Hispanic-American Communities and HIV/AIDS
Both of these posters are from a UT Austin’s Center for Mental Health Center and Prevenir Es Vivir sponsored public health campaign from 2005. These graphics emphasize the importance of dual language in any type of outreach to the Latino community. They feature the use of the traditional Latino style of artwork. The drawings were not created for the public health promotion campaign but instead taken from previously existing Latino artwork.
The illustrations depict a baby hanging on the balance of a needle with flowers and a skeleton head in the corners. The quotes on the poster read “Es Una Cuestión de Vida o Muerte” (It is a question of life or death) and “Life hands in the Balance”. This depiction links the disease of HIV/AIDs to needles and babies, instead of a sexually based disease. This is an attempt to make it a communal problem instead of a direct problem caused by individual choices such as sex, which inflict complicated emotions through morality.
This illustration shows a man carrying luggage and a woman walking by. The text read “No Traigas “El Regalo” a casa” (Do not bring “the gift” home) “What are you bringing home?”, and “Cargas Los Sueños de Muchos” (You carry the dreams of many). This is the most sexually explicit form of public media we have seen directed to a community of color, and it is still vague. The innuendos work in the messaging to target its messaging to men. It tells men not to contract the disease through infidelity and bring it home. A nod to traditional gender roles, it places the man as responsible for the financial well-being of his family.