Making Waves

Stories of Participatory Communication

for Social Change

RADIO MARGARITAS

1987 Mexico

BASIC FACTS

TITLE: Radio Margaritas La Voz de la Frontera Sur

COUNTRY: Mexico

FOCUS: Community development

PLACE: Las Margaritas, Chiapas

BENEFICIARIES: Tojolabal, Tzeltal, Tzotzil andMam communities

FUNDING: INI

MEDIA: Radio

SNAPSHOT

Dear announcers of the well-liked XEPUR (Cherán, Michoacán): we send you this letter from the city of the big buildings that is New York. If you can be so kind with we the absents, we work in a Japanese restaurant and we don't forget the radio station's Cultivando Amigos [XEPUR's write-in programme]. We are from here, from Cherán, and well we wanted to see if you can please us with a pretty pirecua [Purépecha song] of the band San Francisco. We Jorge and Héctor are neighbours of the station. Well, we hope you can dedicate this song to the following people. . . .

The letter continues with a list of 22 names, starting with the sender's wife and children. Dedicating a song over the radio, a communication practice that might be trivial in other settings, acquires a novel significance in this context.

La Voz de los Purépechas (XEPUR in Cherán Michoacán) is part of the INI network of radio stations serving no less than twenty ethnic groups, along with La Voz de la Montaña (XEVZ in Tlapa, Guerrero), La Voz de la Mixteca (XETLA in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca), La Voz de la Sierra Tarahumara (XETAR in Guachochi, Chihuaha), La Voz de los Mayas (XEPET in Peto, Yucatán), La Voz de la Sierra Juárez (XEGLO in Guelatao, Oaxaca), La Voz de los Cuatro Pueblos (XEJMN in Jesús María, Nayarit), La Voz de los Tres Rios (XEETCH in Etchojoa, Sonora), La Voz del Corazón de la Selva (XEXPUJ in Xoujil, Campeche), La Voz de los Vientos (XECOPA in Copainala, Chiapas) La Voz de la Frontera Sur (XEVFS in Las Margaritas, Chiapas) and a handful more.

This chapter focuses on Radio Margaritas (La Voz de la Frontera Sur, XEVFS), but it relates to the entire INI network of rural radio stations; which constitutes an interesting experience of decentralised communication, locally adapted to the needs of the indigenous population. This is one of the rare projects where a government institution promotes and funds permanent structures of participatory media. The INI network of stations is not the only one serving the indigenous population. There are also other independent FM stations at San Antonio Soctzil, Chemax, Yaxcopoil and Samahil, in the area of Yucatan, managed by a Mayan organisation La Voz de los Mayas. We won't deal with them in this chapter.

DESCRIPTION

Radio Margaritas (XEVFS) is located in Las Margaritas, Chiapas (southern México), a city that was seized by the Zapatista rebel army on January 1, 1994. This radio station is one of twenty AM stations created by the INI serving various indigenous communities across Mexico. Radio Margaritas has a transmitter of 40 watts and airs at the 13 frequency, covering an area of 20,000 square kilometres. Though it reaches as many as nine different ethnic groups, programming is done in the languages of Tojolabal, Tzeltal, Tzotzil and Mam. The station is equipped with a post production room, a recording studio, and the broadcasting studio where programmes are aired.

Programming includes nine categories: [1]music, [2]messages from the audience, [3]programmes on tradition, [4]newscasts, [5]programmes on development, [6]programmes for special segments of the audience, [7]programmes on government institutions and Mexican law, [8]vernacular language classes and language workshops, and [9]programmes produced by members of the audience.

At Radio Margaritas the slots on health, agriculture, law, women, etc. are scheduled daily at dawn (30 minutes) and spread out during the afternoon (for a total of 6 minutes). Most of the rest is traditional, Mexican, Latin American and marimba music as many as 95 songs per day. Community announcements are interspersed in between, which makes the music programmes among the most popular; Radio Margaritas programme Aquí les mando mi saludo receives about 3 letters per day. Unfortunately, newscasts are poor and irrelevant to the indigenous communities.

One of the most interesting features of INI network stations are the programmes produced with support from the station, but by members of the audience such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Audience participation in the programming has probably strengthened the bonds among Tojolabal villages. The broadcasting of saludos (greetings), regardless of the low informational value, indirectly furthers intervillage information flow by keeping open the channels of social networks.

XEVFS receives an average of 2 visitors per week, 130 speak the vernacular, the rest speak Spanish. And, of those speaking the vernacular, only 1 percent are women. Contrary to other INI network stations that double as phone booths and post offices, the audience of Radio Margaritas doesn't use the station for these purposes.

The Tojolabal Maya are the main audience of Radio Margaritas They are among the most dispossessed people in Mexico. Other than their few material resources, they live with scarce knowledge about their history, their culture, and their current socio-economic conditions. Radio receivers have been a popular consumer good among Tojolabals for at least two decades. The oldest, commercial station in the area is Radio Comitán, which has broadcast since 1963 only in Spanish and is considered the station of the rich (the ladinos, as opposed to Margaritas, the station of the poor (Tojolabal). Evangelical radio stations have been transmitting from Central America since the fifties.

