Home
About
Get Involved
Store
Library
Tech Support
Find Stations
Barn Raisings
Calendar
Take Action
Photo: JJ Tiziou
Home arrow Articles about Prometheus arrow Florida: Airwaves Bridge Dialects
  • Our Issues
  • Low Power Radio
  • Media Ownership
  • Spectrum Reform
  • International
  • Full Power Radio
Enter the gallery
more_meetings_w_FCC

more_meetings_w_FCC

Latest Events
There are no upcoming events currently scheduled.
View Full Calendar
Search the Prometheus site:
Can't find it on the new site?
Look for it on the old site: oldsite.prometheusradio.org!
Translate the site:
Florida: Airwaves Bridge Dialects


Copyright 2005 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
Palm Beach Post (Florida)

June 14, 2005 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 1B

LENGTH: 1007 words

HEADLINE: AIRWAVES BRIDGE DIALECTS

BYLINE: By TANIA VALDEMORO Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH

BODY:


Melodies first heard more than 1,500 years ago filled a broadcast studio Sunday morning when Herlinda Francisco changed compact discs.

A caller from Jupiter had just requested a "marimba autoctona" song. The genre is one of Guatemala's oldest forms of music, dating back to pre-Columbian times. Its steady marimba is usually played at village dances, Francisco said.

Between sets of marimba and cumbia music, Mayan activists on WPSP-1190 AM discussed farmworker rights, local job opportunities and locations for sending cash remittances to Guatemala in Mam, Q'anjob'al and Quiche - indigenous Guatemalan languages rarely heard across the Florida airwaves.

The two-hour weekly program is one of three radio shows in the state broadcasting music and discussion about the culture and experiences of Guatemalan immigrants in America.

Through its partnership with Sterio Nebaj in Guatemala, the West Palm Beach-based show reaches an audience of 15,000 to 20,000 listeners in Guatemala and Florida, Francisco said. The show's broadcast extends locally from Martin to Broward counties.

In the western part of the state, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers broadcasts a two-hour show in Mam and Q'anjob'al on Saturday and Sunday afternoons on WCTI-107.9 FM, known as Radio Conciencia. The shows are limited to the Immokalee area and reach about 5,000 people, said Rolando Sales, who hosts his show in Mam.

There are 372,487 Guatemalans in the United States, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Of the 28,650 Guatemalans in Florida, 6,576 live in Palm Beach County.

The radio programs aim to preserve Mayan language and culture primarily by speaking in various dialects and playing native music, Francisco said.

"We are not Hispanic," said Miguel Angel Chiquin-Yat, who founded the show in 1998 with Francisco and three others from the Lake Worth-based Organization of Maya People in Exile. "We speak Spanish, but we are Mayans."

With 22 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala, communicating to a wide audience can be a tall order. Out of necessity, Chiquin-Yat and Sales introduce songs and music segments in Spanish. The majority of Guatemalans, however, speak one or more Mayan languages; several do not speak Spanish at all, Chiquin-Yat said.

Since February, the two groups have teamed up to broadcast a Mayan radio show every month, Sales said. He came to West Palm Beach from Immokalee Sunday to host the morning radio show with Chiquin-Yat.

As a result, listeners in Palm Beach, Martin and Broward counties learn more about Guatemalans living in Immokalee, and vice versa. Sales and fellow farmworker Roberto Mendez spent several minutes after every music set discussing the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' mission to lobby for higher wages and promote farmworker rights.

Among labor groups, the coalition is well-known for its three-year boycott of Taco Bell, which ended in March when the company agreed to pay a penny-a-pound increase to farmworkers picking tomatoes.

The weekly Mayan language shows have proven to be a hit, radio hosts said. Many listeners send CDs of marimba and cumbia music to the radio stations, thereby boosting the shows' music selections and keeping them up to date with the latest songs.

Sales said locals have tuned in to his show because they know they can hear marimba for an hour. Unlike the West Palm Beach show, the Immokalee shows devote their second hour of programming to translating discussions from Spanish to Mam and Q'anjob'al and vice versa.

Still, radio hosts said they must work diligently to attract and retain listeners. The target audience for all three shows are people who already listen to a myriad of Spanish-language stations. Radio Conciencia and WPSP both play Latin-American music. The key to engaging listeners is to provide them with relevant information and use the radio to help them solve problems, said Lucas Benitez, the coalition's executive director.

Radio Conciencia is obligated to serve the needs of its local community in exchange for its broadcast license, which the Federal Communications Commission granted two years ago after a lengthy application process. The station is one of Florida's 106 low-power FM stations.

In 2000, the FCC began granting broadcast licenses to community-based groups that serve low-income communities. There are 600 low-power FM stations nationwide. Federal lawmakers are considering whether to expand the program further.

Chiquin-Yat said his group is researching ways to get its own radio station like their Immokalee brothers. The group pays $15,000 a year to use WPSP's facilities, he said.

In what is expected to be an active hurricane season, both groups said they would use the airwaves to make sure farmworkers and others are prepared for the storms.

"Many people were spooked by the hurricanes," said Benitez, referring to the majority of farmworkers who return in September to pick tomatoes and oranges for several weeks. Their return coincides with the time when hurricanes often increase in size and strength.

This year, Benitez will broadcast hurricane information in Mam, Q'anjob'al and two Mexican dialects, Zapotec and Mixtec, as well as in Creole. Chiquin-Yat also plans to provide farmworkers in Palm Beach and Martin counties with hurricane news.

But Sunday's show made no mention of the hurricanes despite the passing of Tropical Storm Arlene Saturday over Florida's Gulf Coast. Thousands of Mayans in Lake Worth lost power and safe drinking water last year after Hurricane Frances struck.

The radio programs have become indispensable, Mayan activists said, because they enable Guatemalan immigrant communities to survive economically and culturally.

"We are proud to be able to speak in our own languages and reach a mass audience," Benitez said. "It helps farmworkers learn the laws of the United States and their responsibilities as residents here."

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

What's on

Mayan programming:

WPSP-1190 AM: 9 to 11 a.m. Saturdays.

WCTI-107.9 FM, known as Radio Conciencia: Mam at 4 to 6 p.m.

Saturdays and Q'anjob'al at 4 to 6 p.m. Sundays.

NOTES: Ran all editions. Info box at end of text.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C)
TAYLOR JONES/Staff Photographer Rolando Sales sits in Immokalee radio station WCTI-107.9 FM. The show reaches 5,000, said Sales, who hosts his show in the Guatemalan language of Mam.

LOAD-DATE: June 15, 2005