David J Cooper - The Partys Over

For Angel Jared Vargas Canales

(Bruno)

1980 - 2012

Another time - another place

Foreword

The red ribbon is the symbol of solidarity and signifies that we should not remain indifferent to human suffering. It is the link between your heart and the hearts of people living with HIV / AIDS.

Introduction

AIDS is a word which fills peoples minds with horror. It is automatically thought of as a death sentence, but with modern medicine this virus can be controlled and AIDS victims can live longer, provided they take their medication and go for regular check-ups.

However, there are still people who believe that once someone becomes infected with the virus theres no hope. Its the end.

I am not a doctor or a specialist on this subject but I was a nurse and have worked with AIDS patients. I also have friends who are HIV+ and the following story focuses on two of those friends and how this illness affected and changed their lives and the lives of their families and close friends.

The Partys Over is a true story about two people from very different backgrounds but have one thing in common - AIDS.

For one of them life goes on as usual, but for the other there were tragic consequences which could have been avoided.

Chapter One

Q ue cachondo!

Those were the first words I heard from the male stripper as he danced close to me just wearing red briefs, and this was the beginning of a five year friendship that was to fill my life with joy and sadness and was to end tragically.

He was very good looking, young, with a very good physique, a handsome Mexican guy, and was the only stripper in the club, which I used to go to, that could dance! The other strippers would just make aerobic movements. His fifteen minute routine consisted of music by Wilfrid Vargas, Jennifer Lopez, and Bon Jovi.

My local club was not far away from where I lived and I used to go there to enjoy a night out and have a few beers. It was called Arizonas and was in Avenida La Paz, Guadalajara, Mexico. It has since closed.

I used to go there to see the drag show as the artists were very good and looked exactly like the real artists whom they were portraying.

Apart from the female impersonators there were males too, who impersonated Mexican male singers and were identical to the real McCoy!

The artists didnt just perform their songs in Spanish but also mimicked English singers, especially famous singers from the United States.

Guadalajara has some good night spots but also has some dives! Arizonas didnt fall into the dive category though.

Because there was a cover charge to pay to get in, the local mayates as they are called, which means male prostitutes, wouldnt come to the place. Clients were usually middle-aged professionals.

It had two floors - an upper bar and a downstairs bar with the dance floor and could hold up to four hundred people.

The show started at 11.00pm and went on until 3.00am. It was open from Wednesday to Sunday.

Once a month it would have a Noche Caliente where the strippers would expose everything!! Women werent allowed in on that night.

It would start with female impersonators in a dance routine, followed by the host, who was also a drag queen, portraying either a famous female Mexican singer or a female international singer.

In between the drag show were the male strippers. It was an entertaining night out.

Almost all of the nightclubs in Guadalajara have this type of show.

I was never really interested in the male strippers as I thought that it was more of an art for a male to convert into a female, but this male stripper was about to change my life in more ways than one!

I always felt relaxed in this club as I never used to get bothered by anybody who was just looking for a one night stand. It was a local pick up place but I wasnt into that.

It was a well-known place frequented by gay people of both genders but had lately become a haunt for mixed couples and swingers.

I was friendly with the bar staff and also with all of the drag queens and the conductor of the show would always say: Ah, heres David the Englishman who is more Mexican than English!

The other drag artists were always very friendly and welcoming to me, thats why I felt safe and relaxed there. When male members of the public, who were looking for a pick-up, could see I was a friend of the artists and bar staff, they wouldnt bother me.

The bar tenders were male, and straight, and I used to get on well with Alejandro, the owners brother, a man of about thirty eight, chubby, and short. His famous catchphrase was always puta!

Danny was the other barman who was tall and thin with a moustache. These barmen worked in the downstairs bar.

The other barmen, who worked in the upstairs bar, were Jorge and Jesus (Chuey).

There were five regular drag queens: Claudio, David, Juan, who regularly impersonated Yuri and looked exactly like her, Juan who impersonated Cher, and Miguel (known as La Pipa ). There were also guest male impersonators usually portraying Alejandro Fernandez and Juan Gabriel.

Id usually walk there as it was near to where I lived but I always took a taxi home, so I got to know the taxi driver, a man of around fifty, whose name was Santos, pretty well too.

Well, Id go there on weekends, usually on a Saturday night.

So, I met Bruno the male stripper in February 2007. He found out that I worked at a language school and asked me about English classes, so I gave him my business card and told him to ask for me if he was interested in English classes as I could get him a free scholarship and he wouldnt have to pay for classes and left it at that.

About three weeks later he phoned my home number and asked if he could come and see me personally to talk about English classes. This was on a Sunday afternoon. I wasnt doing anything, so I gave him my address and he arrived half an hour later by taxi.

We spoke for about an hour and I said it would be best if he came to the school the next day so that he could register and start his course. I was very surprised because I thought he wasnt really serious about taking English classes.

So he came the next day and registered and started his classes at 5.00pm. Unfortunately, he only came to the school for two weeks and never showed up again, which came as no surprise.

I personally didnt think that this type of person would be serious or committed enough to study English as he was a showbiz person.

I went to Arizonas the following Saturday night but he didnt appear in the show. I didnt see him again for about three months.

I had a friend Art, an American, who was also a teacher, and we would often have a coffee together and I suggested that we go to Arizonas one Friday night for a couple of beers.