MTV Pedro Zamora on The Real World
Pedro Zamora was a Real World cast member who was part of starting a conversation in the U.S. around the AIDS crisis. His story is heavily featured in the ABC special The Story of Soaps because soap operas and reality TV were definitely intertwined. Here is what you need to know about the activist’s life and legacy.
1. Pedro Zamora Found Out He was HIV Positive When He Was Just 17
Zamora was born February 29, 1972, the youngest of eight siblings born to Hector and Zoraida Zamora. His family lived in Havana, Cuba until he was eight years old when he, his parents, and two siblings came to the United States on the 1980 Marial boatlift. According to his obituary in People, four of his brothers stayed in Cuba due to military obligations, and his one sister stayed by choice.
Zamora’s mother died of skin cancer when he was 13. Soon after, Zamora realized he was gay and began going out to gay bars in Miami. At the age of 17, he learned he was HIV positive when he was tested before being allowed to donate blood at a school blood drive.
After some initial denial about his condition, Zamora became an advocate for AIDS awareness. Alex Escarano, a good friend of Zamora’s, told People, “He was so frustrated with the ignorance. He always said that if he told a person he had cancer, the person would probably hug him; if he told them AIDS, they’d be scared and walk away. He wanted to reach people.”
2. Zamora Worked Tirelessly For Five Years to Spread a Message of AIDS Awareness
In the next five years, Zamora would testify before congress, speak at an international AIDS conference and go into high schools to talk about safe sex practices. The New York Times reported that he told a congressional committee that the government needed to be more direct in its safe-sex campaign aimed at teenagers.
“I needed to know about condoms, how to use a condom correctly and where to buy them,” Zamora told the congressional committee. “I needed to know that you can be sexual without having intercourse.”
“He was the kind of individual who would make people really comfortable,” Ernie Lopez, executive director of the Body Positive Resource Center in Miami, told the New York Times for Zamoras obituary. “That was key when he went out to the schools.”
Several of his former students told the New York Times that Zamora completely changed their outlook about safe sex and AIDS.
“He helped me see that you can be close to anybody and it can’t hurt you,” said Melenie Gonzalez, a junior at Hialeah High. And the activities director at the high school, Anthony Ferrante, said that one of Zamoras “most potent weapons” was that “he was going to die from this,” because he did not shy away from talking about that part of his condition.
3. He Was Cast on The Real World Season 3
MTVThe Real World: San Francisco cast
In The Story of Soaps, producer Jonathan Murray recalled how he and his producing partner Mary-Ellis Bunim pitched The Real World to MTV as a “docu-soap,” so when it came time to cast The Real World: San Francisco, they “knew [they] had to deal with the AIDS crisis.”
So they cast Zamora, who Murray described to People as “amazing.” Bunim added that while most applicants for their show wanted to be famous, Zamora “wanted to spread his story.”
Bravo’s Andy Cohen said in the ABC special that Zamora’s impact on pop culture and the attitude around the AIDS epidemic cannot be understated.
“Pedro came around at the height of AIDS panic in the country, when people were panicked to get it. There was so much misinformation about people who had AIDS,” recalled Cohen. “I can’t underestimate the importance of Pedro Zamora on The Real World. I think what we learned from Pedro was that reality television could take big swings and teach millions of people something.”
4. Zamora and Partner Sean Sasser’s Commitment Ceremony Was Groundbreaking TV
During his time on the show, Zamora educated his housemates about AIDS, particularly Rachel Campos, who initially distanced herself from Zamora because of her nervousness about his condition and her discomfort with his homosexual lifestyle.
Also during his time on the show, Zamora met Sean Sasser and the two quickly fell for each other. Sasser proposed to Zamora and their commitment ceremony was the first same-sex commitment ceremony ever shown on TV. Sasser passed away in 2013 at the age of 44 after a short battle with a rare form of lung cancer.
After Zamora’s death, Sasser continued their work as an AIDS activist and educator. When he died, he and his partner Michael Kaplan had been living in Washington DC where Sasser was also working as a pastry chef.
5. Zamora Died the Day After His Final Real World Episode Aired
In an interview with the Miami Herald in 2009, Murray said that Zamora never let on how sick he really was because it was so important to him to get cast on the show and share his story with the world.
“We asked him how he’s doing [during the casting process]. He bluffed his way through the interview saying he’s very healthy,” Murray said. “I talked to him about the stress of doing a reality show. He said, `Jon, I’ve protested in front of the White House.'”
Zamora’s health went into rapid decline about midway through filming his Real World season, but he didn’t want to stop sharing his story — all parts of his story, even his declining health.
“He got sick much faster than he expected,” Murray said. “That’s when he made us promise to tell his story till the end.”
Zamora died on November 11, 1994, one day after the final third-season episode of The Real World aired. In a statement from the White House, President Clinton said at the time, “Pedro was particularly instrumental in reaching out to his own generation, where AIDS is striking hard. Through his work with MTV, he taught young people that ‘the real world’ includes AIDS and that each of us has the responsibility to protect ourselves and our loved ones.”
Gov. Lawton Chiles of Florida said in his own statement, “We will never know how many lives he saved as he struggled to deal with his own illness, but they will be his lasting contribution to all of us.”