Pedro Zamora

File:Pedro Zamora.jpg

Pedro Zamora

Pedro Zamora (February 29, 1972–November 11, 1994) was a Cuban-American HIV-positive AIDS educator who became famous for his activism, testimony before Congress, and his appearance on MTV’s Real World San Francisco. President Bill Clinton credited Pedro with personalizing and humanizing those with the disease.

Early life

Pedro was born in a small town near Havana, Cuba, the eighth and second-youngest child of his family. Zamora’s father, Hector, had fought in the Cuban Revolution for Fidel Castro, but after Castro came to power, he went back on his promises of free elections. Castro nationalized businesses, stripped the citizens of their guns, and strengthened ties with the Soviet Union, revealing himself and his regime to be communist. Hector felt betrayed, and according to Pedro, any mention of Castro in their home would result in a tirade from Hector, for which Hector developed a reputation with local informants who made life difficult for the Zamoras as a result. The Zamoras lived in a tiny house with a dirt floor. Food was scarce, and Zamora’s mother, Zoraida, would trade on the black market for food. There were few or no paved roads, and the only family in town with a television set would place on a window sill so that neighborhood children could sit in the yard and watch it.

Zoraida had been told after the birth of their seventh child that she would not be able to have another, so when Zamora was born feet first on February 29, 1972, the leap day of a leap year, he was immediately regarded as charmed. A priestess of Santeria, a faith combining Catholic and African beliefs popular in Latino cultures, told Zoraida that Pedro was a grande cabeza, or a “wise one” who was born to save lives. Pedro was honored, covered in cologne and white flowers, with only men permitted to cut his hair, women kneeling in his presence, and he was allowed to attend religious ceremonies meant only for adults. The priestess warned Pedro’s family that angry gods were planning on capturing Pedro, and a tiny silver chain was placed on his ankle to symbolically keep him bound to Earth so that the angels could not take him away. Despite the family’s hardships, Pedro was a happy child. The Zamoras left Cuba for the United States during the Mariel Boat Lift when Pedro was 8. After five days of processing, the entire family was set to board for the U.S. on May 30, 1980, when, mere hours before they did so, government officials ruled that Pedro’s four older brothers and older sister were too close to the draft age, and had to remain. The elder siblings insisted, over their parents’ wishes, that they go without them so that the younger ones would know a better life. Heartbroken, Hector and Zoraida agreed, and took Pedro, his sister Mily, and his brother Jesus onto a boat filled with 250 people that was built for half that number. After a thirteen-hour trip amid stormy seas, they arrived in the U.S. The Zamoras began new lives, with Pedro residing most of his life in Hialeah, Florida, a suburb of Miami. Though many of the Cuban immigrants viewed the Boat Lift as the first sign that Castro’s regime would fall and that they would be reunited with their families, the day never came. The pain of the family’s continued separation was particularly hard on Zoraida. As a result, she and Zamora became very close.

Zoraida died of skin cancer when Pedro was 13. Unable to grieve, Pedro went into denial in two ways: by throwing himself into his schoolwork, and by having promiscuous sex. Zamora was an honors student, President of the Science Club, Captain of the Cross-Country Team, and as one of the most popular students in Hialeah High School, was voted Most Intellectual and Most All-Around. He decided to become a doctor in order to help others as his mother couldn’t be. He also sought to replace the love he lost from her passing by becoming sexually active. A handsome, charming and curious young man seeking attention and love, Zamora found many sexual partners, but was ignorant of safe sex, as the only AIDS education he ever received was in the seventh grade from a man who did not present the disease in a personable way as a legitimate threat to him, but as something distant that only afflicted societal undesirables like prostitutes and drug addicts. Things such as sex and condoms were never mentioned, and thus Zamora never identified himself as someone at risk. When Zamora was 14, his father, suspecting his son was gay, had Zamora’s brother follow him when he was supposed to be going out with a group of friends, only to find him with his boyfriend. Zamora admitted his orientation when his father confronted him. Hector, rather than being upset, was concerned over the homophobia to which his son would be subjected, but affirmed that he would be supportive of his son.

