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The Radio JournalInternational Studies inBroadcast and Audio MediaVolume 3 Number 3 – 2005

The Journal is published in association with the Radio Studies Network,the UK’s new association for researchers and teachers of sound broad-casting, and is an academic, peer-reviewed publication for all those inter-ested in research into the production, reception, texts and contexts ofradio and audio media; including all structures, forms and genres of radiobroadcasting, while also embracing net distribution and audio streamingof radio services and texts, CD-ROMs, books-on-tape, and sound art.

The Journal welcomes individual contributions from establishedand new scholars around the world, including work and research inprogress. Critical approaches are invited from a range of scholarly disci-plines across the humanities and social sciences. Joint and/or inter-dis-ciplinary submissions are also encouraged. Original work on practiceand production in the radio industries is as welcome as theory forma-tion. Pedagogical issues will be covered in an annual feature on theteaching of radio studies.

Editorial BoardCarin Åberg Caricomm Konsult (Internet Agency)Andrew Crisell University of SunderlandDavid Goodman University of MelbourneMichele Hilmes University of Wisconsin-MadisonPer Jauert University of AarhusKate Lacey University of SussexPeter M. Lewis LSE (Associate Editor)Enrico Menduni University of SienaCaroline Mitchell University of SunderlandGail Phillips Murdoch UniversityEric Rothenbuhler Texas A&M UniversitySeán Street Bournemouth University

International Advisory BoardAggrey Brown University of the West IndiesManuel Chaparro Escudero University of MalagaJean-Jacques Cheval Université Michel de Montaigne – Bordeaux 3Hugh Chignell Bournemouth UniversityDavid Hendy University of WestminsterStanislaw Jedrzejewski Lublin University and Polish Radio SAMichael C. Keith Boston CollegeJason Loviglio University of MarylandPaul Moore University of UlsterPaddy Scannell University of WestminsterJo Tacchi Queensland University of TechnologyTim Wall University of Central England

EditorKen GarnerDivision of Media, Culture, and Leisure

ManagementGlasgow Caledonian UniversityCowcaddens RoadGlasgowG4 0BA UKTel: +44 (0)141 331 3258Email: [email protected]

Associate EditorPeter M. LewisResearch FellowDept. of Media and CommunicationsLondon School of Economics and

Political ScienceHoughton Street, AldwychLondonWC2A 2AE UKTel/Fax: +44 (0)207 911 0763Email: [email protected]

Reviews EditorHugh ChignellBournemouth Media SchoolBournemouth UniversityPooleBH12 5BB UKTel: +44 (0)1202 595763Email: [email protected]

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The Radio Journal – International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media, Volume 3 Number 3. © Intellect Ltd 2005.

Editorial. English language. doi: 10.1386/rajo.3.3.143/2.

Editorial NotePeter M. Lewis

This third issue of the Radio Journal’s Volume 3 concludes a volume espe-cially devoted to community radio, radio in development and radio forsocial purposes. We have published articles about radio’s use in Mali,Mozambique and Madagascar (issue no. 1), in Turkey, Zimbabwe andKenya (issue no. 2), and here we feature Mexico, Australia and, in anunusual account, radio for mental patients in Argentina and Italy. As inthe previous two issues, also included is a topic not connected to the maintheme, in this case: radio documentaries and radio features.

All these last four articles were presented as papers at the MelbourneRadio Conference 2005, the latest in a sequence of international radiomeetings which has added to and enriched the body of work on topicsrelating to the medium. Versions of many of the Melbourne papers (andVirginia Madsen’s article here was one) have been put online and can befound at: http://search.informit.com.au/browsePublication;isbn=1921166126;res�E-LIBRARY.

The response to our call for articles on this volume’s theme was grati-fyingly large and some continuation of the topic will be found in the fol-lowing volume, albeit not as a major theme. What has emerged from thecontributions in this volume is the need for a less prescriptive definition ofcommunity radio. In different contexts in the developing world, radiopractices and sources of funding that might in the North/West be labelledas ‘commercial’ or ‘state-sponsored’ and therefore be excluded from the‘community’ category, in fact contribute valuable support for develop-ment. Ramos Rodríguez’s article on radio’s service to indigenous commu-nities in Mexico, offering strategies for cultural reproduction and survival,is an example of this. And ‘Crazy radio’, described and analysed in TizianoBonini’s article, claims the ‘community’ label for its therapeutic reintro-duction of patients into the community ‘outside’ and its encouragementfor those outside to reconsider, and perhaps revoke, their stigmatization ofthe community inside.

