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Oral history interview with Robert Vázquez-Pacheco

Interviewee:
Vázquez-Pacheco, Robert, 1956-  Search this
Interviewer:
Kerr, Theodore  Search this
Names:
ACT UP (Organization)  Search this
Gay Switchboard (Berkeley, Calif.)  Search this
Gran Fury (Artists' collective)  Search this
National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization  Search this
Other Countries, Inc.  Search this
People with AIDS Coalition  Search this
State University College (Oswego, N.Y.) -- Students  Search this
Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project  Search this
Ayala, George  Search this
Bordowitz, Gregg  Search this
Callen, Michael, 1955-1993  Search this
Elovich, Richard  Search this
Finkelstein, Avram, 1952-  Search this
Foreman, Matt  Search this
France, David, 1959-  Search this
Garcia, Robert, 1933-2017  Search this
George, Carl  Search this
Guzmán, Manolo  Search this
Kalin, Tom  Search this
King, Charles Bird, 1785-1862  Search this
Kirschenbaum, David A.  Search this
Kramer, Larry  Search this
Levine, Deb  Search this
McAlpin, Loring, 1960-  Search this
McCarty, Marlene, 1957-  Search this
Metroka, Craig  Search this
Moffett, Donald, 1955-  Search this
Rice-González, Charles  Search this
Russo, Vito  Search this
Simpson, Mark, 1965-  Search this
Staley, Peter  Search this
Walsh, Joey, 1938-  Search this
Extent:
8 Items (sound files (6 hr., 59 min.) Audio, digital, wav)
131 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Interviews
Sound recordings
Date:
2017 December 16-17
Scope and Contents:
An interview with Robert Vázquez-Pacheco conducted 2017 December 16 and 17, by Theodore Kerr, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, at The New School, in New York, New York.
Vazquez-Pacheco speaks of his childhood in South Bronx housing projects; members and dynamics of his family growing up; experiences and discourses of religion, race, gender, sexuality, reading, and the arts as a child and adolescent; attending SUNY Oswego for one year; an existentially pivotal year in Miami in 1975; returning to New York in 1976, immersing himself in Latino gay culture, and being exposed to white gay culture; living in Hempstead, New York for two years with a boyfriend, and beginning to paint again; working at Chase Manhattan Bank and volunteering for the Gay Switchboard in New York City in the late '70s; the beginning of the AIDS epidemic; caring for his boyfriend, Jeff, who died of AIDS in 1986; the particular experience and effect of HIV on communities of color and low-income communities; mounting societal homophobia during the epidemic; leading Gay Circles, a gay men's consciousness-raising group, in the late '80s; his involvement in ACT UP, and burgeoning political consciousness, after Jeff's death; activism as a creative outlet; working at different times with the People With AIDS health group, the Anti-Violence Project, the Minority AIDS Taskforce, Latino Gay Men of New York, Minority AIDS Coalition in Philadelphia, and LLEGO in Washington; AIDS activism's failure to think intersectionally and build coalitions; his involvement in Gran Fury; becoming a more prolific writer, and getting involved with Other Countries, in the early '90s; Gran Fury's 2011 retrospective; the need for racial diversity and representation in activism and the art world; white flight from AIDS activism following the arrival of protease inhibitors; personal frustrations with the current AIDS activism discourse and nonprofit organizational complex, and the general cultural conversation about HIV/AIDS; contrasting representations of AIDS activism in How to Survive a Plague and BPM; and the essential role of art in AIDS activism. Vazquez-Pacheco also recalls Mark Simpson, Craig Metroka, David Kirschenbaum, Maxine Wolfe, Avram Finkelstein, Deb Levine, Charles King, Robert Garcia, Ortez Alderson, Derek Hodel, Gregg Bordowitz, Michael Callen, Carl George, Joey Walsh, Matt Foreman, Vito Russo, Larry Kramer, Tom Kalin, Marlene McCarty, Charles Rice-González, George Ayala, Essex Hemphill, Manolo Guzmán, Donald Moffett, Cladd Stevens, Richard Elovich, Loring McAlpin, Michael Nesline, Peter Staley, David France, Andrew Miller, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Robert Vázquez-Pacheco (1956- ) is a visual artist and writer in New York, New York. Theodore Kerr (1979- ) is a writer and organizer in New York, New York.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Topic:
Activism  Search this
AIDS activists  Search this
AIDS (Disease)  Search this
AIDS (Disease) and the arts  Search this
Artists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this
Political activists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews  Search this
Latino and Latin American artists  Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Identifier:
AAA.vazque17
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9d4793a67-c24a-413f-a363-63404f465a78
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-vazque17
Online Media:

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