It's 60 miles between the small Kansas towns of Liberal and Garden City, and there’s not much to see as Arturo Ponce drives the stretch in a small white car that he's dubbed his "AIDS-mobile."

Every week, he adds another 500 to 600 miles on his odometer in the fight against HIV and AIDS. He is the AIDS outreach director for United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries, an outreach of the church's Kansas West Conference.

Ponce is an educator first, an AIDS tester second and, finally, an AIDS counselor when he has to tell someone face to face that a test has returned positive.

Asked about such times, his usually serene face clouds over and all the energy drains from his voice. "It’s really hard, hard," he says. "I hate this part of my work because I don’t even know what this person is feeling when they receive this kind of information. But we are trying to help these people, trying to tell them, 'OK, we are here to support you … to live longer, healthier … and basically you are not alone with this infection.'"

Free counseling and medical care are available at Community Health Clinics for those who test positive for the virus.

A growing Hispanic concern

Hispanics are 9 percent of the state population, but account for 14 percent of all AIDS cases in Kansas. In southwest Kansas, where immigrant labor finds employment in the fields and a half dozen large meat packing plants, Hispanics are more than half the population—and 75 percent of all AIDS cases.

Ponce speaks about prevention at schools and wherever else he can find an audience. He sets up testing events and private appointments and distributes safe-sex kits containing condoms and HIV information at cantinas, stores and other businesses. One of his offices is in a United Methodist church because, he says, people find it comforting there.

On a Spanish-language radio station where Ponce is a frequent guest, the host takes an oral AIDS test while Ponce answers questions from callers. When asked why many people struggle even to talk about AIDS, Ponce explains using words like "le stigma," "machismo" and "superman."

For eight years, Ponce has worked to break down cultural sensitivities that stifle open discussion about risky sexual behavior, and he sees progress. After the radio show, he’s back in the "AIDS-mobile" to deliver more safe-sex kits to a liquor store that has run out.

"Eight years ago, I would go into clubs and cantinas and leave the safe-sex packs, and the same number would be in the basket when I checked two weeks later. But now there’s more and more people involved with this program," he says. "In 2000, I tested only 62 persons—whole year, only 62 persons. And now the average is about 500 tests a year."

Contacted by the store owner about the need to restock, Ponce stuffs a hundred packets into the nearly empty basket next to her register and asks who takes them. All ages, she replies, but mostly men.

Progress.

Haunting Memories

Things don’t change quickly enough for Ponce, however, because he carries around the terrible moments he has shared with strangers.

He remembers the mother of three who wailed in his office for three hours, and the relief he felt when the children tested negative.

He wonders what happened to the 17-year-old boy who denied his test results. His mother in Mexico told the teen this could be a ploy by U.S. authorities to scare people away, and sent him herbal tea in case he didn’t feel well. The boy didn’t show up for appointments at the clinic, and their last conversation still haunts Ponce.

"He said, 'I’m young and I’m strong and I don’t feel anything.' But I say, 'You are HIV positive and, you know, this is forever.'"

He never saw the boy again.

Ponce will end the day administering an oral AIDS test to a middle-aged man who has long resisted addressing the possibility of HIV/AIDS. Another small moment of measurable progress, he feels.

This evening, Ponce will make his rounds to the small-town cantinas where hardworking, often lonely people congregate, looking for distractions from difficult lives led far from home. He will be a familiar face to some.

"You know many people know me as the condom man. It’s funny, but to me it’s OK because I don’t want to see them in the clinic," he says.

*Galin is a freelance producer based in Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Video Story

AIDS Help for Hispanics

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Resources

United Methodist Mexican-American Ministries

Kansas West Annual Conference

Global AIDS Fund

AIDS: Overview

National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry

Commission on Religion and Race