“Pedro” draws in a crowd

More than 100 people attended the South Florida premiere of a movie based on the life of the late Pedro Zamora, a cast member of MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco, held at University Park on March 13.

By Martin Haro and Sissi Aguila

It was not long after Miami native Pedro Zamora first appeared on our TV screens back in the early 1990s, as an iconic cast member of MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco, that audiences fell in love with him. As television’s first openly gay, HIV-positive main character, Zamora was refreshingly, well…real about his life.

Following the show’s season finale, Zamora died at age 22, leaving behind an enduring legacy promoting the awareness and prevention of HIV/AIDS, especially among young people, that was praised by his cast members, his fans and community leaders including President Bill Clinton.

Pedro is the MTV-co-produced movie based on Zamora’s remarkable life. It was written by recent Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black (Milk) and will premiere on April 1. It was shown at FIU – the only university in the country chosen to screen the movie – on March 13, during a screening and Q&A session that drew more than 100 students, faculty/staff and friends of the university.

“We wanted to bring this movie to FIU because of its large Latino enrollment, which is the largest in the country,” said Reynaldo Casas, MTV Tr3’s manager for public affairs. “HIV/AIDS is an issue in that community, and Pedro really is a beautiful movie that raises awareness about this issue.”

Among the audience members at the screening held at University Park was Golden Panther Caro Perez, an accounting sophomore.

“I’m a fan of MTV and this is a good cause to be involved with,” she said. “So me and my friend decided to stop by and watch the movie.”

To watch the trailer of Pedro, which co-stars FIU alumna Karolin Luna, click here.