Vida Newsletter, Volume 7, Issue 5 - 1988

VIDA Newsletter Issue Number 5emr LATINOS AND AIDS MECHA INFORMATION Semana de la Raza, a week long celebration commemorating Hispanics is scheduled from April 25-29. Some highlights are the Chicano newspaper display in the library and the Aztec dancers on Tuesday. To culminate this great week, MEChA would like to invite all students to attend our annual Dia de Reconocimiento/Chicano Graduation TARDEADA on Sunday, May 1st. The day will begin with a Mass and will follow with a Reception and Dinner /Dance. In addition to entertainment from a Mariachi and the LMU Grupo Folklorico, a delicious Birria dinner will follow. The evening will conclude with DJ music. Dia de Reconocimiento is an event set aside to recognize the efforts of not only the seniors, but of their parents who have sacrificed a great deal to see their children graduate from a university. !Si se puedei As many may or may not realize, there is a highly disproportionate increase of AIDS in U.S. Hispanic communities . Latinos represent fourteen percent of those who have been diagnosed with AIDS, which is double the seven percent of the overall population Hispanics represent in the United States. A higher proportion of Latino AIDS patients are women, children and heterosexuals who contract AIDS through drug related transmission. In an attempt to develop a com¬ prehensive national response to this AIDS crisis, a convention was held in which over a hundred selected experts gathered to develop coordinated responses to this pressing crisis among latinos. ’’LATINOS AND AIDS: A NATIONAL STRATEGY SYMPOSIUM," was held February 24 through 26 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles , California . During the two day working session, conferees paid particular attention to the widely varying cultural, attitudinal and socioeconomic conditions which charecterize the Hispanic population in the United States. "The AIDS epidemic has further frustrated the ability of the current health, social and political systems to adequately deal with basic Latino health Elisa Vasquez -continued pg. 2