The article by Michael Meadows and his colleagues reports an impor-tant body of research that has developed techniques of evaluation of com-munity radio and the investigation of its audience further than anywhereelse. Recent work on the Dutch audience for community radio has yet tobe reported in English, while the evaluation of the new British communityradio sector is still awaited.

The last article in this issue, Virginia Madsen’s ‘Radio and the documen-tary imagination’ is a historical survey with an international perspective of

143RJ–RSBAM 3 (3) 143–144. © Intellect Ltd 2005

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that uniquely radiophonic genre, the radio feature, aka the radio docu-mentary. It extends the ground covered by a book maddeningly long out ofprint, Ian Rodger’s misleadingly titled Radio Drama, a Macmillan paper-back published in 1982, which tells the story of the development of theBBC radio feature. Radio Journal readers would perform a valuable serviceto radio study if they bombarded Macmillan with requests for the re-issueof Radio Drama. Meanwhile, and in addition, Madsen’s authoritativeaccount (she was a founding member of ABC’s Listening Room team) is avaluable resource.

144 Peter M. Lewis

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The Radio Journal – International Studies in Broadcast and Audio MediaVolume 3 Number 3. © Intellect Ltd 2005.

Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/rajo.3.3.155/1

Indigenous radio stations in Mexico:a catalyst for social cohesion andcultural strengthJosé Manuel Ramos Rodríguez Universidad de las

Américas, Puebla

AbstractDue to the presence of over 12 million people from almost 60 different ethnicgroups, Mexico is a multicultural/ethnic country. Indigenous radio has developedunder the auspices of a governmental organization charged with policy-makingdirected toward these populations. Thus a hybrid model for radio has emergedcombining public, state, and local community media characteristics. Based uponqualitative research conducted in the geographical area covered by the oldest ofthese stations, this article focuses on the sociocultural repercussions of indigenousradio and shows how, although linked to the governmental apparatus, it hassubtly contributed to the transformation of the dominant symbolic order and hasstrengthened the sociocultural cohesion among the three ethnic groups whoinhabit the region. The research reveals the relevance of the intercommunicationwhich radio facilitates and shows how beyond direct exposure to the medium,radio produces a trans-territorial and trans-generational impact in the socialimagination of indigenous populations.

IntroductionThe relevance of ‘ethnic-minority media’ in maintaining the language andculture of the population, thus considered in the context of a ‘nationalstate’, has been amply mentioned in academic literature (Browne 1996,2005; Husband 1994; Riggins 1992). Perhaps more so as theoretical sup-position than through empirical verifications, we attribute great potentialto this media for the strengthening of ethnic identities and their principalcultural references.

In this vast sector of ‘ethnic media’, we may distinguish those thatappear in countries which for one reason or another, harbour populationsof a different ethnic origin than the dominant one (immigrants, displaced,refugees, etc.), from those that are directed toward the populations who,being aboriginal to a particular territory, have been displaced and margin-alized from ‘national society’ through various social, economic, political,and cultural mechanisms. This is the case in Latin America, North

155RJ–ISBAM 3 (3) 155–169 © Intellect Ltd 2005

Keywordsindigenous radioindigenous mediaethnic mediacommunity mediaradio and migrantsradio and social

cohesion

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America and Oceania, where these media are also designated as indige-nous, native, or aboriginal media (Meadows and Molnar 2002).

