Ray Navarro

Raymond Robert Navarro (November 6, 1964 – November 9, 1990) was an American video artist, filmmaker, and HIV/AIDS activist. Navarro was an active member of ACT UP and a founder of Diva TV. His activism was featured in the documentary How to Survive a Plague. Navarro's art was exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Tacoma Art Museum, Bronx Museum of the Arts, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, among others. Navarro's papers, videos, and artworks are held at the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries in Los Angeles.

Early life and education Raymond Navarro was born in 1964 to Patricia Navarro. He was raised in Simi Valley, California, and attended Otis Art Institute before graduating from the California Institute of the Arts. Navarro identified as a Mexican-American and a Chicano activist. Activist Debra Levine called Navarro a "dazzling, outspoken, proudly queer... Chicano-American AIDS activist".

To protest the Roman Catholic Church's position on abortion rights, gay rights, and safe sex education, Navarro dressed as Jesus during an ACT UP event held on December 10, 1989, at Fifth Avenue and St. Patrick's Cathedral. The protest targeted Cardinal John O'Connor who promoted conservative positions on sexual and public health issues in local and national political debates. At the event, Navarro interviewed demonstrators on the street. He protested with the chants: "We're here to say, we want to go to heaven, too!", and "Make sure your second coming is a safe one. Use condoms." The demonstration was included in the documentary Like a Prayer. In 2017, professor and author Anthony Michael Petro called Navarro the "camp superstar" of the documentary. Diva TV founder member Jean Carlomusto remarked in 2002 that Navarro's performance:... was also really powerful because Ray, whose own illness was progressing very quickly, dressed as Jesus Christ that day outside was sort of leading chants outside of St. Pat's. And in his own way, as someone who had grown up Catholic, too, was sort of reclaiming this Christ figure as a revolutionary—use of Christ as someone saying, "Use condoms".

In February 1990, Navarro presented an AIDS program at the CineFestival in San Antonio, Texas.

After Navarro lost his vision due to cytomegalovirus retinitis, an AIDS-related complication, he and Zoe Leonard created a photographic series, Equipped. The series was a triptych of black-and-white photographs each showing a mobility device. Below each framed photograph, a plaque etched with a provocative phrase was displayed

Navarro's work was exhibited in the exhibition Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A. organized by ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles for Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA in 2017. His work has also been displayed at Self Help Graphics & Art.

Personal life Navarro was dating Anthony Ledesma. Ledesma had been diagnosed with AIDS after becoming sick in 1988 or 1989. Navarro was diagnosed with AIDS in January 1990.