Dolzura Cortez

Ma. Dolzura Cortez (died 1992) was a Filipino AIDS victim. She was the first Filipino with AIDS to publicly discuss her life and her experience living with HIV/AIDS.[1][2] Cortez responded to a newspaper ad looking for a person living with HIV/AIDS who was willing to have their life serialized in print and later developed into a movie.[3]

Ma. Dolzura Cortez
Born
Maria Dolzura Cortez
Died1992
Manila, Philippines
Cause of deathAIDS
Known forFirst publicly Filipino AIDS victim

Her life story was made into the 1993 Filipino film Dahil Mahal Kita (English "Because I Love You: The Dolzura Cortez Story"), directed by Laurice Guillen, screenplay by Ricardo Lee, starring Vilma Santos, Christopher de Leon, Charito Solis, Maila Gumila, Mikee Villanueva, and Jackie Aquino.

Dahil Mahal Kita

The film chronicles the life of Cortez, the first publicly recognized AIDS patient in the Philippines. The film begins with a brief examination of Cortez’s pre-AIDS life. Initially she lived in a small village with her husband and three children. Cortez left them and moved to Manila where she was involved with a number of partners. Her second marriage to a rich foreigner does not last long. To support her children, Dolly begins an all woman “contract worker” agency. This also serves to facilitate her love of night-life. One night, Cortez collapsed on the dance floor of a nightclub and was taken to a hospital where she was diagnosed with AIDS. At the hospital she met one of her ex-lovers, Paulo, an AIDS researcher who encouraged to tell her story publicly. Cortez became instrumental in spreading AIDS awareness to the islands. It was the first film on AIDS in the Philippines that provided ‘a name and a face’ among the 50 recorded lives that were lost to AIDS in 1992. The film was utilized as a focus of discussion by some health care personnel to express their thoughts, opinions, and recommendations regarding the use of cinema as a powerful tool for AIDS information dissemination.

References
  1. Doyo, Ma Ceres P. (1993). Journalist in Her Country: Articles, Essays & Photographs, 1980-1992. Anvil Pub. pp. 44–52. ISBN 978-971-27-0320-1.
  2. Balgos, Cecil C. A. (2001). Drugs, Death, and Disease: Reporting on AIDS in Southeast Asia. Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. p. 26. ISBN 978-971-8686-33-1.
  3. Zaldivar, S. B. (February 1995). "Health care personnel's critique on the Philippines' first movie on AIDS". AIDS Care. 7 (1): 95–98. doi:10.1080/09540129550126894. ISSN 0954-0121.
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