In Mexico, as in many Latin American countries, the formation of thenational state implied an intent toward assimilation based on a model ofsocial identification actuated by the dominant classes. The only role grantedto indigenous peoples within nation building was that of a kind of gloriousmythical symbolism: they were not allowed the possibility to construct anddevelop their own ‘civilizatory project’ (Bartolomé 2000). Quite the con-trary, they were forced to ‘compulsively’ (Bartolomé 1997) consume thedominant language and culture in pursuit of the homogenization considerednecessary for nation formation. For centuries, tongue and culture were con-fined to oral tradition for their survival, being unable to count on vehicles ofcommunication, which would have permitted the necessary cohesion to be afactor in the formation of the nation states. As Natividad Gutiérrez under-lines (2000: 96), ‘In order to achieve cohesion, any group of peoples requiresocialization mechanisms, such as education and access to communication,precisely those resources which the ethnic groups of the world have lacked’.

What happens when, even in a limited way and bound by state poli-cies, indigenous peoples gain access to a communication medium thatpermits them to construct, declare, and project for themselves and others,their own identity?

This article is part of research carried out between 2000 and 2003 inone of the poorest indigenous regions of the country, served for the past 26years by the first radio station which the government implemented as partof a system that would eventually grow (Ramos 2005). Based upon therecent theoretical approaches to alternative media (Downing 2001), com-munity media (Alfaro 2000) and citizens’ media (Rodriguez 2001) thatsupersede the dichotomies which characterized the study of these mediafor several decades, the general purpose of this research was to discoverthe effects that this station had had upon the sociocultural dynamics ofthe region; particularly in reference to its capacity to develop ethnic cohe-sion and fortify indigenous cultures.

Mexico possesses a plural-cultural composition asserted by its indige-nous peoples, a condition recognized by its political constitution, which wasreformed in 2001 due to the pressure exerted by the Zapatista movement of1994. It has the eighth largest indigenous population in the world –approximately 12 million people, more than a tenth of the total populationof Mexico, which comprises nearly 60 ethnic groups each with their owndistinct language and culture. Historically these populations have thehighest rates of infant mortality, malnutrition, illiteracy and lack of basicservices. A great proportion of these communities are hugely dispersedacross remote, isolated geographic areas that are difficult to access. Almost90 per cent of the municipalities with indigenous populations are classifiedas ‘poor’ or ‘extremely poor’. In summary, the current situation of theIndian population in Mexico is one of unequal distribution of wealth, publicservices and discrimination, which has continued for centuries.

156 José Manuel Ramos Rodríguez


In Mexico there are very few electronic media that accommodate theindigenous tongues. The legal framework within which the media operatefavours the development of the vast commercial sector while those notruled by lucrative interests are quite few. The presence of independentcommunity media are not as yet contemplated within this legal frame-work. However, regarding radio, there does exist a government radionetwork operated by the institution specifically designated to addressindigenous affairs: the former National Indigenous Institute (INI) createdin 1951 and reformed in 2003 as the National Commission for theDevelopment of Indigenous Peoples (CDI).

The network consists of 20 local AM and 4 FM stations located inregions with a majority of indigenous populations. This coverage has thepotential to reach half of the total Indian population, broadcasting in morethan 30 languages.

These stations operate within a model which cannot strictly bedescribed as either governmental, public, or communitarian. In fact, it is ahybrid model combining various characteristics. Like official or govern-mental radio it is totally financially dependent on a federal body, and thusimportant decisions at the macro level are made by bureaucrats followinggovernmental policies. But like public radio, aside from financing, suchstations are primarily not for the diffusion of official propaganda. Andfrom community radio, the model derives the participative nature of itsprogramming, its mission to serve those most in need, and provide a greatdeal of what López (1999) calls ‘proximity information’.

The staff of each radio station includes eight to twelve employees, mustof them indigenous themselves. In all cases, there is a variable number ofvolunteers producing programmes or as local correspondents. In some sta-tions, natural leaders and local organizations represent the communities ina ‘Programming Council’. Although there are some central guiding policiesand supervision, a lot of the programming decisions are made locally.

The presence of these stations in the areas they serve is unmissable asyou tune in across the dial: spaces for live, spontaneous talk in Spanishand indigenous languages, the cultural expression of the peoples in thecovered areas, principally music, gratuitous messages requested by indi-viduals, groups or institutions, news, programmes supporting develop-ment and campaigns launched by federal and state institutions.Sometimes soap operas are broadcast as well as other literary genres,usually externally produced. And by contrast, there are strict limitationson the broadcasting of political and religious propaganda, as understoodin various ways as the system evolved.

