Jumping right into her new position as program assistant, Cultural Survival’s newest team member, Ingrid Sub Cuc, visited three community radio stations in Sololá and one in Sumpango this past week. Her first stop was in San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá where she visited Radio Sembrador and Radio La Voz de San Pedro. The day was filled with information, history, discussion and new friendships.
At Radio Sembrador she met Brenda and Lesvia Garcia, whose father is one of the founders of the radio and who are both very active in the radio community. Over the past 16 years that Radio Sembrador has been on the air they have touched on crucial subjects such as Indigenous rights, historic memory, domestic violence, women's rights and education. Radio Sembrador constantly updates and improves its programs though workshops for the radio volunteers. Last year a census was collected among its volunteers to find areas of weakness and interests from which a series of 13 themes were selected. Brenda and Lesvia have taken these themes and created a series of workshops, which they call “Formation Process for Communicators” that will take place over a period of seven months. The workshops are intentionally structured to progress from eight theoretical topics to four practical ones, so that participants can put their new skills to use. Brenda explained “ all the facilitators and partners that will be participating are doing so voluntarily, we cannot compensate them with money for their time but we have convinced them that this is for a crucial cause”.
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Schedule of radio programs currently on the air at Radio Sembrador.
Ingrid’s next stop was at Radio La Voz de San Pedro, formerly known as Radio San Pedro. There she learned about the police raid in 2008 and the six-month struggle to get back on the air. The radio hired lawyers to defend themselves and sent several requests to the telecommunications agency in hopes of being legalized. The answer was no. Despite returning to the air, the radio continues to face continuous persecution from the public ministry. Ingrid got the opportunity to chat with Inocente Bocel one of the founders of Radio La Voz de San Pedro as he expressed his concern with the lack of education about indigenous rights in his community, “Our community suffers from political illiteracy, we don't know our rights as Indigenous people… we must talk about our institutional rights, our right to free, prior and informed consent and our right to express ourselves freely. This is why the radio is a crucial tool.”
The last stop was Radio Juventud located right at the entrance of Sololá. Its location, which is at a higher altitude than the rest of the surrounding towns, allows it to reach a wide coverage, which they use to their advantage. Ingrid was received by Olga Ajcalon and Ramos Cosigua, two radio volunteers who are passionate and dedicated to the community radio movement. They spoke about their recent 15 year anniversary celebration and reflected on the work done as well as the work there is still to do. Olga is a full time teacher in the afternoon and volunteers at the radio in the mornings, she said that “ the radio was founded in 1999 and we were on the air from 4pm to 8pm, we had three programs. Now as we celebrate our 15 years on the air we run over 12 programs in kaqchikel and are looking to expand.” Despite their excitement with Radio Juventud they also expressed their fear of being raided. Radio Juventud hasn't been raided but was off the air for three months after a series of raids in Sololá in April of last year. “We are not doing anything wrong, we simply keep our community informed and play music on request. We want to have a web page where people can listen anywhere they are but we think that will give our location away and we could be raided,” Ramos stated.
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At Radio Juventud, Ingrid was received by Ramos and Olga. Both women run programs in Kaqchikel and touch on subjects like health and human rights.
Radio Ixchel in Sumpango was Ingrid’s last stop. She was received by Angélica Cubur and Rosy Gonzales, two radio volunteers who have dedicated over six years of their time to the movement. They face many barriers to keeping their Radio alive as their close proximity to the capital means all of the big commercial radios reach Sumpango as well. Even thought the indigenous language spoken in Sumpango is Kaqchikel there are few people that speak it today. Angelica said “ our close distance to the capital has stripped us of our language and clothing, we are working on reviving our identity through the radio by having a few hours of Kaqchikel classes and programs in Kaqchikel.” Radio Ixchel was raided in 2006 and all their equipment was confiscated. The radio had a tough time coming back on the air. However, it was due to these hard times that they learned the crucial role that they play in their community. Rosy stated “ our community donated money for new equipment and some even offered their homes for us to record from. As radio volunteers, we found so much strength in our followers, we learned not to fear, that instead we needed to be persistent.” Radio Ixchel will be celebrating their 12 year anniversary in August, which they anticipate with excitement.
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At Radio Ixchel with Angelica Cubur and Rosy Gonzales who shared their experience with Ingrid about the radio movement.
Ingrid is excited to work with passionate and determined individuals at all the community radios in Guatemala. Her visits made her more aware of the need and importance of this movement and she is more motivated than ever to be involved in the community radio movement.
