Script: Lucas Fauno Gutiérrez / Art: Jon Amarillo. The body that doesn't strictly conform to society's concept of "healthy" seems to be a free space for anyone to ask whatever they want. While dialogue and the exchange of information are very important, we are sometimes confronted in a paternalistic way to be "informed" about our lives. In 2018, we are still hearing the phrases and questions that surrounded the newly emerging HIV virus back in the 80s and 90s . And over the years, new ones have been forged. They all create a way of seeing the virus and those of us who live with it. The rhetorical question that is more about assigning blame and confirming old ideas should no longer be used. Are     you asking me to confirm what you think or to learn more about the subject? What happens when I answer something different from what you expected? What if I'm not afraid? What if I don't consider myself dangerous? If the three prefabricated phrases you know about HIV—which you claim validate you as a doctor, opinion-giver, and more—are, to me, written in India ink on ancient papyrus, smelling as antiquity as your concepts, will you listen to me? Let's talk, let's ask questions, let's LISTEN, and let's learn that perhaps everything we think we know isn't quite right. Your eyes and mine sometimes look from very different realities. From this platform, we always say that we need to talk more, and that also means listening to each other more.

Visit Presentes every Thursday to find a new installment of Bicho and me.

Bug and Me #27: Bug and Me: the drama of the "little prick"

Bicho and I #26: Bicho and I: Debts and progress 35 years after HIV

Bicho and I #25: #LivingWithHIV Bicho and I: From Words to Deeds

Bug and I #24: In the medical world, containment is everything

Bicho and I #23: “No one is obligated to say they live with HIV”

Bug and Me #22: Until the cure, always!

Bicho and I #21: Take a hug 

Bicho and I #19 go to the movies: 120 beats per minute

Bug and Me #18: Your question is annoying

Bicho and I #17: “Yes, I live with a strain of HIV”

Bug and I #16 “It’s not contagious!”

Bicho and I #15: #8M Three women living with HIV explain why they stop

Bicho and I #14: #LivingWithHIV “Where is Bicho?”

Bicho and I #13: “We are not carriers”

Bicho and I #12: “How can you not tell me you have a Bicho?”

Bicho and I #11: HIV and AIDS are not the same

BichoYYo#10: Bicho, me and medication: “People with HIV are much more than a pill”

BichoYYo #9: We urgently need our medication

Bicho and I #8 The Dangers of Activism

Bug and I #7 Superpowers for an X-Men cover

Bicho and I #6 “Happy New Year!”

Bicho and I #5: “Nine years with Bicho”

Bug and I #4: “The scapegoat”

Bicho and I #3 “Without Grindr there is no paradise”

Bicho and I #2 “The best thing about medication”

Bicho and I #1: the comic strip that tells in the first person what it's like to live with HIV

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