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Gil Cuadros
(July 22, 1962 - August 29, 1996) U.S.A.

Gil Cuadros

Writer

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Author of City of God (1994). Gil Cuadros was a gay Latino poet, essayist, as well as a ceramist from Montebello, California known for his writing on the impact of AIDS.

While Cuadros grew up in Montebello, his parents were from Northern California. He did not have a close relationship with his father. He attended Schurr High School where he met Laura Aguilar. Cuadros was 15 when he met seventeen-year-old Laura Aguilar in photography class. Laura and Gil were close friends throughout high school and remained so after highschool.

After highschool, Gil Cuadros attended East Los Angeles Community College for one year before transferring to Pasadena City College. Cuadros worked at a photo lab where he met his lover, John Edward Milosch. In 1987, Cuadros' lover, John, died and Cuadros was diagnosed with AIDS the same year. After John's death, Cuadros found it difficult to bear with the reality of AIDS. Laura would encourage Cuadros by bringing flyers to attend one of Terry Wolverton's writing workshops for people with HIV at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

He eventually attended a workshop and met Terry in 1988. The workshop ignited a passion to write for himself and for his lover, John. Cuadros claimed the disease influenced his artwork. Despite being told that he had 6 months to live, Cuadros lived for another 8 years. Cuadros claimed, "writing literally saved my life or at least extended my life."

A few years later, Cuadros’ only book, "City of God" was published in 1994. Before his book was published in 1994, Gil Cuadros won the Brody Literature Fellowship in 1991 and he was one of the first recipients of PEN Center USA/West grants to writers with HIV. These nonprofit organizations provided Cuadros with financial and emotional support. Cuadros also received support and guidance from his teacher, Terry Wolverton, who stood by him during difficult times as well as joyful ones.

Shortly after City of God (1994) was published, Cuadros died of AIDS related complications at the age of 34. In a dissertation that was supervised by renowned specialists in the field, Jose Esteban Muñoz and Tavia Nyong'o at NYU Performance Studies, Joshua Guzman writes that Cuadros' literature was able to make an influential impact to the history of AIDS by providing a testimonial that "explores the impact that AIDS has had on the gay Chicano community."

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