Lucila Vargas - Social Uses and Radio Practices: The Use of Participatory Radio by Ethnic Minorities in Mexico

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Social Uses and Radio Practices

International Communication and Popular Culture

Series Editor
John A. Lent

Social Uses and Radio Practices: The Use of Participatory Radio by Ethnic Minorities in Mexico, Lucila Vargas

The Orchestration of the Media: The Politics of Mass Communications in Communist Poland and the Aftermath, Tomasz Goban-Klas

Media Beyond Socialism: Theory and Practice in East-Central Europe, Slavko Splichal

Forthcoming

Human Rights and the Media: International Reporting as a Global Watchdog, Frederic Moritz

Asian Popular Culture, edited by John A. Lent

Social Uses and Radio Practices

The Use of Participatory Radio by Ethnic Minorities in Mexico

Lucila Vargas

First published 1995 by Westview Press

Published 2019 by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1995 by Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-28770-2 (hbk)

To the memories of
my beloved mother, Carmen Marquez,
my dear aunt, Ana Marquez de Orozco,
and my brother, Fernando De Soto Marquez

Contents

1. PART ONE
   The Social Value of Participatory Radio
2. PART TWO
   Indigenous Participation in Production Processes
3. PART THREE
   Audience Participation and Social Uses

1. PART ONE
   The Social Value of Participatory Radio
2. PART TWO
   Indigenous Participation in Production Processes
3. PART THREE
   Audience Participation and Social Uses

Guide

This book is about the social value of participatory or community-oriented radio and stresses how the politics of race, ethnicity, class, and gender shape the extent and quality of people's participation in development efforts. It shows, ethnographically, how a number of Mexican ethnic minorities use the communication resources made available to them by a network of radio stations sponsored by the federal government through its Institute) National Indigenista (INI).

The book includes an in-depth analysis of one of the INI stations, XEVFS, Radio Margaritas, and an ethnography of the radio consumption practices of its target audience, the Tojolabal Maya. Radio Margaritas is located in Las Margaritas, Chiapas (southern Mexico), one of the cities seized by an indigenous rebel army on January 1, 1994. Before the uprising, when I conducted the fieldwork for the book, the political situation in Chiapas was quite different from today. Although the Mexican army's presence in the region was very strong, and there were indeed many rumors of guerrilla activity in the jungle, I could not have imagined that three years after I left Chiapas, an army composed mainly of Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Tojolabal, and other indigenous peasants would declare war on the government of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, initiating what has undeniably become the single most challenging armed rebellion in modern Mexico.

The Ejrcito Zapatista de Liberatin National (Zapatista National Liberation Army) launched its attack by seizing San Cristbal de las Casas, Oeosingo, Altamirano, and Las Margaritas. The Zapatistas, as they have since come to be called, identify themselves as the army of a revolutionary movement, one collectively led by a committee including members of the ethnic groups of Chiapas. According to the movement's charismatic spokesperson, Subcomandante Marcos, the Zapatistas speak on behalf of the country's poor and represent a national movement seeking to redress the economic and social injustices suffered by the peasantry. Subcomandante Marcos has emphasized not only the poverty and exploitation endured by indigenous people, but also the racism of the dominant ladino (Spanish-speaking) society toward indigenous people. A ladino himself, Subcomandante Marcos recently commented on this same issue in an interview given to the Italian newspaper L' Unita (and reprinted by Proceso 8): "In Mexico, the entire social system is based upon the injustice of its relations with the Indians. The worst thing that can happen to any human being is to be an Indian, with its full load of humiliation, hunger and misery [my translation]."

The Ejrcito Zapatista de Liberatin National took its name after Emiliano Zapata, the indigenous leader of the 1910 revolution. In modern Mexico, Zapata has acquired almost mythical status among both indigenous and ladino people and has become the prototypic Mexican revolutionary hero. By identifying their movement with Zapata and his struggle, the Zapatistas have added an electrifying emotional charge to the movement's appeal for social and economic justice. Not surprisingly, the response of Mexican civil society to the uprising has been overwhelmingly sympathetic.

The government, on the other hand, first responded by mobilizing a third of the entire Mexican army to Chiapas and declaring that the events were the result of the criminal activity of a small number of people, and not a genuine, popular political movement. According to outside monitors, the federal army committed numerous human rights abuses during the first days after the uprising, including the bombarding of indigenous villages and the harassing of international and national journalists.

However, an important component of the Zapatistas' strategy has been to wage a brilliant media war, which helped to polarize public opinion quickly in their favor, despite the typically lopsided coverage of events by Televisa, Mexico's pro-establishment and monopolistic television conglomerate. Fortunately, the national print press, the international press, and human rights organizations were on hand to publicize the killing, torture, and intimidation being carried out by the government troops. For once, it seems, the historical struggle of Mexico's indigenous peoples against racism, oppression, and poverty has been given its share of international press coverage.

The government's bloody response was strongly condemned by numerous sectors of Mexican society and demonstrations for peace were held in many cities; the attendance at the largest demonstration in Mexico City was estimated at 150,000. Because of the negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the international community and press wereclosely watching Mexico, and traditional power elites found themselves suddenly in an uneasy position. Thus, nine days after the uprising, President Salinas shifted from the tactics of coercion toward a position of reconciliation, announcing changes in his own presidential cabinet and other important posts, including the governor of Chiapas. Central to the president's decision was the replacement of the Secrelario de Gobernacin (police and internal affairs), Jorge Gonzlez Garrido, the authoritarian and repressive former governor of Chiapas, with Jorge Carpizo McGregor, known as a jurist, academician, and human rights advocate. President Salinas explained that with these changes his administration was recognizing its past mistakes and initiating a new strategy for peace and justice.

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