Date: Wed, 8 Mar 1995 01:56:30 -0800 (PST)
From: Rex Wockner <rwockner@netcom.com>
Subject: WOCKNER MEXICO NEWS - 22Feb95 
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        Copyright (c) 1995 Rex Wockner. All rights reserved.
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        ACCENT MARKS! e in Mexico, i in Garcia, o in Leon,
        second a in Culiacan, third a in Mazatlan,
        e in Jose.
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               GAYS ORGANIZE IN BAJA AND MONTERREY            (402 words)
            Other News: Drags, Goddesses, Conferences
                        by Rex Wockner

TIJUANA, Mexico -- New gay organizations have sprung up in two Mexican
cities that previously had no organized activism.

	"Manos Unidas" (Hands United) has about 40 members in the city of La
Paz, capital of the state of Baja California Sur. La Paz is 913 miles
south of Tijuana.

	"There's no gay bar there so this is their only outlet," said
Tijuana gay leader Alejandro Garcia, who is visiting the new group this
week.

	"I hope to help spread the gay-liberation movement and get them
involved in the Northwest Mexico Gay and Lesbian Network," Garcia said.

	In Monterrey, capital of the state of Nuevo Leon, the new "Colectivo
Nancy Cardenas" has about 40 members. Monterrey is 146 miles south of
Laredo, Texas.

	Cardenas was one of the first nationally known lesbians in Mexico. A
well-known theater director in the 70s and 80s, she died of breast
cancer.

	The new group is publishing a newspaper called "Montegay."

	Monterrey gays have been under attack for the past several months
from the city's newly elected National Action Party (PAN) government.

	Four of the city's five gay bars were closed down and police are
extorting money from men who frequent gay-cruising areas, threatening to
out them to their families and to newspapers if they don't pay up.

	In past weeks, however, two new gay bars have opened to fill the
void.

	PAN, the most conservative of Mexico's major parties, also controls
the state of Baja California, where Tijuana is.

	In other Mexico news:

	** The Third Gathering of Gays and Lesbians from Northern Mexico
took place February 25 in Culiacan, Sinaloa, 989 miles southeast of
Tijuana.

	Delegates attended from the states of Baja California, Baja
California Sur, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa and Sonora, as
well as from Mexico City, and included Tijuana gay leaders Jose Navarro
and Alejandro Garcia.

	The next day, participants headed 139 miles further down the road to
the annual Carnival celebration in Mazatlan.

	** The Mexican Network Against AIDS, an umbrella group for
community-based AIDS organizations, is meeting in Cuernavaca, near Mexico
City, March 3 to 5.

	** Gays in the Baja California capital Mexicali, 115 miles east of
Tijuana, gave out their "Goddesses of Crystal" awards Feb. 23 at Tare
discotheque to honor the city's best transvestite performers.

	** And gays in Ensenada, 70 miles south of Tijuana, are staging a
"Miss Mexico Gay 1995" pageant March 17 at 10 p.m. at the Ibis
discotheque.

	The event is sponsored by Grupo Hipocampo. For information, phone
011-52-617-81464.
  
                             == END ==
 

               TIJUANA AIDS HOSPICE TO OPEN IN APRIL          (162 words)
                  AIDS Clinic Needs Lab Equipment
                         by Rex Wockner

TIJUANA, Mexico -- One of two AIDS hospices being planned in Tijuana will
open in April, says Gary Barklay, a San Diego carpenter who is working to
get the facility ready.

	Barklay is seeking donations of 5/8-inch plywood and 2x6-inch boards
for some of the final construction.

	The hospice, Casa Hogar San Francisco de Asis, is loosely affiliated
with the ACOSIDA gay-community-based AIDS clinic and AIDS Project
Tijuana. It is located 20 minutes east of the city.

	AIDS activist Fernando Valenzuela will be the director.

	Barklay is also seeking donations to set up a laboratory for the
ACOSIDA clinic.

	The lab is in urgent need of a centrifuge, a refrigerated
centrifuge, a microscope, a fluoroscope, and culture equipment for blood
tests.

	"This is what we need to make the laboratory function for clients of
the clinic," Barklay said.

	He is hopeful Southern California medical facilities that are
upgrading their labs might donate their old equipment to ACOSIDA.

	Barklay may be reached at (619) 488-0870.
	
                             == END ==