Hispanos Unidos, which began in 1987 as Hispanos Unidos Contra SIDA, or Hispanics United Against AIDS. This week marks the 25th anniversary of the first known cases of AIDS.

Villot, 52, was diagnosed with HIV in 1988, through sexual contact. He lived in Hartford then, but moved to New Haven in 1999 and has been a client (the agency calls them "consumers") at Hispanos Unidos ever since.

He said he tried to stay positive, and didn't take any medication until 1991 â€" AZT, the first drug to ameliorate the symptoms of AIDS. But it had a lot of side effects, and Villot said he stopped taking it after a few months. He has taken no other AIDS drugs up until a couple of weeks ago, when he developed a tumor in his head and his doctor recommended he take the AIDS drug cocktail in hopes of avoiding chemotherapy. He now walks with a cane because the tumor has affected his balance, which means he can't pursue his work as a house painter for the time being. He still teaches art classes occasionally.

For the past decade, medications have enabled many people with AIDS to live almost a normal life. Villot is one of the rare individuals who's survived for years without medication. He enjoys coming to the support group at Hispanos Unidos.

"We talk about the problems we got. I can talk to other people about how I feel having the HIV virus, how to survive with it. I tell people not to be afraid, not to think they're going to die tomorrow."

Luz Gonzales (pictured) has been executive director of Hispanos Unidos for the past 15 years. The organization addresses the particular needs of the Latino community in greater New Haven through its "culturally responsive format," carried out by a bilingual staff. The organization serves 2,000 clients a year. Data from the Connecticut Department of Public Health show that since 1980, Latinos with HIV have averaged 18 percent of the total of infected people in New Haven, but as recently as 2003 their rate was 33 percent. Last year it was down to 26 percent. Latinos make up 21 percent of New Haven's population, according to the 2000 census, but their numbers have grown since then.

Gonzales has been with Hispanos Unidos from the time AIDS was a death sentence for almost everyone through the more hopeful time when drugs, taken on a strict regimen, often depressed the virus to undetectable levels, to now, when she says, "More people are dying." She explains that's mostly due to people going off their medications, either because of severe side effects, because of drug relapse or homelessness that make it hard to comply with the medication protocols, or because the medicines are so successful that a client feels healthy and no longer in need of taking all the pills. But to be effective the medicines must be taken daily.

"People don't realize, once they get infected, that it's not so easy to live with AIDS," she says. There's a lot of complications, especially with all the medications you have to take."

The decision was made back in 2000 to drop "Contra SIDA" from the agency's name. She says clients initiated the request, because when caller ID became common on residential phones, they became concerned about losing their privacy, if they had not shared with family members or roommates their HIV status.

The other reason, she said, "is because we want to become a health-related agency serving more than just individuals with AIDS." That mostly means a greater emphasis on healthy lifestyles and AIDS prevention. The agency also runs a one-week summer camp for children affected by AIDS (meaning a family member has AIDS, since effective drug treatment has eliminated mother-to-child HIV transmission in New Haven).

Going forward for the next quarter century, Gonzales says, "The biggest challenge is trying to keep people from being infected. People think because there are medications, it's a manageable illness. But young people especially are still at risk. The challenge is to try to convince people that AIDS is still a part of our lives."