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Hispanic Perspective
The Beginning
As a Hispanic, I was curious to examine the AIDS statistics concerning my race. Again, I reverted back to the “standard” set for the United States. For Hispanics in the country, there is a cumulative AIDS rate of 526 (26). When compared to the cumulative AIDS rate of Whites and Blacks, Hispanics fall in the middle. When looking at New York State cumulative AIDS rate statistics, Hispanics again fall in-between Whites and Blacks. However, this generalization does not hold true when you travel down to my county. Actually, for Onondaga County, the Hispanic and Black cumulative AIDS rates start to rival each other at rates of 510 and 435 (25). The statistic is further questioned by the fact that the Onondaga County black and Hispanic population is substantially different. In the 200 census, the black population is 42937, and Hispanics have a population of 11042(26). The Hispanic population is roughly one-fourth that of the Black population. I previously mentioned the 30 articles that I collected from The Post Standard. Out of all these articles, only one article concerned the Latino population (27).Though the Hispanic population is small compared to Whites and Blacks, the cumulative AIDS rate is not in the Hispanic community. However, presumed living with AIDS data (As of December 31, 2006) (1) suggests that Hispanics are currently far behind Blacks and Whites. Hispanics make up 8.63% of the current PLWA patients while Blacks and Whites make up 47.9% and 39.4%. The gap shows that though the cumulative AIDS rate for Hispanics may be similar to that of Blacks, currently the Hispanic community is last in PLWA cases .However, that one Latino-orientated article perpetuates ignorance and lack of necessary knowledge. Was it possible that there was no Latino representation in the media? Well, it turned out that alongside The Post-Standard, there was such a paper called CNY Latino (28). I personally emailed the editor of the paper to ask about the paper’s circulation and his response was:
Buenas Julio:
We used to have an individual that was helping us to distribute the paper, in that area, but he moved a couple of months ago. Now, when I have the chance, I have to do it until I find somebody to commit and help me... you should check "Green Hills" supermarket (July 2008 edition was distributed -late- yesterday Wed. 09). We also offer an annual subscription for $30.00, where some people pay to mail it to office or home.
Espero que esto ayude.
Hugo
From this email I became aware of two facts. Firstly, that although I live near the market, I was never not of this Latino media outlet. Also, if one person leaving has such an effect on the paper’s business, it is still early in its development. So, as of right now, the Latino population of Onondaga County is at an extreme disadvantage. This disadvantage in knowledge is clearly reflected in the AIDS statistics. Therefore, my duty is get involved with the issue. This may mean joining an AIDS support organization or simply beginning to read CNY Latino. Either way, a form of action needs to be taken in order to effectively begin assessing the problem in Onondaga County.
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