: for life.

887
00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:40,880
Speaker 7: I want to outlive Ace, and I want all of

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00:57:41,000 --> 00:57:43,000
Speaker 7: us to outlive a thank you.

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00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:05,000
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Patrica Surbaran, who was edited

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00:58:05,040 --> 00:58:09,120
Speaker 1: by Andrea Lopez Guzzado and mixed by Julia Caruso, Gabriel

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00:58:09,200 --> 00:58:12,880
Speaker 1: Lebiez and jj Carubin. Fact checking for this episode by

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00:58:12,960 --> 00:58:18,000
Speaker 1: Monica Moreles Garcia. Special thanks to Guillermo Chacoon, Senaida Mendez,

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00:58:18,160 --> 00:58:22,760
Speaker 1: Elizabeth Velasquez, Larry Nuno, and the Central Library at Hunter College.

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00:58:23,240 --> 00:58:28,680
Speaker 1: The Latino USA team includes Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Daisy Contreras,

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00:58:29,040 --> 00:58:34,000
Speaker 1: Victoria Estrada, Renaldo Leanos Junior, and Elizabeth Lowenthal Torres. Our

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00:58:34,160 --> 00:58:38,360
Speaker 1: editorial director is Fernanda Santos. Our director of engineering is

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00:58:38,600 --> 00:58:42,680
Speaker 1: Stephanie Lebau. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our theme

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00:58:42,760 --> 00:58:45,720
Speaker 1: music was composed by Sania Rouinos, I'm your host and

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00:58:45,800 --> 00:58:49,040
Speaker 1: executive producer Mariao Josa. Join us again on our next

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00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:51,240
Speaker 1: episode and in the meantime find us on social media

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00:58:51,280 --> 00:58:55,680
Speaker 1: and remember not tevayas Ciao Ikeayan.

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00:59:01,360 --> 00:59:04,720
Speaker 16: Funding for Latino USA's coverage of a culture of health

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00:59:05,000 --> 00:59:07,080
Speaker 16: is made possible in part by a grant from the

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00:59:07,200 --> 00:59:11,720
Speaker 16: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Latino USA is made possible in

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00:59:11,800 --> 00:59:16,200
Speaker 16: part by New York Women's Foundation. The New York Women's

906
00:59:16,240 --> 00:59:20,160
Speaker 16: Foundation funding women leaders that build solutions in their communities

907
00:59:20,520 --> 00:59:26,200
Speaker 16: and celebrating thirty years of radical generosity and Latino USA

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00:59:26,600 --> 00:59:30,680
Speaker 16: thirtieth anniversary episodes are made possible with support from our

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00:59:30,800 --> 00:59:36,600
Speaker 16: legacy sustainers, the Brett Family Foundation, Alonso Contu, Carmen Rito,

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00:59:36,680 --> 00:59:43,320
Speaker 16: Wong Vamos Enterprises, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, April Gasler,

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00:59:43,880 --> 00:59:49,280
Speaker 16: doctor Elmo Randolph, Belinda de la Libertad, Angela Garcia Simms,

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00:59:49,640 --> 00:59:55,680
Speaker 16: and Priscilla Rojas. Additional donors include Melba Laura, Andy Marx

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00:59:56,080 --> 00:59:57,360
Speaker 16: and sal Morales.

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Speaker 1: M HM, this is the first time in this studio

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01:00:03,040 --> 01:00:06,439
Speaker 1: that Miko the Cat is like I'm here, I'm making

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01:00:06,520 --> 01:00:07,320
Speaker 1: my presence felt.

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Speaker 2: I cannot believe him.

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Speaker 5: He's like I, like the Venezuelan women everywhere.

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Speaker 2: Miko gal Mate, okay gal Mate,