Research on these stations is surprisingly scarce, especially consideringits amplitude and diversity and the fact that its development began 26years ago. Nevertheless, there have been some approaches. Lucila Vargas(1995) studied the social use of the stations, their limitations and potentialas participatory media. Although her study analyses the system as awhole, it concentrates mostly on the station of Las Margaritas in the state

157Indigenous radio stations in Mexico: a catalyst for social cohesion and cultural strength


of Chiapas, which had been broadcasting for four years. From a theoreticalframework which combines a critical perspective regarding developmentwith a cultural approach to the media, the study found that the popula-tion made different uses of the radio station, mainly that of feeding infor-mation into the social networks, in a wide sense, ‘to maintain socialinstitutions such as language, the reproduction of cultural expressionssuch as music’ (Vargas 1995: 250). It was also found that within thesystem and the stations themselves, at least the one studied in depth, therewere manifestations of racism such as occupational hierarchy, whichreserved the higher positions for the ‘mestizo’ (‘mixed blood’) population,or a ‘romantic’ or essentialist concept of the indigenous cultures. Cornejo(1994) conducted various quantitative surveys of listeners’ preferencesand habits of radio consumption. She found high listening rates and highacceptance of the five stations she studied. From a political stance,McSherry (1999) analysed the experience of one of these radio stationswithin the framework of ‘State formation’ and their cultural policies. Thisstudy suggests that radio in a contradictory process, was contributing tothe emergence of a ‘public counter-sphere’ such as understood by Fraser(1992). More recently, Castells-Talens (2003) studied indigenous politicsin the case of the station at Peto, on the Yucatan peninsula.Understanding politics as a multiplicity of processes of quotidian negotia-tion, he found the establishment of implicit politics going beyond officialdiscourse.


Figure 1: Small communities are scattered around the mountainous landscape(author photograph).


MethodologyFollowing Downing’s (2001) ideas regarding the advantage of studyingthe consequences of alternative media in long-term scenarios, I decided togo in depth into the case of ‘La Voz de la Montaña’ (‘The Voice of theMountain’), in the State of Guerrero, the oldest station in the system. Theresearch assumed a qualitative and interpretive orientation and followed aholistic approach in the sense of taking the empirical work to four areas,methodologically distinguished by units of analysis, variables, dimensionsand techniques employed in each one: (1) the field of media institution;(2) programming; (3) perceptions and points of view of the indigenouspopulation; and (4) the sociocultural context within which the phenom-ena were observed. This focus sought to be consistent with the proposal ofJ.B. Thompson (1988, 1990) for the hermeneutical analysis of culture andmass media. In accordance with the general purpose of this study, theanalysis of the above areas should be situated in a historical perspective,which would report their interrelationship and the main changes andtransformation within them.

The analysis of the media institution, or as Thompson (1990: 167)termed, ‘the set of institutional arrangements within which the technicalmedium is deployed and the individuals involved in encoding and decodingsymbolic forms are embedded’, was undertaken at two levels: the systemas a whole; and the individual station which was the object of theresearch. With the purpose of reconstructing and to systematize the insti-tutional aspects of the case study, I analysed previous research, documentsand logs produced by the institution, phonographic material, and con-ducted interviews with some staff members from different periods.

Through a detailed review of the sound archives (programmes, series,music) and other documents (reports, programme charts) in addition topersonnel interviews, I endeavoured to determine the contents and the-matic axis around which programming had been structured throughoutvarious periods. On the other hand, given that the principal use that thepopulation had given to radio was the intercommunication service andthat this occupied a central role in the programming of the station, I con-sidered it advantageous to conduct a detailed analysis of the messages thatthe population exchanged, commonly known as ‘avisos’ (‘announce-ments’). This part of the study employed quantitative content analysiswith the purpose of understanding the flow of communication, the princi-pal protagonists in these flows and the objectives they pursued.

