Un programa de radio fortalece a las comunidades indígenas de México separadas por la migración
Jan 15th
Por Agencia EFE – hace 7 horas
Los Ángeles, 15 ene (EFE).- “La Hora Mixteca”, un programa dominical de la red de Radio Bilingüe de California, enlaza a la comunidad de la etnia mixteca, originaria de México, con los inmigrantes de esta colectividad en Estados Unidos.
“A través de la Hora Mixteca podemos difundir los problemas que tenemos, que nos afectan como inmigrantes y especialmente como indígenas”, dijo a Efe Filemón López, de 55 años, conductor del programa radiofónico.
“En aquellos tiempos cuando llegamos a California (1980) no había ni una radio que programara la música nuestra, no había ni un espacio donde pudiéramos hablar nuestra propia lengua”, recordó.
Fundado en 1994 como un programa de una hora en mixteca y español, “La Hora Mixteca” está diseñado exclusivamente para la etnia mixteca originaria de los estados mexicanos de Oaxaca, Puebla y Guerrero.
La “Hora Mixteca”, actualmente de cuatro horas, es transmitida de 10 de las mañana a 2 de la tarde (hora del Pacífico) todos los domingos desde los estudios de la radioemisora KSJV 91.5 FM, una de 6 filiales de la red de Radio Bilingüe, con base en Fresno, California.
Simultáneamente, la señal es repetida por dos emisoras comerciales en el estado de Washington, una en Oregón y otra en Santa María, California.
Además, el programa se transmite al mundo a través del portal en internet de Radio Bilingüe y por vía satélite es retransmitida en México por siete radioemisoras para “La Región Mixteca” y Baja California, donde también han emigrado miembros de la etnia.
Según datos del Censo, de 1990 hasta la fecha unos 160.000 miembros de la etnia mixteca han emigrado a EEUU para trabajar primordialmente en labores agrícolas en California.
En México se estima que son alrededor de 700.000 personas las que conforman la etnia mixteca.
Las cuatro horas del programa están divididas entre consejería de expertos en temas de salud, educación y migración, entre otros.
Hora y media es dedicada a intercambio de saludos al aire entre familiares y amigos que residen en ambos países. Y media hora de música regional conocida como canciones “chilenas”.
Juanita Gómez traduce del español a mixteco la consejería que diversos expertos brindan cada domingo desde la cabina de radio.
“A mí me gusta mucho participar con mi comunidad, estar activa, especialmente cuando sé que muchos de mis paisanos no saben hablar bien el español”, dijo a Efe Gómez.
“Eso me motivó a aceptar la invitación que me hizo Radio Bilingüe para participar, sobre todo, en ayudarle a mi comunidad porque hablo el mixteco y hablo el español”, explicó la locutora del programa.
El enlace de la comunidad mixteca entre los dos países es parte de un acuerdo entre la red de Radio Bilingüe con la Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de México.
Venancio Díaz, uno de los administradores del vivero Acemy, en Fresno, siente que cada domingo establece un contacto especial con su natal Oaxaca a través de “La Hora Mixteca”.
“Escuchamos ‘La Hora Mixteca’ porque se comunican nuestros paisanos que están acá con los que están allá”, explicó Díaz, de 53 años.
“Y nos gusta estar escuchando las conversaciones”, agregó el oaxaqueño que aunque no habla la lengua mixteca, le gusta sintonizar la radio porque no hay otra emisora que transmita “las chilenas”.
Solamente en el estado de Oaxaca se hablan 16 lenguas indígenas, entre las cuales el mixteco es una de los mayoritarias.
Radio Bilingüe además ofrece un espacio radiofónico para servir de la misma manera a los miembros de la etnia Triqui, de Oaxaca, quienes se encuentran diseminados en los valles de Salinas y Pájaro, California, en donde cada domingo a través de la radioemisora KHDC 90..9 FM escuchan en su idioma “La Hora Triqui”.
Centro de Informacion de
San Juan Mixtepec, Oaxaca.
