In an interview with a gay-male couple, one of my interlocutors told me:
INFORMANT: I did not clearly know before this interview what a serodiscordant couple implies. Labels are tough. Besides being gay, now you have to deal with the stigma associated both to homosexuality and HIV. Even at the beginning of this interview I felt a little bit strange, like someone who was a signal, or a mark, someone excluded.
CÉSAR: Do not worry at all. We all three share the same feeling. You are talking to a pair. We all have been judged for being gay or for being in a serodiscordant relationship. Let's talk from this fact.
Field notebook
César Torres Cruz, "Interview: Changing methodological approach", contributed by César Torres Cruz , STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 26 August 2019, accessed 17 April 2024. https://stsinfrastructures.org/content/interview-changing-methodological-approach
Critical Commentary
After several months of looking for an institution that would allow me to take part in their activities, one medical unit specialized in HIV in Mexico City granted me the opportunity to do ethnographic work. I accompanied people that received new HIV diagnosis cases. I also changed the way I approached my interlocutors by clearly stating what personal interests were implied in my PhD dissertation. I found the previous methodological interruptions quite useful since they helped me out to re-frame myself and my methodological assumptions with respect to serodiscordant couples and HIV fieldwork.