Jorge’s father
had been a survivor of Auschwitz,
and he had the idea that he looked exactly as his father had on the day
of his release. He wanted to document that similarity, that family similarity
of genetics and of disaster. It has occurred to me since that the moments
in history are rare when entire communities are erased, leaving surrounding
communities intact. The gay community suffered ongoing losses through
the late eighties and most of the nineties; I have friends who can count
over fifty friends and acquaintances lost to AIDS over a fifteen year
period. Under these circumstances, the concepts of grieving and Traumatic
Stress Syndrome become meaningless: grief and trauma are buried in the
ongoing onslaught of wasting and death, the continuous interweaving of
care-taking, funerals, memorials, anniversaries, and more deaths.
Jorge, February
3, 1994, 1994/2000
(one of three panels)