Hugo Morales is preserving culture and protecting community over the airwaves

Hugo Morales grew up picking produce in the farm fields of Fresno with his family. When he returned to Fresno after college, he saw that his community – the Central Valley’s half-million Latino farmworkers – barely had radio in their own language, much less a radio station controlled by their own community. In 1976, Hugo and a group of activists and artists set out to change that. And by 1980, Radio Bilengüe – the nation’s first multilingual news and cultural radio station built to empower the Latino community – was broadcasting live from Fresno. Over the last 45 years, Radio Bilengüe has grown into the largest public radio network of its kind in the United States with 30 public radio stations and 75 affiliate stations across five states. In this episode Hugo shares about:Flyering on telephone polls to get the station startedWhat it means for a community to own its narrative by owning its own airwavesHow the station blends music, culture, and hard news to support cultural preservation and community safetyHow his other organizing work in and around Fresno is interconnected with Radio BilengüeWays the radio station has literally saved livesAnd Radio Bilengüe’s plans for a bricks and mortar cultural center in downtown FresnoNext episode, meet Dr. Sarait Martinez, who  leads the only Indigenous women-led organization serving Indigenous communities in the Fresno region. She's working to close the harmful structural gaps created when institutions don’t account for distinct Indigenous languages or cultural context.  Subscribe to PathBreakers on [Spotify] | [Apple Podcasts] | [YouTube]Tune in to Radio Bilengüe at RadioBilengue.orgListen all of Season 2 at https://pathbreakers.kresge.orgCo-Hosts: Tracey Pearson and Jamie BennettProducer: Juliet HinelyManaging Editor: Krista JahnkeProduction support: Jennifer Kulczycki and Tracey PearsonSpecial thanks on this episode to Kresge’s American Cities Program, especially Chantel Rush Tebbe and Anand Sharma.Thanks for listening!