Thread: Good morning, Mexico.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... H8H0J1.DTL

Good morning, Mexico. How one pioneering bilingual public radio network in Fresno is linking families and friends on both sides of the border.
Monica Campbell, Chronicle Foreign Service

Thursday, February 16, 2006

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 100,000 Mixtecs live in the United States, said Morales, while the Mixtec population in Mexico is expected to total some 726,000, according to Mexico's National Institute for Indigenous Peoples.

It is estimated that "La Hora Mixteca" reaches about 60,000 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."

"About 100,000 Mixtecs live in the United States, said Morales, while the Mixtec population in Mexico is expected to total some 726,000, according to Mexico's National Institute for Indigenous Peoples....60,000 Mixtecs in California"

That's 14% of their ENTIRE population!

"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."

Just what I wanted to hear.

Why is it, the foreigners try so hard to maintain their culture, but we, as Americans, are not allowed to....they want to maintain their culture in our country, not theirs!
Then they have the nerve to say we are racists!

Originally Posted by moosetracks

Why is it, the foreigners try so hard to maintain their culture, but we, as Americans, are not allowed to....they want to maintain their culture in our country, not theirs!
Then they have the nerve to say we are racists!

AMEN