Daily News from New York, New York • 1074

si YIN Now up close 1 MARISOL THAT PUBLIC HEALTH The Tracks Of Their Tears Julio, Marisol and Rosa a big drawing card in subway soap opera By KAREN AVENOSO Daily News Staff Writer "Melrose Tired of charting Taster's Choice ads? Two sexually frustrated Latino lovebirds make good smoking room gossip, "La Decision," the saga of Julio and Marisol, is a media romance for modern times. To date, New Yorkers have seen the dark-haired duo smooching, spatting and slamming doors. We've watched them reconcile at a dying friend's hospital bedside. Then Julio's sexy old squeeze showed up and the feuding began again. Four years since the couple's steamy first episode, they still haven't gotten back to the bedroom.

Meanwhile, millions of Spanish and English-speaking subway-riders have been educated about condoms and AIDS. "It's definitely been our most successful public health campaign," says Ann Sternberg, a one-time TV documentary producer and the New York eary of the weekly buzz about I LOVE YOU, JULIO, BUT IF YOU LOVE ME TOO, USE THIS. 1900 hit fionion RADAM 200810 RADAM JULIO FELT COULDN'T SO BELIEVE INSULTED. That bleak image was posed to be the end of "La Decision." But after the TV ads were aired, Sternberg wondered, "What sort of message was being promoted?" Far from enjoying safer sex, Raoul had died, Marisol was weeping and Julio was sulking on the streets. So, in a dreary, windowless, downtown office, Sternberg and six colleagues started convening for story meetings.

Every few months, the group which also includes the former creative director of several major advertising agencies gathers to talk plot points, new settings and potential cliffhangers. Language, which is geared to a fourth-grade reading level, gets a reality check from Latino co-workers. Then, an outside illustrator and art director take over. By now, the "La Decision" characters are as well-developed as Luke and Laura (of "General Hospital" fame). Julio, Sternberg says, is "a little vague, macho, a young man on the move." Marisol, she describes as "a modern Latina who works and lives alone, a sensitive, bright and sentimental woman." As for Rosa, she's no trampy Tina from "One Life to Live." "She is not a tart, not a bad girl," Sternberg insists.

"She just dresses a little flashier than Marisol, partly to distinguish them." Audience members, however, may have other visions. After Episode II, when the city requested plot suggestions from subway-riders, hundreds of letters (in both English and Spanish) came in. Most of the straphangers' stories had romantic conclusions condoms, sunsets and newborns. But some of the less conventional ideas included Julio revealing that he is "into bondage and Jell0" and Marisol falling in love with her doctor, who turns out to be bisexual and HIV-positive. One reader suggested that Marisol elope with a DECISION AS TIE KED a LOVE PASSION COME VOUS FOR DON MAOISTS COLONY ZELEN.

FORT R630 PELT 30 CUFAR ANCE GLAMI South American dictator, then return to the U.S. where her designer poodle gets groomed by none other than Julio. By all counts, "La Decision" has been an artistic and educational success. ESL classes use the strip to teach Eng- City health department official who coordinates the unusual, bilingual comic strip, now posted in 8,000 MTA cars. "We're very proud of the fact that so many of the cartoons get stolen." Launched in 1989 with a $60,000 grant from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and created by Connill Advertising, "La Decision" began as two stylish, 30-second black and white TV commercials, targeted to Latino audiences.

The first PSA followed the same plot as the premiere subway ad Julio refusing to use a condom and Marisol crying, "I love you but not enough to die for you!" Macho and mortal In the lesser known spot, which never made it into cartoon form, a sculpted hunk named Raoul wriggles, struts and shares his needles. The sequence ends with our hero splayed on a coroner's table as an ominous voiceover plays: "Everybody said Raoul had something special. The autopsy said he had I LOVE YOU, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO DIE FOR YOU! Cooper Hewitt Museum has added it to their permanent collection and Generation X-ers consider it campy pop culture. Recently, the cartoon won a public service award from the Latino Coalition for Print Media. It has generated interest from health officials in Brazil, India, England and Australia and has been the subject of several academic papers.

A thought-provoker Sternberg says she's delighted by all the accolades. Still, one reader's rethrilled her even more. "My fasponse vorite response was a letter that said, 'Thank you for putting me to It's what we had dreamed of." Subway riders awaiting further diversion from torn-earlobe ads will have to wait several months to read Episode Nine. According to Sternberg, upcoming strips will introduce new characters, develop the stories of minor ones and bring attention to other public health concerns, such as domestic violence, STDs and TB. Already, Sternberg's eyes flash with plot possibilities, keeping "La Decision" fans guessing.

Will Julio, in a rage, strike Marisol? How will Julio's kid brother, Luisito, stop playground children from eating lead-filled paint? Will Rosa develop a dangerous flesheating disease? Tune in, underground, and see. or bayload ent alert a lo tuo beppso uove: A a inGRA.