The first Mexican Indigenous radio station in the U.S. hopes to end isolation, inform and empower their community in Southern California and beyond. (9 August 2017)
“The biggest obstacle for the lack of services and media is the language barrier,” explained Jose Alamillo, a Chicana/o Studies professor at nearby California State University Channel Islands.
“A majority of Spanish-language media don't hire employees with Indigenous backgrounds and with fluency in their Indigenous language,” Alamillo continued. “We also see this language barrier in medical services, whereby medical practitioners cannot speak Mixteco or Zapotec so they cannot provide adequate medical care.”
MICOP has tried to address the huge service gap faced by Indigenous communities while also providing cultural programs including the annual “Night in Oaxaca” and Oxnard Guelaguetza festival and events marking Dia de Los Muertos, Christmas, and other holidays.
Inspired by advice by Hugo Morales, the founder of Fresno-based public radio station Radio Bilingüe, the group decided to take their cultural programs to a new level and create a radio station.
In 2015, Radio Indigena finally hit the web.
Equipped with meager resources and staffed by 15 amateurs — many of whom were farm workers and day laborers — the station began “building pride, promoting unity and ending isolation” by bringing Indigenous farm workers popular regional music, national and international news, and information about immigrants' legal rights.
“We want to provide critical community information to our Indigenous community in Ventura County as a way of building healthy and empowered communities — creating spaces for honest and truthful conversation about embracing and owning our Indigenous identity, language, history ... learning to share our truths with our community,” Lopez explained.
