Preserve Guatemalan Culture With Community Radio

Hi Everyone! 

Happy Holidays to all of you from Nawal Estéreo.  We hope you enjoyed the fall and are bundling up for the winter months depending on where you find yourself in the country.  The past 3 months have been even busier than normal for everyone in the radio with several annual activities taking place and some others that are unique to 2011. 

In September, Guatemalans went to the polling stations to elect their new president and local government officials.  Nawal Estéreo played an integral role in the coverage of elections, both around the Western highlands of Guatemala and particularly in Nahualá.  Due to the lack of a majority winner in the presidential election on September 11^th, the country had a runoff election between the two candidates receiving the most votes in the beginning of November.  The radio was able to provide up to the minute information on the second round of presidential elections and keep their listeners informed on both the waiting time at polling stations as well as the incoming results. 

In October Nawal Estéreo was able to present the results of a several month long study conducted in collaboration with the Federation of Guatemalan Radio Schools (FGER in Spanish) of which the radio is a member.  The study was conducted in communities of 3 departments in Guatemala where the radio reaches: Sololá, Totonicapan and Quetzaltenango.  With the help of our interns the radio was able to speak to hundreds of listeners about signal quality in their area, what content on the radio they prefer and what they would like changed.  The experience was a beneficial one for all involved and strengthened our presence in these communities by putting a face to some of the voices the community hears on a daily basis. 

In the month of November Nawal Estéreo celebrated its 49^th anniversary.  Several concerts were held to commemorate the event, as well as the radio’s annual ½ marathon and cycling events for community members.  The anniversary falls the week before Nahualá’s town fair and it’s always a busy and fun time of the year for everyone involved.  The personnel of Nawal Estéreo and the community of Nahualá are looking forward to celebrating the 50^th anniversary next November and many more to come afterwards. 

We’ll wrap up our update there and wish you all a happy and safe holiday season.  We know there is an endless amount of causes you can donate to and we appreciate every bit of support that we receive from each and every one of you.  Now more than ever we can use your support as well; the radio recently incurred a Q50,000 (roughly $6,500 USD) debt in order to renew our broadcasting license with the government regulatory agency in Guatemala.  We have been fortunate to receive support from community members during fund drives held in the park, but are still well-short of being able to pay it back entirely.  Any support you can give us will go directly towards the upkeep of the radio’s signal and helping to ensure we can provide our listeners with quality, informative and educational content on a consistent basis.  Until next time, we hope you all enjoy your holiday season and remember that you can always listen in to the radio anytime via our website: www.nawalestereo.com

Sincerely,

Pete McNamee

Pedro Sohom Cotiy

And the Personnel of Nawal Estereo 93.1 FM

Links:

• Nawal Estereo Online

Hi Everyone!

It’s been quite some time since our last update and Nawal Estéreo has been hard at work serving our town of Nahualá and the rest of Guatemala’s Western Highlands. 

It’s an exciting time to be in Nahualá with various celebrations, anniversaries and of course the 2011 national and local elections.  In addition to the radio’s everyday programming and coverage of local events, we were quite busy during the month of April celebrating Semana Santa, or Holy Week in the run up to the Catholic Easter holiday.  As a large percentage of Nahualá (and much of Guatemala) is Catholic, this is one of the most important times of the year.  Family members who have moved to other parts of the country come from far and wide to see their relatives and partake in the festivities.  Semana Santa consists of several processions throughout the week in which hundreds if not thousands of participants walk throughout town carrying floats depicting different scenes from the Catholic Easter tradition.  Nahualá’s patron saint, Santa Catarina, also has her own float that is carried throughout town with much reverence.  The entire town also eats in traditional food during Semana Santa, including fish, white beans and delicious local honey paired with special bread made only during this time of year.  Another tradition for Semana Santa that is particular to this region of Guatemala is to erect arches throughout town.  The arches consist of two brightly colored 25 to 30 foot tree trunks and a crossbar adorned with different tropical fruit ranging from plantains to pineapples.  As an important and long-standing institution in the Nahualá community, Nawal Estéreo erects its own arch each year for the procession-goers to pass through. 

