The community radio station Snuq' Jolom Konob' is located in the town of Santa Eulalia, Huehuetenango, nestled high in the Cuchumatan mountain range. The station was founded 13 years ago, after the signing of the Peace Accords brought an end to the Armed Conflict in Guatemala and guaranteed Indigenous communities the right to their own forms of media. Community leader Rigoberto Juarez Mateo, a ex-combatant in the movement, initiated the idea as part of the broader association Mujb’ab’l Yol. The radio’s mission is “to promote sustainable development and social conscience” in the community of Santa Eulalia.
Santa Eulalia is also known by it’s traditional name, Jolom Konob’ meaning ‘head of the people” in the local language of Q’anjob’al. It references an giant Mayan monolith sculpture that exists in the area, of which only the head remains. Years ago, the boundaries of the municipality of Santa Eulalia included the town of Santa Cruz Barillas, another Q’anjob’al speaking community. For this reason, members of the two towns feel a close bond. When a Spanish hydroelectric company began threatening human rights of the population Santa Cruz Barillas, Radio Snuq' Jolom Konob' jumped to the community’s defense, reporting on location about the human rights violations occurring. Volunteers of the radio station alerted Cultural Survival’s Global Response program to the necessity of launching an international campaign to raise awareness about the company’s actions in Barillas. (See the campaign, here).
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"full","fid":"61313","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"600","style":"width: 599px; height: 600px; ","width":"599"}}]]Members of Radio Snuq' Jolom Konob’ Basilio Sebastian (left) and Lorenzo Mateo (right) reporting on the go from the central park of Santa Cruz Barillas, at a demonstration in solidarity with the town against the construction of a dam in the area.
Q’anjob’al is a classified as an endangered language, only spoken within six towns in Huehuetenango, and in pockets of immigrant communities in the United States. The radio station broadcasts almost all of their programing bilingually in Q’anjob’al and Spanish. “It’s of the utmost importance for us, to strengthen our maternal language of Q’anjob’al in order to prevent it’s extinction. Because it’s spoken in such a small area, our language is always going to be threatened by the encroaching Spanish,” explained radio volunteer Lorenzo Mateo.
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"full","fid":"61314","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"600","width":"799"}}]]Dominga Villa conducts her program in Q'anjob'al from the radio cabin of Snuq' Jolom Konob’
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"full","fid":"61316","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"600","width":"800"}}]]Volunteers at the radio station receive equipment donated by Cultural Survival in March, 2012.
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"full","fid":"61317","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"600","width":"450"}}]]
The radio station tower. The station is located in the town center, within the town government building.
