ON DECEMBER 1, instead of taking their daily dose of the HIV medication Dovato, the playwright Victor I. Cazares filmed an Instagram video of the pill's funeral. They burned the small white tablet on a miniature pyre inside a geode their grandparents had brought from El Apache, a mountain in Chihuahua, Mexico, across the border from their hometown of El Paso, Texas. They gave their second pill a burial with a flower on top in their parents' backyard. The third received a drop of Cazares's own blood while Lucía Méndez's "Amor de Nadie," the theme song of their favorite telenovela growing up, played as the soundtrack. They're planning to do a final video in which their last four pills get kidnapped by Pilgrim Barbie and turned to dust.
This story is from the February 26 - March 10, 2024 edition of New York magazine.
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This story is from the February 26 - March 10, 2024 edition of New York magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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