FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Patricia Hernandez
patriciah@radiobilingue.org
559-455-5782

Fresno, CA (March 7, 2005) On Sunday, March 13, Radio Bilingüe will launch the first and only bi-national/ bilingual Spanish/ Mixteco talk show in national radio. The unprecedented live simulcast will mark the kick off of an exciting new dialogue between émigrés of Oaxaca living in California and their compatriots living in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Radio Bilingüe, the U.S. Latino public radio network, celebrates the occasion as it invites Mexico’s leading official of indigenous affairs, Xóchitl Gálvez, to serve as special guest of the first bi- national show. Hosting Ms. Galvez’ visit in Fresno will be Hugo Morales, founder and executive director of Radio Bilingüe, and Filemón López, a former community leader and current producer of La Hora Mixteca (The Mixtec Hour), both of Mixtec background.

Radio Bilingüe invites the media to cover this unique programming partnership on Sunday, March 13 at 10am at the Radio Bilingüe studios in Fresno at 5005 E. Belmont Avenue prior to the 23rd annual Viva el Mariachi Festival.  Xóchitl Gálvez will also be available for interviews immediately following the program.

The program, "La Hora Mixteca”, airs every Sunday from 1pm to 2pm. It is broadcast in Spanish and Mixtec, the indigenous language of most migrants from Oaxaca, Mexico. In its ten years on the air, the bilingual Spanish/ Mixteco program has provided a forum where Mixtec listeners calling from all over California, Washington and Baja California can exchange greetings with their loved ones and share comments on the news, interviews, and folk music that are part of the program’s format.  “Now, through the installation of state-of-the-art satellite uplink and downlink antennas, California listeners will be able to directly link to and dialogue with listeners from the heartlands of Oaxaca, Mexico” said Hugo Morales, Executive Director of Radio Bilingüe. “This type of international collaboration enables us to meet the needs of Oaxacans in both California and Mexico while at the same time illustrating Radio Bilingüe’s unrelenting commitment to the critically under-served Mixtec radio audience.”

It is estimated that 10 to 15 percent of California's roughly 800,000 farm workers are of Mixtec origin.There are now as many as 100,000 Mixtecs in California, making them the largest Indian group in the state. Roughly half have come in the last five years, working their way north from Oaxaca, Guerrero and Puebla. It is estimated that in the Central Valley, Radio Bilingüe reaches approximately 60,000 Mixtecs.

The first bi-national program to premiere on Sunday will feature a live conversation with Ms. Xochitl Gálvez as well as call-ins from radio colleagues and listeners from around the newly-interconnected network.

Funding for thye satellite equipment of Radio Bilingüe’s Puente OaxaCalifornia initiative has been provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. This development is part of Radio Bilingüe’s Binational Health Collaborative, a community-oriented project targeting migrant listeners and their families with preventative information on nutrition, tuberculosis, housing, STDs and other critical health issues. Programming content for this initiative is funded in part by The California Endowment.

The National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Communities (CDI), a government agency that owns a network of 24 stations that broadcast in various indigenous languages throughout Mexico, and Radio Bilingüe, have recently signed agreements to co-produce and distribute the simulcast service. The stations joining Radio Bilingüe’s simulcast include XETLA, La Voz de la Mixteca, Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Mex., XEOJN, La Voz  de la Chinantla, San Lucas Ojitlán, Oaxaca, Mex., XEZV, La Voz de la Montaña, Tlapa, Guerrero, Mex.,  XEGLO, La Voz de la Sierra de Juárez, Guelatao, Oaxaca, Mex., and XEJAM, La Voz de la Costa Chica, Jamiltepec, Oaxaca, Mex.

Radio Bilingüe is a network of five full-power FM radio stations reaching California’s main agricultural valleys.  Radio Bilingüe has been designated as the National Latino Public Radio service of the United States. Through its satellite service, Satélite Radio Bilingüe, the non-profit organization distributes news, information and musical programming to radio affiliates throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and Mexico.  For more information on Radio Bilingüe, visit the web site at www.radiobilingue.org.