How has HIV or AIDS affected your life?  Unfortunately, chances are that you know someone, or are related to someone, who is HIV positive.  Since there is still a huge stigma around the disease, most people choose not to talk about it.  As a result, they forego having important conversations with their friends and family about how they can protect themselves or what the facts are around how one can contract it.     Our own family has been directly affected by HIV because both my husband and I have cousins who are HIV positive.  I was 13 years old when I found out my older male cousin had HIV.  I can still remember how it was something that was discussed only in whispers and that the entire family went to great lengths to keep a secret from outsiders.  These were just not topics that were openly talked about in the Latino community.     Honestly, I didn't know much about HIV back then and, every time I asked an adult in the family about it, they shushed me and changed the subject. … [Read more...]