Rather than introducing a new communication technology, Radio Margaritas impact has more to do with the station's format, its emphasis on traditional cultural forms, and its potential for new social uses. Under the influence of Protestant sects many Tojolabals choose not to speak their own language, prefer not to dress in their traditional costume, and are determined not to participate in traditional festivities. Radio Margaritas was established in the region with the specific purpose of counteracting the influence of such modernising forces.

BACKGROUND & CONTEXT

The INI was created in 1948 by the federal government to address the problems of indigenous people. The radio network is one of the numerous projects that this agency has sponsored. In the early 1990s it had 8 AM stations with an estimated audience of three million from more than twenty indigenous groups. With transmitters ranging from 500 to 10,000 watts, the area covered by these stations is as large as 30,000 square kilometres. In 1989 the average annual operating budget of an INI station was less than US$38,000.

The first station was established in Tlapa, Guerrero. By the year 2000, about twenty are functional. The stations combine Spanish and vernacular languages in their programming, which includes local ethnic music, news programmes, two or three hours daily of personal messages and institutional announcements, series on health, agricultural practices, etc.

The Zapatista movement brought extreme changes in the relationship between the State and the indigenous peoples Mexico acknowledged that it is a multiethnic and multicultural country, where inequalities affecting the indigenous population have historical and structural bases. As a result of changing policies, the INI is currently encouraging a gradual process of transferring the network stations to indigenous communities.

ASPECTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE

Radio Margaritas has had a tremendous impact on the local flow of information. The author Lucila Vargas suggests that the station, "through its broadcasting in Tojolabal, may have had a democratising effect, especially for women, on the local community practices".

The broadcasting of avisos (announcements) in different vernaculars free-of-charge is probably the major immediate contribution by the INI stations to indigenous populations. This service has enabled villagers to expand and facilitate information flow in their social networks. Linked to the avisos service is the fact that the telecommunications infrastructure furnished by the stations can and has been used in relief efforts for natural disasters.

The efforts of Radio Margaritas to improve the living conditions of the Tojolabal range from the global endeavour to bolster the group's self-esteem to the individual programmes specifically aimed at remedying health and agricultural problems.

Radio Margaritas is perceived as the station of the poor and Radio Comitán is seen as the radio of the rich. The station has helped to enhance and speed up interpersonal communication among villagers. It has also facilitated the spread of information from government agencies and indigenous organisations to the local level.

To the question What do you use the radio for? many villagers responded simply: We use the radio for not walking. Before we couldn't find out what was going on in other villages, for example if there were problems or they were celebrating festivals, we didn't find out because we had no radio....says a villager from Madero.

An audience study by Inés Cornejo Portugal and Silvia Luna(1991) which included a similar question, obtained the following results: out of 56 interviewees, 22 said the station provided companionship and distraction, 15 pointed out that XEVFS constitutes a feasible medium for fulfilling their telecommunication needs by allowing the audience to send messages, 13 claimed it helps them to find out about what goes on in other villages, and 2 indicated it offers a service to them by telling the time.

MEDIA & METHODS

Most of the programming of Radio Margaritas as of the other INI network stations is produced locally. The only programmes that have been regularly furnished to the stations are soap operas produced by the federal government's Radio Educación and news furnished by Notimex, the Mexican news agency.

Every station of the INI network has its own policy regarding multilingual broadcasting. At least half of the transmissions are done in vernacular languages, although often this percentage may include songs in Spanish. Also, announcers easily switch between Spanish and a vernacular when doing their work.

The INI network stations regularly produce a newscast with three segments (international, national and local); the news content varies greatly from station to station. The best newscast produced by the INI stations combine three elements: they rely on local reporting, they are the responsibility of a single producer, and they are not produced every day, leaving free time for the producer to do in-depth reporting at the community level.

CONSTRAINTS

A major drawback is the poor compensation given to the mestizo and indigenous staff. The best positions are occupied by ladinos including the station manager invariably a ladino. In her study, Lucila Vargas showed the existing racist ideology at work and the discrimination from ladinos towards the Maya.

The question of status among Radio Margaritas staff is also a problem. Only the General Manager of the station has visibility and is prominent, only his name is mentioned in XEVFS' broadcasts. Visits of Radio Margaritas staffers to communities are not frequent; interviews with members of the indigenous population are mostly done at the station with the few visitors that can afford the cost of the trip from their community.

Nothing is more poorly done at Radio Margaritas than newscasts; sadly, the station relies only on newspapers for its news. Multilingual broadcasting requires careful programme planning which depends on the availability of human resources. One of the few reasons why listeners turn the radio off or switch to another station, is when broadcasting in a vernacular language certain listeners are unable to understand.

XEVFS' selection of music constitutes a form of censorship, on the basis of aesthetic judgments made mostly by the ladino members of the staff.

One of the few open criticisms of Radio Margaritas by the Tojolabal audience refers to the station's failure to discuss the present oppression of the Tojolabal and to situate this oppression in its historical context.

REFERENCES

This chapter is entirely based on the book Social Uses and Radio Practices: The Use of Participatory Radio by Ethnic Minorities in Mexico by Lucila Vargas. Westview Press, 1995, and e-mail exchanges with the author.

Additional information provided through e-mail by Inés Cornejo Portugal.

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