Oral history interview with Robert Vázquez-Pacheco
name: label: Interviewee
content: Vázquez-Pacheco, Robert, 1956-
label: Interviewer
content: Kerr, Theodore
label: Names
content: ACT UP (Organization)
label: Names
content: Gay Switchboard (Berkeley, Calif.)
label: Names
content: Gran Fury (Artists' collective)
label: Names
content: National Latino/a Lesbian and Gay Organization
label: Names
content: Other Countries, Inc.
label: Names
content: People with AIDS Coalition
label: Names
content: State University College (Oswego, N.Y.) -- Students
label: Names
content: Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project
label: Names
content: Ayala, George
label: Names
content: Bordowitz, Gregg
label: Names
content: Callen, Michael, 1955-1993
label: Names
content: Elovich, Richard
label: Names
content: Finkelstein, Avram, 1952-
label: Names
content: Foreman, Matt
label: Names
content: France, David, 1959-
label: Names
content: Garcia, Robert, 1933-2017
label: Names
content: George, Carl
label: Names
content: Guzmán, Manolo
label: Names
content: Kalin, Tom
label: Names
content: King, Charles Bird, 1785-1862
label: Names
content: Kirschenbaum, David A.
label: Names
content: Kramer, Larry
label: Names
content: Levine, Deb
label: Names
content: McAlpin, Loring, 1960-
label: Names
content: McCarty, Marlene, 1957-
label: Names
content: Metroka, Craig
label: Names
content: Moffett, Donald, 1955-
label: Names
content: Rice-González, Charles
label: Names
content: Russo, Vito
label: Names
content: Simpson, Mark, 1965-
label: Names
content: Staley, Peter
label: Names
content: Walsh, Joey, 1938-
topic: label: Topic
content: Activism
label: Topic
content: AIDS activists
label: Topic
content: AIDS (Disease)
label: Topic
content: AIDS (Disease) and the arts
label: Topic
content: Artists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Authors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Political activists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Latino and Latin American artists
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: 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.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Vázquez-Pacheco, Robert, 1956-
label: Interviewer
content: Kerr, Theodore
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: 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.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 8 Items (sound files (6 hr., 59 min.) Audio, digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 131 Pages (Transcript)
phystech: label: System Details
content: Recorded on Tascam DR-100MKII R00329.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2017 December 16-17
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.vazque17
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: 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.
label: Scope and Contents
content: 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.