Struggling for Air: The Politics of Resilience in a Maya K’iche’ Radio Station, 1959-2020

Date of Award

Spring 1-1-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

History

First Advisor

Joseph, Gilbert

Abstract

Radio is cheap to operate and extends beyond real and imagined barriers, from mountains to national borders. In Guatemala, radio provided the only option for Native-language media before the advent of digital media, as television and newspapers were produced in the colonial language of Spanish. For Indigenous voices that had been excluded from mainstream media and national politics, radio supplies a novel platform of engagement where projects across the political spectrum, from women's rights to evangelical Christianity, can be explored publicly. Indigenous broadcasters' work often prioritizes community voices, alternative knowledges, and autonomy from structures of domination. Yet, there are many obstacles to producing Native-language media, depriving Indigenous communities of this essential resource. The dissertation documents this problem in the context of Guatemala, home to one of Latin America's largest Indigenous populations and one of the most homogenous, hostile mediascapes in the region. "Struggling for Air" analyzes practices of resilience at the oldest Maya K'ichi' radio station in Guatemala, La Voz de Nahualá/Nawal Estéreo, assessing how the Maya broadcasting team contended with and overcame complex - and many times life-and-death - situations. As Indigenous and community journalists fight to report information worldwide, this research presents a case where a team of Maya broadcasters have simultaneously worked through and narrated dangers, from genocide to migration, while encouraging local transformation in K’iche’, Kaqchikel, and Spanish since 1962. The project draws on extensive multi-sited archival research, participatory ethnography, and oral histories in Maya K’iche’ and Spanish.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS