Radio Mixtec

Radio has been extremely important in Mexican migrant communities for years.  Earlier this year, LA radio DJ EDDIE “PIOLÍN” (Tweety Bird) SOTELO interviewed none other than President Barack Obama. 

The N.Y. Times reports on the latest in immigrant radio — Mixtec radio.  Filemón López hosts a show for indigeneous Oaxacans.  On it, you can hear Spanish but also Triqui, one of Oaxaca’s indigenous languages. Each Sunday, there is “La Hora Mixteca” (The Mixtec Hour).  López’s show is aimed primarily at Mixtec Indians but draws listeners from other groups in the United States and, via satellite link, in Oaxaca,

There are an estimated 150,000 Mixtecs in California.  Mixtecs, according to the Times,

 “occupy the lowest rungs on the Latino immigrant pecking order, mocked for their rural ways, their heavily accented Spanish or inability to speak it, and their low level of education. They snare the most back-breaking jobs here in the agriculture-rich Central Valley — picking fruit and vegetables — and often have difficulty moving up. They face exploitation and discrimination in housing and employment, and are wary of strangers, a legacy, scholars say, of the relative isolation of their villages in Mexico and history of abuse by outsiders there.”

López’s radio show has been on the air since in 1995 and picked up its 12th station in the United States a few months ago The show is broadcast from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday on Radio Bilingüe, the only Spanish-language public radio network in the United States, and also streams on the Internet.

 The show includes a mix of education and entertainment.

KJ