Double Minority: Latinos with HIV

Being HIV-positive is hard, but being HIV-positive and Latino is doubly difficult, says Patricia*, a 30-year-old transgender woman living in Phoenix. Patricia hasn't told her family about her HIV status, which she's known for two years. And because they live in Mexico, even if they were supportive--which she doubts--her family couldn't offer tangible help. Patricia's parents didn't talk about sex when she was growing up, so she was forced to learn and make mistakes, on her own. Patricia's English skills are limited, and since one of her former doctors didn't speak Spanish, she was forced to bring a translator to appointments.

Stories like Patricia's play out thousands of times every year across this country. In addition to the difficulties any HIV-positive person faces in the United States, many Latinos face additional cultural shame and guilt over their disease. It's likely that cultural stigma plays a role in HIV transmission. Latinos, the fastest-growing minority in the nation, are certainly contracting HIV at greater rates than Caucasians. Hispanic men are getting HIV at twice the rate of white men, while infections of Latinas are nearly four times that of white women, according to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control. In 2008, Latinos accounted for more than 19% of the over 42,000 new cases of HIV in the 37 states with infection reporting, though they make up 16% of the U.S. population.

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