Las Indetectables, Me Cuido, 2020
Me Cuido (I take care of myself/I'm careful) questions the relationship between colonial paradigms of health, religious guilt, and the stigmatization of people living with HIV in the context of Chile's capitalist and neoliberal regime.
Commissioned in 2020 as part of TRANSMISSIONS, a program of six new videos considering the impact of HIV and AIDS beyond the United States.
Las Indetectables is a Chilean band led by Sofía Devenir and Noelia Shalá. With their friends and collaborators Macarena Rodríguez and Osvaldo Guzmán, they address topics such as HIV/AIDS, hate crimes, the experiences of sex workers and travesti, and the contradictions that occur when marginalized subjects stage political interventions in the street or on public transit.
See more from Las Indetectables on Instagram and on the Visual AIDS Artist Registry.
Sofía Devenir: Instagram | Facebook
Noelia Shalá: Instagram | Facebook
Osvaldo Guzmán: Instagram | Facebook
Travesti is a gender term used in Latin American countries that cannot be simply translated into English. It generally refers to femme gender expression, but encompasses a broader range of experiences and identities than the English word "transgender." Initially a pejorative term, it has been reclaimed by the travesti community. To learn more, see the travesti Wikipedia article here.
Claudia Rodríguez is another travesti activist and poet working in Chile. Read an article about her work by Joseph Pierce (eng | esp) or hear Claudia speak about her work in this video by Presentes LGTB (in Spanish, auto-generated subtitles available).
Two icons of queer culture in Chile are the artist and performer Hija de Perra (1980–2014) and the writer Pedro Lemebel (1952–2015). Read more about Hija de Perra in this interview with her mother (eng | esp) or on Wikipedia (eng | esp). Two short stories by Pedro Lemebel were recently translated and posted by the LA Review of Books. More of his writing is available in Spanish here, and there is also a wealth of information about his life and work on Wikipedia (eng | esp).
For another perspective on trans identity and HIV in South America, read "Fingerprints, Unfinished," a conversation between Brazilian artist Mavi Veloso and Visual AIDS Artist Member Nicholas D'Avella in On Curating 42, edited by Theodore Kerr.
︎ Watch a conversation with the artists of TRANSMISSIONS