Before Bëë Xhidza Aire Zapotec, the only frequencies that reached the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca were those of Veracruz, whose contents were decontextualized and far from the reality of the Xhidza people. In 2009 they decided to change that reality. “We got together to make our own community radio, where we could talk in our own language and about our own problems and what comes from outside we could translate,” says Martínez Flores.
However, creating and maintaining a community radio is complex. A strong investment is required to acquire radio equipment, computers, a space to record and a concession to be able to transmit. The xhidza community did not give up. His first step was to raise funds and he found them with the Association of Christian Radios, a non-governmental organization in Canada, who financed them with 200,000 pesos to purchase radio equipment.
But the most important piece was missing: the radio frequency. Obtaining a concession for AM or FM, says Martínez Flores, is difficult, mainly due to the requirements that are required, such as having financial capacity and technical specifications for the use of bands.
For this reason, they opted for another route: to establish their radio through the use of free frequencies from Veracruz that reach their community, using international agreements, such as that of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which points out the importance of rights to education and the media in indigenous communities, or the declaration of indigenous peoples and the regulatory law of the peoples and communities of Oaxaca, which allow communities to establish their own media in the mother tongue.
“We saw a frequency that was free and, from there, we started transmitting. When a station comes along that starts broadcasting, we switch so we don’t steal frequency from that station. Because this radio does not seek to compete with another station, it is a regional radio station,” says Martínez Flores.
The use of free frequencies by indigenous communities to develop their own radios has caused them to be branded as ‘pirates’ or ‘clandestine’. But for the co-founder of the Xhidza collective, these denominations are unfair, “because the only thing we try to do is spread our customs. We live in community and there is the thought of serving and helping each other through the radio. Behind a radio there is a lot of effort and alternatives are being sought”.
When the Telecommunications and Broadcasting reform was enacted in Mexico in 2013, various specialists warned of the danger of making the administrative and legal procedures so complicated so that indigenous communities could access a concession, as it would cause them to transmit through free frequencies. .