But few embraced the role as self-destructively as this Cuban rocker: he deliberately infected himself with HIV. "I found a friend who gave me his (infected) blood," recalls Govea, a long-haired 42-year-old with earrings and tattoos. But their lifestyle was a particularly bold statement in communist Cuba, where rock music was outlawed during the Cold War and drug-taking severely policed. "It was the best of all possible worlds for them," says Maria Gattorno, director of the Cuban Rock Agency, a state music promotion body. Others infected themselves "so that they could be with the person they liked" who already had the disease, he says.

Source: The China Post May 29, 2017 21:00 UTC