Thanks to the advent and access to HIV medication, I’ve had many years to share my admiration and gratitude for Pedro Zamora. Without his passion for education and willingness to go on MTV’s The Real World in 1994, the actual world would have been a whole lot more ignorant during a very scary time in the AIDS epidemic.

Today I woke to a post by Judd Winick, honoring his friend on the 30-year anniversary of his passing: 

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“Pedro Zamora died 30 years ago today. I’ve been thinking about this post for awhile, and I had hoped/assumed it would be a little more ”celebratory." Despite losing him, I was assuming that we were entering a time of greater hope. But instead, we’re entering, or continue, to live in an era very much like the times when we lost Pedro.

And I guess, maybe now more than ever, we should remember him.

He was living in a time and living a life that was under a cloud of despair. At 17, he was diagnosed with HIV. AIDS in the 90s with nearly no medical solutions to prolong your life, you lived under the cloud of a death sentence. And with that, Pedro, who wasn’t much more than a boy, chose to fight. He’d wake up every single day, put his boots on and go fight. 

Battle to educate young people. 

To push back on those who wanted to see him and people like him just disappear.

To stand up every day and say, “NO.”

It feels very familiar to now.

It feels like we have now been put under a cloud of despair.

So.

I want us to remember Pedro Zamora.

I want us to get up. Put on our boots. And fight. We owe it to him and everyone else who fought so hard to get us to where we are now.

We’re not going back.

Pedro, we love you. And we won’t let you down."

- Judd Winick