Friday I found myself in a small town in the state of Veracruz that I hadn’t even heard of the week before. It was fantastic to get out of D.F. for the weekend and breathe some fresh air. The flora of the central Veracruz highlands is completely different from what I am getting used to in the big capital city; the humid air and lush, dense vegetation was a welcome change. Everything was green—a rich, vibrant, enlivening green.
A comfortable walk up the sloping hill in Teocelo, Veracruz, home to about 14,000 residents, brought us to the doorstep of Radio Teocelo, the most well-known and respected community radio station in Mexico. The reason for our visit was Manuel’s potential Master’s thesis, a sociological study of community radio in Mexico and its effect on the lives of citizens living in local pueblos within broadcast distance.
As we spoke with the men and women behind the scenes at the radio station, I began to understand the breadth of the impact this radio station has on the community. The number of projects they have in the works is impressive, especially considering that they only have a core group of about 7 volunteers managing these initiatives.
Hearing stories about community involvement with Radio Teocelo was uplifting, and a welcome change from the dark focus in Mexico City on murders and deaths that daily plaster the front pages of so many newspapers. At the core of Radio Teocelo’s mission is fraternity and beneficial communication. The program directors are conscientious of the needs, interests (and music taste!) of the town’s inhabitants. The radio is the community’s source for weather, important town events and happenings, agricultural news, coffee prices, cultural events, and interviews with local government representatives. Indeed, mayors from Teocelo and neighboring towns are often interviewed over the air by town residents themselves, thereby voicing the community’s concerns, questions and opinions in transparent format.
Just in the past few months, Radio Teocelo has begun broadcasting online. At first this idea was controversial at the station, because the program directors didn’t want to take focus away from the important, tight-knit community aspect of the station. However, the opposite is actually taking place. Since a large percentage of the population of central Veracruz has left the country to find work in the U.S., the availability of Radio Teocelo online has actually reconnected Veracruzanos living abroad with their towns and given them an important sense of belonging, despite the grand distances between families.
Two relatively new offshoots from Radio Teocelo are Teocelo TV and Altavoz, a biweekly newsletter on current events in Teocelo and central Veracruz. Many of the articles are contributions from local writers and concerned citizens, as well as many of the topics covered by the new video component of the radio. One of the first video projects completed by Teocelo TV was in response to a woman who called in to the radio station voicing her dismay over the polluted state of a large creek running by her home. Teocelo TV took note of her complaint and produced a video segment about that very creek, linking the issue to environmental concerns at a community level and calling for widespread measures to care for Teocelo’s natural habitats.
With such a variety of programs offered by the community and for the community, it uplifting to hear how much the residents do value Radio Teocelo. While the community is one of modest economic means, hundreds of families donating as little as $2USD a month is how the not-for-profit radio station pays its bills. Without paid advertising at the station, the life-line between the radio and the community’s financial support is apparent. To listen online or to find out more about Radio Teocelo, check out their site at http://www.radioteocelo.org/.
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