“Todos Nacemos Iguales, solo la educación nos hace diferente”
La voz indígena de Estados Unidos – El Pais
Oct 6th
Un programa radiofónico de California transmite en mixteco y castellano
VERÓNICA CALDERÓN - Madrid – 10/06/2009
original link: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/voz/indigena/Estados/Unidos/elpepuint/20090610elpepuint_4/Tes
Hace ya casi tres decenios que Filemón López, de 52 años, llegó a Estados Unidos. Mexicano de origen mixteco, emprendió la búsqueda de un trabajo. En su periplo recorrió el sur del territorio estadounidense hasta establecerse en Fresno (California). Desde ahí conduce La hora mixteca, un programa radiofónico bilingüe en la lengua indígena y en castellano, que se transmite a una veintena de ciudades a los dos lados de la frontera. “La radio sirve para unir a las familias, para enlazar a México con Estados Unidos”, comenta en entrevista telefónica con EL PAÍS.
La transmisión une a los inmigrantes que han dejado su país con los familiares que les añoran en casa. A través de mensajes, los inmigrantes avisan de que han llegado a salvo al otro lado de la frontera o saludan a su madre en el día de su cumpleaños. “El programa sirve para que los paisanos avisen de que están bien. Hay familias que no saben de sus hijos en años o en décadas”, explica. El espacio también sirve para difundir la música folclórica de la región, las llamadas chilenas mixtecas. “Los inmigrantes buscan sus raíces, su música y su cultura para no sentirse lejos de casa”, comenta.
Los mixtecos son el mayor grupo indígena de origen latinoamericano en Estados Unidos. Sólo en California, viven unos 150.000, una cuarta parte del total de mixtecos que viven en México. La comunidad es originaria de Oaxaca (sur del país), uno de los Estados más pobres del país latinoamericano. “La discriminación contra nosotros viene tanto de mexicanos como de estadounidenses”, resalta López, quien es además fundador de la Asociación
Civil Benito Juárez, que protege los derechos de la comunidad indígena asentada en el territorio estadounidense. “La mayoría de los indígenas no conocen sus derechos. Trabajan en campos y son víctimas de abusos, la gente se aprovecha de ellos. A través de la organización, intentamos difundir las garantías legales con las que cuentan”, explica.
La hora mixteca se transmite los domingos a través de Radio Bilingüe, la mayor radiodifusora pública en castellano. A lo largo de cuatro horas, cuenta con enlaces en directo con los Estados de Baja California, Guerrero y Oaxaca. La señal es captada por una docena de emisoras y se transmite además por Internet a través del sitio web www.radiobilingue.org. “Hay pueblos donde no llega otra cosa que no sea la radio, ahí es un medio de comunicación muy importante”, subraya López, que participa en la emisión desde hace 12 años. La programación de Radio Bilingüe, además, ofrece programas culturales y educativos para los inmigrantes. Desde recorridos por la música folclórica de Latinoamérica, hasta programas dirigidos a un público joven donde se les advierte de problemas sociales como la violencia de las pandillas.
López explica que la popularidad de su programa responde a la necesidad por mantener un vínculo con las raíces, indemne a la influencia anglosajona. “Uno puede adaptarse a vivir en otro sitio, pero no puede dejar atrás su identidad. Soy el primer mixteco en conducir un programa de radio”, afirma en un castellano que no delata el menor acento chicano. Su voz se ha convertido en una de las más reconocidas para los inmigrantes de su comunidad. López afirma que la satisfacción es compartida. “Es una reivindicación de nuestra identidad. En cada programa es como si nos reuniéramos en torno al quiosco del pueblo”.
Voice That Sounds Like Home Welcomes Mexico’s Outsiders – The New York Times
Jun 8th
LINK to Original story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/us/09mixtec.html?_r=1
Monica Almeida/The New York Times
Filemón López, left, with his co-host, Juan Santiago, of “La Hora Mixteca,” a bilingual radio show popular with Mixtec Indians from Mexico’s Oaxaca State.
Published: June 8, 2009
FRESNO, Calif. — The voice trembled with anguish.
The show mixes advice, music and messages from family members.
“Please,” Esmeralda Santiago pleaded, calling into a radio show here aimed at the poorest of Mexico’s emigrants, indigenous people from the southern state of Oaxaca. “This is for Sylvia Santiago. Please, if you can hear us, call. Our mother is worried because we have not talked with you in a while.”
Filemón López, the host of the show, listened and nodded. He had heard such heartache before. The woman spoke first in Spanish and then repeated her plea — breaking down in sobs — in Triqui, one of Oaxaca’s indigenous languages.
“When there is no communication,” Mr. López, himself a legal immigrant who once worked the fields, said in a break, “it causes such sadness.”
On this recent Sunday, there were certainly happier moments on “La Hora Mixteca” (The Mixtec Hour), Mr. López’s show, which is aimed primarily at Mixtec (pronounced MEESE-teck) Indians but draws listeners from other groups in the United States and, via satellite link, in Oaxaca, too.
Soledad Martinez of Fresno wished her mother, sister, brother, cousin — the list went on — a happy day down in Oaxaca. José Ramos of Clovis, Calif., called to invite people to a ballgame in that small farming town. Cesar Cipriano requested a particular corrido, a kind of Mexican ballad.
They all turned to Mr. López, who, through the show, serves as an ambassador of sorts, in good times and bad, to a community that keeps its distance from the mainstream.
The Mixtecs — there are an estimated 150,000 of them in California — occupy the lowest rungs on the Latino immigrant pecking order, mocked for their rural ways, their heavily accented Spanish or inability to speak it, and their low level of education. They snare the most back-breaking jobs here in the agriculture-rich Central Valley — picking fruit and vegetables — and often have difficulty moving up.
They face exploitation and discrimination in housing and employment, and are wary of strangers, a legacy, scholars say, of the relative isolation of their villages in Mexico and history of abuse by outsiders there.
Even in an age of cellphones and online social networks, Mr. López’s radio show has endured since its first broadcast in 1995, picking up its 12th station in the United States a few months ago, in Santa Barbara County. The show is broadcast from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday on Radio Bilingüe, the only Spanish-language public radio network in the United States, and also streams on the Internet.
“ ‘La Hora Mixteca’ is very important,” said Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, a Mixtec who is project director at the Center for Labor Research and Education at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“It is like a replica of the talk shows in Oaxaca where you have a charismatic D.J. who combines a strong personality with lectures on culture and who we are,” Mr. Rivera-Salgado added. “This is really old-fashioned radio that has the special effect of making people feel they are part of this close-knit community and speaking in their language.”
With so few shows of any kind in Mexico’s indigenous languages, Mr. López makes his an eclectic mix of education and entertainment.
Amid the greetings on a recent show, Mr. López played music from his 20 storage cases of CDs, the fruits of a lifetime of collecting; interviewed health care workers about the importance of good child development; paid homage to an Indian activist killed a few years ago in Mexico; and dished out practical advice — all while swinging effortlessly between Spanish and Mixteco.
“Drink a lot of water — the temperature is rising fast out there,” Juan Santiago, his engineer and de facto co-host, who is a Zapotec, said on a recent morning as the mercury edged past 100 degrees.
“Yes, you have to be careful, men,” Mr. López added, and then, in Mixteco, reminded his listeners about the dangers of heat stroke, a particular concern for indigenous workers who dominate field jobs.
The Oaxacan Indians, mistrustful of doctors, rely heavily on home remedies and refrain from seeking treatment of serious illness or injury.
That problem has led Mr. López to spearhead a project in which Oaxacan doctors give medical advice in Mixteco by videoconference to immigrants at clinics in the Central Valley. The Oaxacan government is collaborating on the project, and the Center for Reducing Health Disparities at the University of California, Davis, Health System is the lead organizer.
“We consider this population to have among the least access to care in California,” said Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, the center’s director. “People are not aware of services, where to receive services. Transportation is an issue. When services are available, they are not culturally or linguistically appropriate for them.”
Mr. López knows well the immigrant experience, arriving in the United States from Oaxaca almost 30 years ago to pick oranges in Florida, cotton in Arizona and finally grapes in California.
