Abstract

OTEGUI, Rosario. Virus, bichos y drogas: Las formas sociales del VIH-SIDA en la comunidad gitana española. Desacatos [online]. 2006, n.20, pp.53-76. ISSN 2448-5144.

Through the study of narratives, this article analyzes the three most prevalent social representations of AIDS in Spanish gypsies.The first social representation -directly linked to the context of the everyday experience of living with the disease- refers us to a highly "medicalized" perception constructed on the grounds of contemporary biomedical knowledge about AIDS. The second representation suggests a blend between both, biomedical and common knowledges, and popular descriptions of infectious and contagious diseases. Finally, the third representation of the HIV-AIDS complex -portrayed by those with no daily experience of the disease- is constructed from a moral stance by gathering and reproducing those first biomedical accounts which directly associated the disease with risk groups that were condemned by medical and social normalcy.

Keywords : gypsies; ethnic complexity; AIDS; representations; means of transmission.