Living with AIDS

In his junior year of high school, Zamora donated blood during a Red Cross blood drive, and received a letter a month and a half later saying that his blood tested “reactive”, though it did not specify for what, as the general screening was for a variety of viruses and infections. Denying his suspicions, Zamora threw the letter away, and continued to ignore repeated letters requesting additional tests. Six months later, he was finally tested, and on November 11 1989, the results confirmed that he had HIV.

Pedro, his partner Angel, and his family and friends were devastated. Zamora decided to redouble his efforts to graduate from high school before he died, though he did not give much thought to his health, as he was still in denial. Five months later, he suffered a severe case of shingles that covered the entire right side of his body and face. Though with medication, the condition subsided after two months, it served as a traumatic wake-up call for Zamora, who decided to do something about it. He joined a Miami-based HIV/AIDS resource center called Body Positive, where for the first time, he met others with HIV and AIDS, and educated himself about the disease, learning how to lead a positive life with it. Soon thereafter he came to talk about his condition to others to attempt to raise awareness about the disease in his community.

Although his academic accomplishments could have gained him admission to very good colleges, including possibly those of Ivy League status, Zamora decided to make a career as an AIDS educator. Graduating from high school in 1990, he began to lecture at schools of all levels, PTA meetings, churches, and anyone else who would listen, traveling the country, sitting on the boards of various AIDS organizations, hoping to use what time he had left to prevent others from sharing his fate. At the age of 19, his work came into national focus when a front page article about him appeared in the Wall Street Journal, resulting in numerous talk show interviews by Geraldo Rivera, Phil Donahue and Oprah Winfrey [1]. Though Zamora was personally gay, he chose to not make that explicit point to school children, preferring to emphasize to them that he got the disease through unprotected sex, so as to underscore the fact that anyone, homosexual and heterosexual, could contract HIV. On July 12 1993, he testified before the United States Congress, arguing for more explicit HIV/AIDS educational programs, saying, “If you want to reach me as a young man -- especially a young man of color -- then you need to give me information in a language and vocabulary I can understand and relate to." [2] Congressional aide Brian quintana called it "the most powerful speech ever given by a young person."

Experiences with The Real World

File:RWPedro2.jpg

In mid-1993, Zamora became aware that MTV was casting for the next season of their reality tv show, The Real World, which would take place in San Francisco. His best friend and roommate, Alex Escarno, convinced him to put together an audition tape, arguing that he could reach more people simply by living in the Real World loft than through the cross-country travel that so taxed him. [3] Six months later, Zamora received a phone call from producers, telling him that out of the 25,000 applicants, he had been chosen to be a castmate on the show; Zamora was elated.

Zamora and his six castmates (Mohammed Balau, Rachel Campos, Pam Ling, Cory Murphy, David Rainey, Judd Winick) moved into the loft at 953 Lombard Street [4] on Russian Hill on February 12 1994. While the producers informed the other six housemates that they would be living with someone HIV-positive, they did not tell them who it was. Zamora quickly bonded with his housemates. Zamora informed the rest of his housemates of his HIV status by showing them a scrapbook of his career as an AIDS educator. Another castmate, Rachel Campos, became uncomfortable with this, and initially distanced herself from Zamora, stating that she wanted to know how this would affect her, but said nothing for fear of seeming intolerant. Zamora took this as an act of rejection on her part, though the two later formed a rapport, and Zamora addressed her concerns about his condition by educating her about HIV and AIDS.

As the weeks went on, the other castmembers often attended Zamora's lectures at schools in the Bay Area, which allowed them to learn more about HIV and AIDS. Castmate Cory Murphy joined the trio about halfway through their stay in the loft, often joining them on outings.

Zamora came into personal conflict with housemate David “Puck” Rainey from the beginning. In addition to Rainey's poor hygiene, his insistence on controlling conversations, and his refusal to compromise on household issues, he was particularly abusive towards Zamora, mocking his Cuban accent, and denigrating his career as an educator. Winick described Rainey as “obnoxious” and “homophobic,” and Zamora, realizing that the stress of his confrontations with Rainey was contributing to his deteriorating health, threatened to move out. The entire cast voted to evict Rainey from the loft. Zamora’s health continued to deteriorate, however, and he suffered night sweats, Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia, and weight loss, and slept more and more. He soon recovered, and was even able to participate in activities like parasailing during the group’s trip to Hawaii, but the castmembers grew more worried about him nonetheless, often covering up for him during their weekly “confessional” interviews with the producers by lying to them, saying that Zamora was doing fine when they knew otherwise.

