In the mid-1990s, reports of young Cubans who were deliberately contracting HIV began to emerge in the US media. Although they received considerable attention outside the island, these stories were rarely discussed by the Castro regime, which disqualified them as the result of foreign fads and the immaturity of those affected. This article examines the responses to the aforementioned cases of intentional contagion in Cuban literature and film, both in the island and the exile. I argue that these cultural productions have explored, challenged, and given new meaning to the web of discourses on HIV/AIDS that circulated during the 1990s. I focus my attention on the novel Cólera de ángeles (1996) by Zoé Valdés, and short stories from the collections No

dejes escapar la ira (2001) by Miguel Ángel Fraga, and Toda esa gente solitaria: 18 cuentos cubanos sobre el sida (1997), as well as the films Azúcar amarga (Bitter Sugar, 1996), directed

by León Ichaso, and Boleto al paraíso (2010) by Gerardo Chijona.