The gathering of points of view from the population toward the radiostation, its utility, and the changes brought about by its very existence,were conducted through open, semi-structured interviews with ruralfarmers, homemakers, indigenous teachers, relevant authorities, mer-chants and students. Throughout the study, 85 interviews of this typewere conducted with an even distribution regarding age, sex, and ethnicgroup. Four focus groups (bilingual teachers, musical bands, civil organi-zations, elderly people) were also conducted. Two group interviews with




Figure 2: A typical candlelight gathering of traditional authorities (author photograph).

civil organizations, and eight interviews via the Internet with youngémigrés to the United States of America were also included. Through con-stant comparisons, I applied an inductive process of data reduction andcategory generation, which revealed the ways in which the populationsperceive the relevance of the radio to their individual and collective lives.

The ‘Montaña de Guerrero’The region known as ‘Montaña de Guerrero’ (‘Mountain of Guerrero’) inthe south-east of Mexico, has the highest indices of poverty and marginal-ization in the country. It is mainly populated by Mixteco (nu’sabi),Tlapanecos (me’pha), and Nahuas Indians, who face extremely adverseconditions regarding their social and cultural reproduction. Their pres-ence and permanence could not be explained if just quantitative indicatorsof poverty were considered, and not their will and attachment to their landand culture. We are talking about, according to the ideas of Bonfil, soci-eties with a strong cultural nucleus or matrix, of a very stable nature, ‘. . . around which the universe of alien cultures is reinterpreted’, (quotedby Giménez 1994: 177). In their struggle for social reproduction as collec-tive entities who possess their own language and culture, these peopleshave displayed ‘strategies for survival’ understood in this study as follows:

The sum of all economic, social, cultural, and demographic activities of thestrata of population that do not possess the sufficient means of production,


nor who are integrated into the labor market, and thus do not obtain theirregular income to maintain a socially determined level of existence, given thestructural insufficiencies of the predominant type of development.

(Torres 1985, quoted by Canabal 2001: 27)

For this reason, such strategies constitute a totality of great complexityreflected in, and determined by the economic sphere, in addition to thesocial, political and cultural one. These strategies explain the dynamicsand forms which the family unit or organization establishes itself aroundone central objective: to assure social reproduction and the affirmation oftheir identity.

Among these strategies, we find the diversification of activities through-out the year and the participation of the entire family in productive activi-ties, the organizational implications for the constant, local power struggle;and even the illegal cultivation of amapola and marijuana. Outstanding,due to its implications as a threat to the reproduction of indigenous cul-tures, is the displacement, temporary or definitive, of individuals and wholefamilies toward various poles of extra-territorial attraction. In the search ofresources for subsistence, thousands of individuals migrate to points withinthe State of Guerrero, other states of the country and more recently, to theUnited States, mainly the New York area (three thousand miles from ‘LaMontaña’), where migration tends to become permanent. There is now awhole generation of youth who have grown up in that country.

It is estimated that during the drought season, from 30% to 40% ofheads of households resort to migration, most commonly to the centre andnorth of the country. Migrants tend to depart after the harvest and the endof its associated festivities dedicated to the cult of their dead ancestors, andreturn when it is again time to plant maize. Just in the past ten years, net-works of ‘hookers’ (individuals who seek out and entice clients) havestarted to bring to the region buses (in very bad condition) in which theytransport men, women, and entire families to the areas of cultivation,almost always under conditions of extreme exploitation (Tlachinollan2002: 44–53).

The Indians from the Mountain of Guerrero, as those of other regionsof Mexico, face the crude paradox of having to leave their territory in orderto be able to stay on it, to cease to ‘be’ in order to ‘continue being’. Theiraffective ties to this territory are what drive them to abandon it, albeit tem-porarily, in the most adverse conditions imaginable. But these peopleremain bonded to that which is theirs and dedicate all their vital efforts tomaintaining these ties. They are present at the celebrations of the patronsaints, send money to their families, perform their duties within theirsystem of charges or responsibilities, participate in family celebrations, butabove all, they dream about being able to continue being ‘men of themountain’ (Tlapanecos, Mixtecos, or Nahaus) and to die in their place ofbirth. The radio thus becomes a valued instrument in order to maintainthe ties with their territories.