The cast moved out of the loft on June 19 1994, and the first episodes of The Real World San Francisco began airing a week later. Zamora visited his family in Miami. By August Zamora looked haggard, and suffered headaches. Whereas Zamora had previously been talkative, he was often silent for long periods, found it difficult to follow conversations or remember locations of places he had known for years. Zamora went to New York City for a scheduled interview on CBS This Morning but cancelled. His contacts at MTV convinced him to see a doctor, but when he arrived at the MTV offices he didn’t know where he was. On August 17, Zamora checked into St. Vincent’s Hospital, and was diagnosed with toxoplasmosis, a condition which causes brain lesions, resulting in fatigue, headaches and confusion. His sister Mily and best friend Escarano, flew to New York to be with him. While medication alleviated the toxoplasmosis, further tests, including a biopsy, revealed he had Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), a rare and usually fatal viral inflammation of the brain that breaks down the electrical impulses of the nervous system. Although only 1% of AIDS patients contracted PML, it usually dissipates on its own in patients with higher T-cell counts of 300-400. More serious symptoms of the illness can include paralysis or aphasia. At the time, Zamora’s T-cell count was 32, and the inflammation was attacking the frontal lobes of his brain, causing him short-term memory loss. Zamora was given three to four months to live.

On September 3, about three weeks after checking into St. Vincent’s, Zamora was flown to Miami to be with his family. The PML slowly took away Zamora’s ability to speak. However, when his friend and colleague Brian quintana arranged for President Bill Clinton to call Zamora to thank him for his work, Zamora, elated at the call, was able to respond. When Clinton asked how he could be of assistance, Pedro responded, "you can get my family the hell out of Cuba, so they can be with me when I die." Clinton, along with Attorney General Janet Reno, and Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, arranged for the Zamoras to be on the next plane. A later agreement with Cuba allowed an additional 20,000 Cubans to come to Anerica per year. The Zamoras reunion was the family's dream after 15 years of being separated by sea. [5]

On October 21, Quintana, Escarano, Mily, and the cast created a trust to pay for Pedro’s medical costs, as Zamora had no medical insurance.

During the wait for the family members from Cuba, Zamora developed a high fever and was hospitalized. Wishing not to subject his family to a slow and prolonged death as had occurred with his mother, Zamora stated his wish not to be kept alive by artificial means. Hospitalized and unable to speak for almost a month, being fed intravenously, and becoming completely unresponsive, his family honored his wishes, and withdrew life support, including medication, food and water. Surrounded by his family, best friends Yesenia and Escarno, Quintana, Winick and Ling, Zamora died at 4:40am EST on November 11 1994, the day after the final episode of The Real World San Francisco aired. He was buried next to his mother on November 13.

Legacy and Tribute

After his death, Zamora was publicly praised by President Bill Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, for his leadership and work in educating high school students, saying that through his appearances on The Real World, Zamora had became a part of viewers’ families, and that all people who watched the show could now say that they “knew” someone who had lived with AIDS.

MTV broadcast A Tribute to Pedro Zamora, a special memorial program, in his honor.

A street in Miami (SW 59th Street) was given the name "Pedro Zamora Way", although it is not in Hialeah where he lived. Howard D. McMillan Middle School is located on that street where he did a presentation on HIV and AIDS. The school is located in Kendall, a suburb of Miami, Florida.

A number of organizations were created in Zamora’s name, including:

• The Pedro Zamora Foundation
• The National Pedro Zamora Project
• The Pedro Zamora Memorial Fund (Sponsored by the AIDS Action Foundation)
• The Pedro Zamora Youth Clinic.
• The Pedro Zamora Public Policy Fellowship
• Pedro Zamora Youth HIV Clinic (Los Angeles)