Purepecha Women on Community Radio, Representations of Indigenous Workers in Mexico

Abstract

This article reports the findings of an ethnographic study highlighting the current conditions of Indigenous women involved in community radio participation in the Purepecha villages of Michoacán, Mexico. The research aims to describe the characteristics of life conditions of the Purepecha women related through the community radio, media which is appropriated as own expression channel by these women who improve the broadcasting practice for share their experiences of hard life facing different ways of violence in the everyday activity. This qualitative research describes the daily lives of Purepecha Indigenous women through the experiences of community radio broadcasiting. The daily existence of these women is shaped by displacements, agricultural neo-conialism, and different forms of violence prevalent in the Purepecha area. An ethnography was used as the primary method to describe these varied realities and to conduct formal and informal interviews in community radio stations across different Indigenous villages such as Zacán, Cherán, Angahuan, Tinganbato, Nahuatzen y Paracho. The research findings highlight a stark contrast between the state's official narrative, which frames Purepecha villages as folkloric tourist destinations, and the voices of indigenous women who utilize community radio to shed light on the harsh realities of neo-colonialism driven by agribusinesses and organized crime. This study focuses on the specific perspectives of a group of indigenous women and does not claim to generalize its findings to the entire indigenous region.