He eventually moved on to factory work and became a legal resident under the amnesty provision of the 1986 immigration bill. With other Mixtecs, he formed a grass-roots group to advocate for his compatriots, leading to volunteer work for Radio Bilingüe, then a job there and eventually the position as host of “La Hora Mixteca.”
While his voice and name are familiar to many Mixtecs, Mr. López goes unrecognized around the farming hamlets near his home — until he speaks.
Stopping at a shopping center one recent morning, he met Raquel Rosales, 28, who was selling CDs. She said she appreciated the touch of home his show delivers.
“I speak Spanish,” Ms. Rosales said, “but I prefer to listen in Mixteco and hear the music from back home. This is the only way I can hear the news.”
Mr. López handed her a card. “Call if you want to send a greeting home,” he said, as she eagerly accepted it.
“That is what I can do,” he said, getting back in his truck. “I may not have work for them, but I can offer a bridge home.”
Good morning Mexico. How one pioneering bilingual public radio network in Fresno is linking families and friends on both sides of the border.
Feb 16th
February 16, 2006|By Monica Campbell, Chronicle Foreign Service
Original link: http://articles.sfgate.com/2006-02-16/entertainment/17281186_1_public-radio-radio-network-radio-station/4
(02-16) 04:00 PST Tlaxiaco Mexico — 2006-02-16 04:00:00 PST Tlaxiaco Mexico — Every Sunday afternoon Eva Hernández settles into the small booth at the radio station in this town in Oaxaca’s northern highlands. She tidies the stack of notes from listeners that have piled up during the week and leans into the mike: “Alfonso Alavez Barrios in Washington wants Adrian Nicolas Feria in Chalcatongo to know that he’s OK.” Next: “Roberto León López from Tlaxiaco wants his brother Juan Victoriano in the States to call him from wherever he is.”
Catching her breath Hernández 25 reads several more missives at rapid fire some in Spanish others in Mixteco the indigenous language of many Oaxacans. “There are so many messages” she says during a musical request. “We could do this all day.”
To understand what’s behind Hernández’s workload look through the booth’s window and check out the satellite dish that looms over the one-story radio station. Hoisted a year ago the dish is part of an experiment spearheaded by Radio Bilingüe in Fresno the only Latino public radio network in the United States. Its goal is to link to Mexican public radio stations such as Hernández’s XETLA in Tlaxiaco and connect families and friends split by immigration.
“Here in the Central Valley we have migrants who come from the most remote parts of Mexico places where radio is the medium” says Radio Bilingüe’s director Hugo Morales a Harvard-educated Mixtec and recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award public radio’s highest honor. “We’re using the latest technology to try to help people swap news and advice across a political border.”
In 1980 Morales and a coterie of former child laborers either in the California fields or Los Angeles factories put Radio Bilingüe on the air. (To hear Radio Bilingüe’s programming on the Web go to www.radiobilingue.org.)”We were angry frankly about the nonexistence that continues today of Latin programming in mainstream television and radio” Morales has said. “Spanish-language commercial radio and television were disconnected from the needs of our community.” Today Radio Bilingüe delivers nonstop programming in English Spanish Mixteco and Hmong with 64 affiliates spanning the United States from Hawaii to Puerto Rico plus Canada.
Given the Mixtec roots of Radio Bilingüe staff it’s not surprising that “La Hora Mixteca” (“The Mixtec Hour”) the network’s popular Spanish-Mixteco talk and music show was picked for the first binational satellite-based radio test.
For years “La Hora Mixteca” which airs Sundays from 10:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. has focused on Mixtecs the Mexican indigenous group with the highest number of migrants. They hail from the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca Guerrero and Puebla and have worked California farms for years. But they have also headed to other parts of the United States. About 100000 Mixtecs live in the United States said Morales while the Mixtec population in Mexico is expected to total some 726000 according to Mexico’s National Institute for Indigenous Peoples.
It is estimated that “La Hora Mixteca” reaches about 60000 Mixtecs in California through Radio Bilingüe’s five full-power FM stations in the Central Valley region. It’s trickier to gauge how many people tune into “La Hora Mixteca” through Radio Bilingüe’s affiliates outside of California or via the seven southern Mexican public radio stations that collaborate with the show.
