To mark the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples on August 9th, representatives of 50 community radio stations from all over Guatemala came to the Centro Historico in Guatemala City to participate in a two-day conference on the rights of Indigenous Peoples to freedom of expression through radio. The goal of the conference was to bring pressure on congress to legalize community radio in Guatemala by approving the Bill 4087, the Law for Community Media.
Reina is from the town of San Mateo, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. She has been working at the Doble Via radio station since it opened, for just about a year.
Preparations are well underway in Guatemala City to host a conference and day of action on August 8 and 9, marking the International Day for Indigenous Peoples.
Next door to Cultural Survival's Community Radio Project monthly training and production session, a week-long workshop on video production was also getting underway with the help of two documentary filmmakers, Hanna Adock and Karin Stowe, from the University of Winchester, England.
July got off to a busy start for the Cultural Survival Community Radio Project, with two workshops held in the Mujb'abl' Yol training center in San Mateo, Quetzaltenango.
In May, Cultural Survival's Guatemala Radio Project content production and training coordinator, Cesar Gomez (Maya Pocomam), traveled to New York City to participate in the 10th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
Sergio Rojo lives in a small town called Santa Maria de Jesús, on the slope of the long dormant Volcán de Agua just outside of Antigua, Guatemala.
Felix Cabrera founded Radio Mujb'ab'l yol in his home town of Concepción Chiquirichapa, Quetzaltenango, in early 2000. During the armed conflict in Guatemala, Felix had fought alongside many other rural Indigenous farmers for agrarian reform. When the Peace Accords were signed in 1996, Felix put down his arms and took up a microphone.
Next door to the community radio station La Doble Via in San Mateo, Quetzaltenango, Francisco Garcia and his family are busy planting potatoes on a Sunday afternoon.
In a new initiative of the Guatemala Radio Project, Cultural Survival’s Guatemala based team is building capacity in a select group of community radio stations that have emerged as leaders within the broader movement of local radio stations in Guatemala. These ‘pilot’ radio stations will become hubs for information and training for emerging community radio stations in their geographic and linguistic areas.
A Mayan spiritual ceremony was held last Saturday, April 2nd, to celebrate the initiation of a new network of pilot radios stations broadcasting in rural communities of Guatemala. The day marked the 12th B’atz, a day which holds high levels of energy and represents strength in new beginnings. Nineteen Mayan priests and priestesses from the community radio station La X Musical in Cajola, Quetzaltenango participated in the ceremony. A Mayan ceremony begins and ends with prayers facing the
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