Intercommunication and social cohesionThe content analysis of the messages transmitted by the radio station atthe request of individuals, groups, and institutions revealed that duringone month, methodologically constructed from a universe of twentyweeks, 907 messages were sent, of which 608 (67%) were of a personalnature; in other words, they were messages with specific senders andreceivers. A typical message or aviso is as follows:

Juan Martinez, from New York, wants to tell his family in Xalpatlahuac thathe finally has arrived to that city. In a few days he will call again to La Voz dela Montaña, to give a telephone number. He asks them to be aware of theavisos. If anyone listens to this message, please pass it to his wife or sons.

If we consider the spatial locality of those who send messages person to person,the highest frequency at 18.3% of the total, came from the United States, fol-lowed by those whose origin is the town of Tlapa (18.1%) where the station islocated; from other states in the country (14%), and from communities in theregion (11%). In other words, more than a third of this flow of communicationoriginates from individuals who are away from the region, and is directedtoward those who remain in it. It should be noted that in almost 39% of thecases, no mention of the location regarding the remitter was made. And asimilar proportion also does not mention the motive nor specific issue orreason for the message. This anonymity frequently responds to reasons of per-sonal security, since often the issue is that of a financial nature.


Figure 3: A small community church in La Montaña region (author photograph).


The most recurrent theme of the messages were in descending order,requesting ‘that someone (a specific person) be prepared to receive a tele-phone call’ (22.9%), ‘that someone be at a certain place’ (12.7%), and‘that someone return a call’ (8.2%). In other words, 31% of the personalmessages complement the public telephone service, even though it maynot be installed at individual homes, it is more and more accessible frombooths located in the main towns, usually the seats of municipalities. Inmany cases, radio becomes the indispensable link in a chain of eventswhich initiates with a phone call to the station to request the transmissionof a message, and concludes with a second phone call that, thanks to theradio, has been arranged. It is interesting to mention that in this chain ofevents, the message may pass from Spanish to the indigenous languageand back several times. The use of the telephone demonstrates that eachtechnology complements the other without displacing it. On the contrary,they have enhanced each other through this spontaneous use that thepopulation have made of them.

There also exists the occasional use of the radio as an instrument ofdenunciation and defence vis-à-vis various abuses against the Indian pop-ulation. While conducting this field research, a call was received from NewYork from a migrant worker who asked to be ‘put on the air’ to alert thepopulation in general, but especially his own community and nearby vil-lages, regarding an individual who was tricking and cheating persons byoffering to take them all the way to this city and assuring them of employ-ment. The person who called reported that he and some brethren of thesame region had been fooled and that now several of them were in totalabandonment. He supplied a detailed description of the culprit and of thevehicle used. This type of communiqué occurs quite often.

It is no exaggeration to say that the flow of communication provided byradio, after 26 years of operation, has become a pillar for the strategies forcultural reproduction and survival displayed by the population. For thefamily nucleus, radio has become a resource, which permits them to betterovercome the difficulties of the extraordinarily hostile social and physicalenvironment, and to maintain a state of cohesion, which is always underthreat of debilitation or rupture. In one sense, no longer instrumental butaffective-symbolical, the radio station is perceived as a resource of inter-communication of great utility, as it is always available when needed.From this availability, the certainty that it may be used when needed, gen-erates a feeling of confidence and security in the face of multiple uncer-tainties present in their daily lives. During the interviews there werefrequent expressions of this feeling of security that radio supplied vis-à-visthe constant threats of a hostile environment, by both the people whoremained in the territory and by those who had to leave seasonally: ‘Radiois the telephone for the poor’, ‘it keeps us together’, ‘it is the only thing wehave when we are far away’.

In addition, the radio also offered the security of not hearing about badnews. In other words, many of those interviewed described listening to the



radio in the hope that there would be no messages of bad tidings, whichwas an indication that all was well with their relatives and friends thathave left their homes: no news is good news.

