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Voice That Sounds Like Home Welcomes Mexico’s Outsiders
A radio show produced by and for Mexican immigrants living in California, "La Hora Mixteca," enables community broadcasters to reach Mixtec-speaking populations along the Mexican and U.S. Pacific Coast about critical issues they face. Radio Bilingue, which broadcasts the program, received Ford support to provide training and production equipment for the program. This is part of the foundation's long-term efforts to promote freedom of expression and the free flow of information to underserved communities.
Published by The New York Times: June 8, 2009
By Randal C. Archibold
FRESNO, Calif. — The voice trembled with anguish.
"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...
"'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."
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