“It’s hard to know who’s listening” says Filemón López a burly Mixtec and former grape picker who runs the U.S. portion of “La Hora Mixteca” from his cramped booth in Fresno. “We get calls from all over from Santa Rosa to Wyoming and Florida. But the radio puts us all in the same room. It feels like sitting in a plaza back home.”
Radio Bilingüe envisions similar cross-border shows broadcast in other native Mexican languages including Zapotec Triqui (mostly spoken in Oaxaca) and Purépecha (concentrated in the central state of Michoacán).
“It goes beyond connecting families” Morales said. “It’s about preserving our culture something corporate radio won’t address.” He is determined to give space to indigenous Mexicans who often face discrimination both in Mexico and the United States for their darker skin color and the fact that some don’t speak Spanish.
A visit to Radio Bilingüe’s headquarters suggests that expansion will be slow. A skeleton crew works from a nondescript building on Fresno’s east side. Like most public stations it depends on volunteers and foundation money including a Rockefeller Foundation grant (which funded the satellite in Mexico). But endowments cannot be guaranteed. “It’s tight here” Morales says of the station’s finances. “Only lately have we been able to put more resources into technology.”
Indeed a lot is packed into three hours. A recent show included a Spanish-language news broadcast a lengthy segment on tax tips for migrants and a swarm of messages and song dedications from Mexicans on both sides of the border. Part of “La Hora Mixteca’s” popularity is owed to López himself a longtime community activist who demonstrated for farmworkers’ rights. Also important is his vast folk music collection — and a solid grasp of what makes some Mexicans especially Oaxacans cut the rug.
“Here in the Central Valley it’s all about the chilena” says López referring to a music genre popular in rural Mexico but rarely heard on California’s commercial Latino stations. It’s boppy and mixes violin guitar and harp. Christian Herrera a young listener in Bakersfield called in recently to “say hello to my paisanos in Oaxaca.” He then asked López to play a chilena “whichever one you got.”
In rural Mexico where telephones and even electricity can be scarce radio stations can be a vital link to the outside world. Hernández who runs XETLA’s “La Hora Mixteca” broadcast says the demand for cross-border programming is growing. “People here seek out anything that connects them with their relatives” she says. “I’ve been asked if we could broadcast entire town fiestas to folks up north. Great idea.”
For now Hernández and her colleagues many of whom run similar migrant-oriented programs are flooded with messages from listeners eager to pass greetings to relatives.
“A lot of the messages are typical ‘Hi Moms!’ or ‘Son please call home’ stuff like that” Hernández says. At times though news from relatives can be urgent. “People call in saying that their dad is sick and needs money right away” she says. “It’s not always easy to get ahold of somebody right away when they’re up north they might not have a phone or address. Sometimes radio is the fastest vehicle.”
Hernández who finished high school a formal education many in Oaxaca lack fell into radio but now cannot imagine doing anything else. She believes in the value of keeping up communication between the United States and Mexico especially as the U.S.-Mexico border hardens and keeps undocumented immigrants from visiting home.
On a recent Sunday in Magdalena Peñasco a tiny Mixtec village nestled in an arid deforested valley outside of Tlaxiaco Justina Mendoza asked if any of her co-workers at the farmers’ market had XETLA’s toll-free phone number. “Isn’t that Mixtec show on today?” she wondered aloud. “I want to say hi to my cousins in North Carolina.” Mendoza couldn’t be certain that her relatives would be tuned in to “La Hora Mixteca” when she called but she didn’t mind. “Half of this town is working in the States and I know that plenty are in the Carolinas” Mendoza said. “My cousins will get my saludo.”
On the other side of the market beyond a line of women weaving hats from palm is Brigida Cruz an elderly Mixtec who sells produce. Her 10-year-old grandson Hermundo lives in Hawaii. “I haven’t heard from him since he left” she said. “I doubt he’ll ever call in.” But Cruz listens to the radio station anyway. “It’s comforting to hear how others are doing. Maybe if somebody else’s relatives are doing OK so are yours.”
