Inhabiting silence: affective archive and memory of HIV in Silencio (2025), by Eduardo Casanova

Abstract

This text analyzes the miniseries Silencio (2025), created and directed by Eduardo Casanova, as an audiovisual work that problematizes the cultural memory of HIV/AIDS from an affective and queer perspective. Through an aesthetic that combines vampirism, dark humor and social critique, the series reflects on the persistent stigma surrounding people living with HIV today. The article proposes reading Silencio as an “affective archive” in the sense proposed by Cvetkovich (2018), that is, as a cultural device capable of preserving and reconfiguring emotions linked to the history of the epidemic. Through the analysis of its audiovisual narrative, the text examines how the relationship between the protagonists Malva and Triana shifts the representation of HIV from a strictly biomedical framework toward a field of affect, memory and queer desire. It also explores how the series establishes a dialogue between different historical temporalities—from the Black Death to the AIDS crisis in 1980s Spain—in order to reflect on the persistence of social silences surrounding stigmatized diseases. Finally, the article argues that Silencio functions as a form of cultural pedagogy that contributes to rethinking contemporary narratives about HIV in audiovisual culture, while also leaving open tensions regarding the representation of seropositive experience, care practices, and contemporary forms of visibility.