Script: Lucas Fauno Gutiérrez / Drawings: Jon Amarillo

Sometimes HIV is anything but a virus. Sometimes HIV is a situation that sparks dialogue, questions, and perspectives. And as always, those of us living with the virus are the last link in this chain of clichés, most of them poorly thought out.

The virus breeds boredom and vulnerability. It doesn't generate this through an action of the virus from within the body, but rather through the attacks we receive from outside the body, from society. HIV makes them seem more "holy" for being with us, it wants to put us indebted, it tries to create a hierarchy of "healthy-sick" to invalidate our voice. From this social illness, we are infected with guilt, held responsible, and denied the possibility of learning to share and move forward together.

They know more about us than we know about ourselves. They tell us how to live with our virus, our sexuality, and our lives in society. We, the people living with HIV, are the unpaid educators, the ones obligated to care for, educate, and prioritize others. We are identities burdened by the paternalism of a society that wants to label us guilty of something false simply so they can feel free to act upon us. That we owe them something. And no. It's not like that.

The HIV virus destroys my body's defenses. The virus of a paternalistic society destroys the defenses of my identity, of my personhood. Living with HIV means living and talking, sharing, learning, and moving forward together. It in no way means creating a hierarchy of identities.

These are some of the cards we might be dealt as life shuffles its hand. But don't worry, the deck is bigger, and one hand doesn't win the game. Trick, Bug, I want a Bug, I want a CD4.

 

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

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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