An Emotional AIDS Remembrance

Danny Hernandez was her first-born son. So, when he left his wife and children and began living as an openly gay man, his mother, Adela Ortiz, supported him. When he contracted AIDS, she loved and cared for him. Then, in 1993, Danny Hernandez became her first son to die.

On Wednesday as part of numerous events commemorating World AIDS Day, Ortiz and about 300 others who have lost loved ones to AIDS gathered for an interfaith service at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Lincoln Heights for the sixth annual Noche de las Memorias, or Night of Memories.

The annual event, held on World AIDS Day, is organized by the Wall-Las Memorias Project, an East Los Angeles outreach group that plans to erect a memorial in Lincoln Park in memory of people who have died of AIDS. At the service, Los Angeles City Council members Mike Hernandez and Jackie Goldberg announced a $75,000 donation from the city for the Wall Memorial.

After the closing prayer, congregants lit hand-held candles, in memory of departed souls. Then, burning incense and drumbeats filled the church as the indigenous dance troupe, Danza Cuauhtemoc, led the procession of people through Lincoln Heights to the proposed site of the memorial.

“It still hurts,” said Ortiz, 59, who lives in Highland Park. “I’m praying that the wall goes up and his name is on there. It would be a place where I could go and pray for him.”

Despite advances in new drug therapies and improved services for gay white men, AIDS continues having a devastating impact among African Americans and Latinos. African Americans make up about 12% of the U.S. population, but nearly 37% of reported AIDS cases. Latinos comprise 13% of the nation’s population, but account for 20% of new AIDS cases.

Except for New York City, no metropolitan area has been hit as hard as Los Angeles. As of February, there were 14,618 people living with AIDS in Los Angeles: African Americans and Latinos combined account for over half of the cases. County health officials say almost nine of 10 children with AIDS in Los Angeles is African American or Latino.

For that reason, several of the Los Angeles events focused on those two communities.

In a packed auditorium at Southwest Community College, doctors, representatives of community-based organizations and elected officials sounded an impassioned alarm about HIV/AIDS in the African American community.

The statistics, shown in bright colors on an overhead projector and recited by speakers, elicited gasps.

“We still have folks who say, ‘I don’t need to do anything special, I’m not promiscuous,’ or, ‘I don’t need to do anything special, I’m not gay,’ ” said U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters. “We are all at risk. Do you understand that? That’s what we’ve got to internalize.”

Panelists encouraged the audience to be tested and to see prevention as necessary for all who are sexually active--from church members to unruly youth.

“Gangbangers, you’re at risk because of the way you do sex,” said panelist Alvan Quamina. “You have to change your behavior or you’re gonna die. We’ve got to change as a community and talk about some healthy norms about sex.”

Co-hosted by Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Rep. Julian C. Dixon (D-Los Angeles), the town hall meeting also marked the launch of the Nia Plan, by Phill Wilson, executive director of the African American AIDS Policy and Training Institute at the University of Southern California.

The goals of the plan include identifying AIDS prevention programs that can be replicated in the African American community and identifying barriers to treatment and remedies.

Nia means purpose in Swahili, and is one of the seven principles of the African American holiday Kwanzaa. The central theme of the Nia Plan is that all segments of the African American community must play a role in combating the illness.

The plan was created with input from a wide range of African Americans and has the backing of civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, fraternal organizations, professional organizations and others, Wilson said.

The program, which included scheduled presentations by Kweisi Mfume of the NAACP, also included a question and answer period.

“At my school we have kids with HIV and AIDS and they’re scared to talk about it,” said Winfred Wilson, a student at John Marshall High School. “What can we do to help them talk about it?”

For others like Derenaissance Glover, 23, the day was full of sobering news.

“The numbers are so staggering,” he said. “When my personal hero, Magic Johnson, contracted the disease it really hurt me. . . . Like [Waters] said, anybody can get it.”

Though the Wall project began as a quest to construct a monument, founder and executive director, Richard Zaldivar, has built more. Using faith, spirituality and support groups sometimes led by Roman Catholic priests, Zaldivar has been able to break barriers in the Latino community and educate many who were ashamed to even utter the word AIDS.

“We deal with the God issue,” Zaldivar said. “We deal with the guilt, the shame, the denial, and the secrets.”

At Sacred Heart Church, Father John Bakas, dean of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Pico-Union, asked the congregation, “Will you carry the light of compassion by embracing our brothers and sisters living with HIV and AIDS?”

“We will carry the light,” they answered.

Father Cresencio Rosales, director of Bishop Mora Salesian Catholic High School, who has led the support group for mothers, said listening to a priest talk about AIDS reinforces the fact that God is not against them.

“They always ask, is my son or daughter going to hell? That’s always a question. I tell them Jesus is inclusive . . . Jesus doesn’t exclude anyone.”

* ORPHANS SPEAK AT U.N.

Children who lost parents speak at the U.N. as part of World AIDS Day. A10