As mentioned earlier, Guatemala is getting ready to hold national and local elections this coming September.  As a major news source for many of our listeners and a well-established local media outlet, Nawal Estéreo has tried to provide as much information as possible regarding the various candidates, pertinent issues, party platforms, etc. not only for the people of Nahualá, but the entire Western Highlands.  We’ve instituted several special Sunday programs for elections season, providing a opportunity for listeners and interact directly with candidates through call-in shows as well as a place for each candidate to officially turn in their governmental plan for the municipality.  We’ve also been able to invite officials from the various government organizations overseeing the election process.  As Guatemala is in the midst of changing it’s national identification for all citizens, it has been a confusing and hectic process for many citizens to sort out which documentation they will need in order to be eligible to cast their vote.  Through our Sunday programs the radio has tried to alleviate this problem, allowing the electoral board to present the prerequisites to vote and also devoting time for callers to contact the radio and presenter with more specific questions. 

Adding to the excitement of the past few months was the Centennial Anniversary of Nahualá’s Catholic church.  The church stands in the center of town and is a focal point for life in Nahualá.  The event was celebrated with a large parade throughout town, including the participation of almost every one of the more than 20 schools currently operating in Nahualá.  Priests from several neighboring towns came to celebrate the occasion and a special mass was given on the day of the anniversary.  Afterwards all of those in attendance were provided with lunch, consisting of a traditional soup that’s prominent in Guatemala’s highlands called caldo.  As with all events both large and small, Nawal Estereo was able to provide coverage for the entire community, particularly those who were not able to attend due to space limitations or health reasons. 

We look forward to continuing our work for the community of Nahualá and the surrounding region, providing coverage of local events and interesting and educational content for our listeners.  We’d like to take this time to thank each and every one of you who has so generously donated to our community radio station.  Through your generosity we have been able to provide an essential service to all of Guatemala’s Western Highlands.  Until next time, we hope you all enjoy your final days of summer and remember that you can always listen in to the radio anytime via our website: www.nawalestereo.com

Sincerely,

Pete McNamee

Pedro Sohom Cotiy

And the Personnel of Nawal Estereo 93.1 FM

Links:

• Listen to Nawal Estereo Online

Hi Everyone!

We hope this latest update from Nawal Estéreo finds you well and hopefully starting to experience a bit of a thaw from what sounds like a snow-filled winter for many of you. 

In the past 3 months Nawal Estéreo has been keeping relatively busy with remote broadcasts (also known as transmissions) in our surrounding communities.  We have been able to provide coverage of local events such as town festivals for patron saints, celebrations for anniversaries of local youth groups and many other activities that have taken place recently in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. 

Since our last update the radio has begun collaborating with Uk’uxb’e, a Mayan cultural organization located in the department of Chimaltenango that promotes the strengthening of indigenous culture among all Mayan communities.  The collaboration has resulted in several training workshops for the members of Uk’uxb’e and the personnel of the radio as well as a radio forum for the listeners of Nawal Estéreo.  The programming has centered on the Mayan history of the highland communities and previous traditions and customs that might be in danger of being forgotten by future generations if they are not recognized and celebrated properly.  Being able to share the history of indigenous ancestors is very important to those working with the radio and the experience has proved to be very beneficial and well received by our listeners.

The radio has also started providing family planning workshops for several highland communities in the past several months.  The workshops take place on the weekends when families are most likely to be available and provide the groups of mostly indigenous women with valuable information regarding this topic.  In much of rural Guatemala it’s not uncommon for women to have up to 10 children beginning at an early age and often continuing well into their forties.  The amount of childbirth can have quite a physical toll on mothers.  The family planning program, with funding from USAID and the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University, provides indigenous families with the necessary information to be able to decide how many children they would like to have and better plan for when they would like to have them. 

Nahualá also recently celebrated the beginning of the Catholic observance of Lent.  As much of the population in Nahualá is Catholic this is a very important period of the year for both the town of Nahualá and Nawal Estéreo.  In the coming months leading up to Easter the radio will be covering all of the local events associated with Lent and eventually leading up to Semana Santa, culminating in the observance of Easter.  There will be many processions and parades throughout this time, with relatives of Nahaulenos coming from all over to celebrate with their extended families.  We look forward to being able to provide radio coverage of these activities for our listeners both in Guatemala and other Guatemalans that may be working in the states and listening via streaming radio on our website, http://www.nawalestereo.com. 

From all of us at Nawal Estéreo, thank you again for your continued support of our radio station.  We are eternally grateful for all of your help to assist us in providing our community with an essential cultural source of information and method of communication. 

Sincerely,

Pete McNamee

Pedro Sohom Cotiy

And the Personnel of Nawal Estereo 93.1 FM

Links:

• Nawal Estéreo's Website