Introduction

Francisco Galvan Diaz

The First Binational Conference, AIDS in Our Communities: A Mexico/United States Perspective presents very unique characteristics in the history of the struggle against AIDS in our continent. Perhaps the most striking of these characteristics is synthesized in the effort to establish communication through a dialogue between groups of the same ethnic origin but of a different social and historic background.

From the initial planning of the conference to the final moment of its realization, one could observe something that was obvious for the participants: the need to create common institutions, beginning with the exchange and analysis of similar, if not identical, experiences.

For those who thought that living in the United States guaranteed a better quality of life and unrestricted enjoyment of civil rights (which in Mexico, even today, is inconceivable), the bulk of the presentations helped us realize the error of this supposition. The unequal distribution of vital opportunities in education and income, the difficulty in access to services and social/racial discrimination are cofactors of utmost importance in the personal and social effects of HIV/AIDS among Latinos born or living in the United States.

For those who thought that the reality of AIDS in Mexico could be found in the official reports, the numbers from the epidemiologists -made up by some politicians- and the unfounded idea about a civil society committed to the fight against AIDS without definite plans or direction in present and future actions, to listen and debate the presentations from the Mexican side meant a significant contribution in the approach to the most intense and dramatic dimensions of AIDS in Mexico.

Nonetheless, the reading of the diverse resolutions coming from the conference, shows some of the troubles that may not be easily overcome if the financial sources that could make it happen are not obtained. I am referring to the actual exchange of work laid out in time and space by the two countries. Almost two years have passed since the First Binational Conference took place and we still haven't been able to specify the bilateral actions that go beyond the geographic borders that join and separate us, or beyond good intentions. As a result, the publication of this selection of texts, as a type of symbolic memory, gains even more force in the sense of bringing up-to-date the immediate past, one part of the experiences and shared hope, as a seed for actions in the immediate future.

Perhaps in the next few years it may be useful to find the opportune moment and suitable channels to meet again. Working with less ambitious goals and establishing, at least, some continuity in the Binational Community Conferences as a uniting tie between ourselves, the citizens of two countries.

The current situation of AIDS on both sides demands a fight against injustices that make it increasingly more difficult to live with HIV or the disease. Associating AIDS and "'V with the condition of citizenship is necessary today. To distinguish civil and human rights from those who live with HIV and AIDS, beyond their race, religious beliefs, sexual or political preferences is a moral-political imperative in our times. However, in order to achieve this, we should recover the teachings (not always assimilated from the First Binational Conference), to strengthen our base communities. As Ralf Dahrendorf says in his wonderful book entitled The Modem Social Conflict, to find "...in the last analysis... a world civil society... equal rights in a constitutional frame that domesticates power (discrimination and injustices) so that everyone can enjoy citizenship as a foundation of his/her essential opportunities."

Moreover, these opportunities in the area of HIV/AIDS translate to a better quality of life and greater levels of survival, which Latinos from the United States and those of us from this side of the Rio Bravo cannot and should not relinquish. For us to interrelate bilaterally is a step toward the constitution of a world civil society. The articles gathered here attempt to call attention in this direction.