At one of the interviews, a 35-year-old Tlapaneco farmer insisted onshowing how, along with the credentials that identified him as an agricul-tural day-worker, and his voter’s registration, he always carried the tele-phone number of the radio station. In fact, for several years now, duringthe season of highest migration (between November and March) it is quitecommon for farmers to appear at the radio station to request its phonenumber before boarding the buses that take them to their seasonal desti-nations. For the migrant workers, the radio contributes to the maintainingof a virtual tie to their land and their loved ones, functioning as an‘anchoring’ mechanism which helps them overcome these periods of sea-sonal, geographical separation.

This anchoring mechanism also works in the case of those who have leftthe region more permanently. In the interviews conducted via the Internetwith some younger persons residing in New York, they said that occasion-ally they or their families wrote or called the radio station to send greetingsor to communicate something urgent. They also said that they retainedmemories of their contact with the radio station from when they were chil-dren and that this contact had been of great influence in their lives. One ofthose interviewed mentioned, for example, that he had the intention ofstarting a small sound and music equipment business for parties and suchlike, and justifiably desired to name it ‘The Voice of the Mountain’. In thissense, the radio station ignites feelings of nostalgia for their lands of origin,and this mechanism of nostalgia constitutes a tie of identity maintained atleast for those émigrés of the first and second generation.


Figure 4: Indigenous fiesta to honour the ancestors (author photograph).


Other findingsSupport for grassroots associative formsThe flows of communication facilitated by the ‘avisos’ also establish them-selves in a collective or group dimension and occur in support of varioustypes of grassroots associative forms, in other words, collectives organizedaround common interests in relation to community life (meetings, assem-blies, traditional festivities, etc.); associative bases which form part of thedaily struggle for material survival of families and cultures of the commu-nities. To judge from the analysis of the ‘avisos’ and of that which wasreferred to in the interviews, in terms of this dimension, the broadcastingstations have also facilitated the collaborative interaction and thus theimplied social cohesion.

Extension of the meaning of communityThe radio station facilitated virtual interaction with persons, places, andevents which most likely would not have been recognized, but with whomthe perception of membership of a community of interests exists in abroader sense than if the contact had been face-to-face. It could be statedthat for a long period, radio was the only available media for this type ofvirtual interaction, and for many, literally the only way through which torecognize their social environment in a way which goes beyond the limitsof their immediate community and those nearby. The afore-mentionedreminds us straightaway of Anderson (2000), and to some extent ofThompson (1995), with whom we can affirm that radio broadcasting sta-tions contribute to the formation of ‘imagined communities’, whichimplies the amplification of the spatial limits and a greater degree of cohe-sion among peoples and communities. In this sense, the stations would beassisting the growth of an ‘all-encompassing’ ethnic identity (Bartolomé1997) in so far as individuals update daily, when listening to the transmis-sions, a feeling that they are sharing the interests and problems of those ofthe same affinity.

Radio as self-representationThe radio station enabled the indigenous peoples to have an image ofthemselves through their own language, their music, their songs, andtheir histories. Radio became a mirror (practically the only one) that per-mitted the population to see part of their own cosmology, tongue, andculture. But this ‘mirror’ does not end merely in the image reflected, as ithas several important implications: (1) unto itself, the reflected image gen-erates a self-worth of one’s own culture, and a confirmation that it ispresent in a media which previously had been reserved for the dominantculture; (2) the projection of that image toward others, in other words, thepossibility that their values be known to others, and reciprocally, theybecome aware of those of others; (3) the discovery, first, and later the con-stant reaffirmation of the existence of ‘others’ who are the same as oneand of ‘others’ who are different. Among those who are similar are those



who inhabit communities of the same origin, speak the same languageand share similar customs and traditions; but there are also those who aresimilar because they share the same territory, are ‘men of the mountain’,and face common problems. In this manner, what Bonfil (1991: 77) called‘consciousness of indigenicity’ (consciousness of the identification ofinequality), is also being favoured. The ‘others’ who are different, are oneswho do not maintain the same relationship with the territory nor possessthe same indigenous condition, and who in many respects represent thedominant culture.

