The Sistema de Radiodifusoras Culturales Indígenas (SRCI; en, Indigenous Cultural Broadcasting System) is a state-owned network of

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

s in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. The radio stations it operates are

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular ...

stations that aim to serve different sectors of the country's

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

. Pursuant to Article 4 of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

, their mission is to strengthen the multicultural nature of the nation by promoting the use of 31

indigenous languages An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples. This language is from a linguistically distinct community that originated in the area. Indigenous languages are not neces ...

. As the stations are owned by the federal government, they hold

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

concessions.

History

The SRCI began operations in 1979 with the launch of

XEZV-AM XEZV-AM (''La Voz de la Montaña'' – "The Voice of the Mountain") is an indigenous community radio station that broadcasts in Spanish, Nahuatl, Mixtec and Tlapanec from Tlapa de Comonfort in the Mexican state of Guerrero. It is run by th ...

, "La Voz de la Montaña", in

Tlapa de Comonfort Tlapa de Comonfort, often shortened to Tlapa and known as Tinda'i in Mixtec, is a city in the mountain region of the Mexican state of Guerrero. It also serves as the municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of the same name. "Tlapa" is a ...

Guerrero Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...

. The network was initially managed by the National Indigenist Institute (INI), an agency of the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

In 2003, the INI was dissolved and replaced by the

National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples The National Institute of Indigenous Peoples ( es, Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas, INPI) is a decentralized agency of the Mexican Federal Public Administration. It was established on December 4, 2018, though the earliest Mexican g ...

(CDI), which consequently assumed control over the network. The CDI was in turn replaced by the

National Institute of Indigenous Peoples The National Institute of Indigenous Peoples ( es, Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas, INPI) is a decentralized agency of the Mexican Federal Public Administration. It was established on December 4, 2018, though the earliest Mexican g ...

(INPI) in late 2018. Until 2019, the station was known as the ''Sistema de Radiodifusoras Culturales Indigenistas'' (Indigenist Cultural Broadcasting System).

Stations

The SRCI operates 22 primary radio stations, most of which transmit on AM and eight of which are high-power FM stations. It also previously operated four 10-watt FM stations in Yucatán. The 22 main stations transmit for an average of 12 hours a day, during daylight hours, covering 928

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

with high levels of indigenous inhabitants. The stations' potential audience comprises 5 million speakers of

and more than 22 million Spanish speakers. They all broadcast an array of programming in both

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and the particular native languages spoken in the coverage area. Four stations are AM-FM migrants: XHCARH, XHPET, XHTUMI, XHNKA. XHCARH and XHPET are required to maintain their AM frequencies because they are the only radio service for certain communities in its AM coverage area. The second and third stations reacquired their AM frequencies under new callsigns. In 2016 and 2017, the CDI applied for and received FM radio stations that provide simulcast service for XETLA (XHPBSD-FM 95.9), XEGLO (XHGJO-FM 88.3), and XEQIN (XHSQB-FM 95.1). On February 28, 2020, the INPI relaunched La Voz de los Chontales, which had been shuttered as XENAC in 1989 for political reasons, as XHCPBS-FM.

Defunct stations

Between 1982 and 1989, the SRCI system included a station at Nacajuca, Tabasco, XENAC-AM 1440. That station was shut down in 1989; the station was revived more than 30 years later as XHCPBS-FM. The CDI also formerly held a trio of permits for low-power FM stations at three communities in Michoacán;Proyectos experimentales: Radiodifusoras de baja potencia en albergues escolares indígenas
(SRCI) these were not renewed.

Programming

The stations' programming is eminently community-focused. Bilingual presenters attend inquiries from listeners, convey community and personal announcements, and promote various government assistance programs in the areas of health, education, human rights, etc. Traditional music is also a key component of the stations' broadcasts, and their recording collections, frequently gathered in the field, constitute an important cultural resource.

References

{{reflist

External links

Sistema de Radiodifusoras Culturales Indígenas

The Negotiation of Indigenist Radio Policy in Mexico
(on

World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (french: link=no, Association Mondiale Des Radiodiffuseurs Communautaires, AMARC) is the international umbrella organization of community radio broadcasters founded in 1983, with nearly 3,000 me ...

website) Mexican radio networks Indigenous peoples in Mexico Government of Mexico Community radio organizations Indigenous mass media