Story 14
Horacio, 34, Community leader
Miami Beach, FL
My name is Horacio. I went to do my HIV testing because it was a regular routine, and I was having a lot of unprotected sex, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t have the HIV virus. I prayed to God because back then I didn’t know what it was, you know. But then the doctors told me and I was okay with it. I started educating myself through a lot of different things in the community. I started going to all these meetings. I did everything I could to keep myself healthy. I take my medicine faithfully every day because that’s how you become undetectable. And it’s a good thing that we can do so that we can get rid of the stigma. It’s confirmed through the science that if you take the medicine, you will have no levels of the virus. HIV will not stop you. I have done everything in my life up to this point. Whatever I do, I accomplish. I like to do sports, I’m into political things that I do sometimes for work, you know? I do a lot of things for my family, especially my mom. I like to some HIV work too, for my family and for the people I know, like for my community. I love to travel, and I got a lot of different things that I want to accomplish in my life.
HIV will not stop me. That’s one thing I wanna tell people. I will accomplish everything. I feel that I’m one of those disciples from God that I need to educate as many people as I can. And I’ve done it. And I’m going to continue doing it. We have a long way to go. We are getting closer to stopping it, but we got a long way to go and we have to work together.
I’m a fan of football, baseball, and basketball. I like to keep myself healthy by working out at the beach. I like to take care of my babies, my cats. They keep me going, they make me happy and I take care of them. I enjoy going to family picnics.
I know I have HIV but sometimes I don’t think about it, you know? I know how to live with HIV, I’ve done it for a long time. I just want to give hope to those who are recently diagnosed or have been positive like myself.
Care resource has all resources in one. There’s also Miami HIV partnership, and everything comes together through the Ryan White program and goes through the Miami HIV partnership. There’s a lot of information out there. Make sure everyone gets tested, does to the doctor, everything. If I can do it, you can do it too. That’s my attitude, and that’s what I do for people, and that’s the thing that I want to tell people about, too.
I thank God for my blessings. HIV changed my life around. I’m a religious person. I’m a Catholic since I was a baby. I have a good relationship with God. He’s the one that keeps me alive and He’s the one that tells me what to do. I’m a committed person. I care for people no matter who they are or where they come from. I’m always there for people in whatever they need, it could be related to HIV or something else. I love to go to Church. I’ve never done drugs in my life, and I never will because I made a promise to my grandma, and I’m going to keep that promise ‘til the day I die. I love to have a nice dinner with family, friends, whoever. That’s who I am. It was a pleasure to be able to share my story.