‘Visibility’ of the indigenous worldThe concept of ‘visibility’ employed by Thompson (1995) in reference tothe capacity that modern media of communication have to present beforetheir audiences a specific image of persons and institutions, and thusincreasing their symbolic power and reinforcing their practices of domina-tion, can in turn be utilized to give credence to the ways with which theindigenous media have the capability to transfer cultural identities fromthe marginalized territories to which they found themselves confined, tothe centre of public interest (Rodriguez 2001). From the analysis of theirprogramming, it was revealed that from the very beginnings of the radiostation, the schedules included broadcasts that clearly showed culturalexpressions of great depth and ties to ‘The Mountain’, such as indigenousband music, dances, and community celebrations. This gradually permit-ted the visibility or rather ‘audibility’ in a strict sense, to artists, intellectu-als, medicine-men, and cultural activists who had previously remainedhidden from the majority of the population.

Beyond receptionThis research found that the radio possesses an important place in thelives of the people, independently of their direct exposure to the media. Itforms part of the symbolic capital of the Indian population even when, inreal time, the time they dedicate to actual listening is minimal or non-existent. As indicated, the radio symbolically accompanies the immigrantsand ‘reaches’ places that are not covered by the actual signal. ‘Avisos’almost always reach their intended destinations even if not directly butthrough third persons and the social networks which already exist. Thesemessages reach towns and villages that have no coverage at all, thus trust-ing the aforementioned mechanisms. Not only in the case of messages andnotices, but in its general programming, we are speaking about a mediawhich propitiates a high degree of what Thompson (1995) has called ‘dis-cursive elaboration’, in other words, the process through which the appro-priation of the symbolic forms are extended beyond the context ofreception and the messages are ‘shared by a wider circle of individualswho may or may have not been involved in the initial process of reception’(Thompson 1995: 42). It may be said, that in this sense, the radio has had


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a trans-territorial, and even trans-national, incidence that transcends byfar the limits of its electromagnetic coverage.

Trans-generational incidence and cultural continuityIt could be argued that the station has thus had a trans-generational inci-dence, as it has been present in several generations, from those who werewitnesses to its beginnings, to those who were born when radio wasalready a part of the regional scenario. The opinions gathered in both agegroups which were considered, revealed that among both generationssimilar perceptions exist towards the station and the value they attributeto it. In contrast to discoveries made by previous investigations, thepresent research found that the broadcasting station had generally a greatacceptance among the younger population and the values it promoted.Among younger persons with more schooling, those from the town ofTlapa, other cities in the country, or abroad, and in spite of having lost themother tongue in many cases, there seems to be an intentional will toreaffirm their ethnic affiliation, for which reason they appreciate the factthat radio promotes indigenous values and culture.

ConclusionThe indigenous radio broadcasting stations in Mexico operate under a hybridand contradictory model, which aspires in some respects to that of communitymedia, while remaining within a framework drawn by official politics. For thisreason, its operation faces constant tensions. None the less, this researchrevealed that within these constraints, the stations had activated ‘subtleprocesses of fracture in the social, cultural and power spheres of everyday lives’(Rodriguez, 2001: xiv), which have had various positive consequences as tosocial cohesion, cultural and identity reconstitution within the indigenouspopulation of the region. The analysis, avoiding the dichotomies that oftenaccompany the study of community media, has attempted to situate itself in along-term perspective: rather than studying ‘effects’ of the medium in a sup-posed direct, causal relationship, it established that radio had contributedtoward reversing the exclusionary and homogenizing tendencies that the dom-inant culture exerts over the indigenous cultures.

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Suggested citationRodríguez, J.M.R. (2005), ‘Indigenous radio stations in Mexico: a catalyst for social

cohesion and cultural strength’, The Radio Journal – International Studies inBroadcast and Audio Media 3: 3, pp. 155–169, doi: 10.1386/rajo.3.3.155/1

Contributor detailsJosé Manuel Ramos Rodríguez Ph.D. is a professor and researcher at the Universidadde las Americas, Puebla, Mexico, where he is a member of the Research Group onICT’s for Education and Development. He has been close to the Mexican indige-nous radio network since 1980.

Contact: Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, Departamento de Ciencias de laComunicación, Ex-hda. Sta. Catarina Mártir s/n San Andrés, Cholula, Puebla,México. CP 72820.E-mail: [email protected]

