Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:29:10.773Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Vivir Mejor”:Radio Education in Rural Colombia (1960–80)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2020

Anna Cant Open the ORCID record for Anna Cant [Opens in a new window]
Anna Cant*
Affiliation:
London School of Economics, London, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Founded in 1947 by a Catholic priest, Acción Cultural Popular (ACPO) was a pioneer in radio education. Offering a radio station (Radio Sutatenza), study manuals, and a newspaper, ACPO provided basic education and encouraged campesinos to seek personal development and to “vivir mejor”--to live better. From 1947 to 1994, it attracted over four million subscribers and became a model in 13 Latin American countries. In this article I show how ACPO's approach to rural development and communication style evolved between 1960 and 1980. As a consequence of technological, economic, and cultural developments, Radio Sutatenza, a station with a more or less captive audience of illiterate peasants, changed as it was forced to respond to rural Colombians’ shifting aspirations and competition from commercial radio. While the organization's founding principles remained constant throughout this period, its articulation of what it meant to “live better” changed over time, reflecting the struggles of a religious organization to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world. While ACPO saw itself as the bearer of modernity, it was often confronted by independent processes of change already occurring in rural communities.

Keywords

radio educationColombiaCatholic ChurchCold Warrural
Type
Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 77 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 573 - 600
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Academy of American Franciscan History

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This research was funded by a Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Studentship. I am grateful to the helpful staff of the Luis Angel Arango Library for facilitating access to the archives and to the history department at Los Andes University (Bogota) for hosting me. I would also like to thank my colleagues at LSE and the journal's anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier drafts.

References

1. Karl, Robert A., Forgotten Peace: Reform, Violence, and the Making of Contemporary Colombia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2017), 128CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. Karl, Forgotten Peace, 126.

3. See for example Roldán, Mary, ‘“Communication for Change’: Radio Sutatenza/Acción Cultural Popular, the Catholic Church and Rural Development in Colombia during the Cold War,” in Itineraries of Expertise: Science, Technology, and the Environment in Latin America's Long Cold War, Chastain, Andra and Lorek, Timothy, eds. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020), 114–134CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roldán, Mary, “Popular Cultural Action, Catholic Transnationalism, and Development in Colombia before Vatican II,” in Local Church, Global Church: Catholic Activism in Latin America from Rerum Novarum to Vatican II, Andes, Stephen J. C. and Young, Julia G., eds. (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2016), 245–274CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jorge Rojas Álvarez, “‘Campesinos y radios’: aspectos sociales de la tecnología en las escuelas radiofónicas de Radio Sutatenza (1950–1970)” (Master's diss.: Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, 2014); and Acevedo Ruiz, María José and Garzón, Soraya Maite Yie, “‘We Owe Ourselves to the Land’: El Campesino and the Creation of a Voice for the Fields, 1958–1962,” Anuario Colombiano de Historia Social y de la Cultura 43:1 (2016): 165–201Google Scholar.

4. ACPO was reactivated as a charitable foundation in 2012, when it began providing “campesino digital schools,” a contemporary equivalent to the radio schools that focused on increasing computer literacy in rural areas. https://www.fundacionacpo.org

5. Lerner, Daniel, The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East (New York: The Free Press, 1964), 412Google Scholar, paperback edition. First published in 1958.

6. Larkin, Brian, Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria (Durham; London: Duke University Press, 2008), 117–118Google Scholar.

7. Larkin, Signal and Noise, 117–118.

8. Nicole Sackley, “The Village as Cold War Site: Experts, Development, and the History of Rural Reconstruction,” Journal of Global History 6:3 (November 2011): 491.

9. Houtart, François and Pérez, Gustavo, Acción Cultural Popular: sus principios y medios de acción. Consideraciones teológicas y sociológicas (Bogotá: Editorial Andes, 1960)Google Scholar.

10. Houtart and Pérez, Acción Cultural Popular: sus principios, 37.

11. Houtart and Pérez, Acción Cultural Popular: sus principios, 57.

12. Jamison, Dean T. and McAnany, Emile G., Radio for Education and Development (London: Sage, 1978), 9Google Scholar.

13. Jamison and McAnany, Radio for Education and Development, 9–17.

14. José Arturo Rojas M., “El Campesino: ‘Un semanario al servicio y en defensa de los campesinos de Colombia,’” Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico del Banco de la República 82 (2012): 145.

15. Aura Hurtado, “Cartas, rádios e impressos: cultura escrita camponesa na Colômbia, 1953–1974” (Master's diss.: Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, 2016).

16. Jorge Rojas Álvarez, “‘Campesinos y radios’: aspectos sociales de la tecnología en las escuelas radiofónicas de Radio Sutatenza (1950–1970)” (Master's diss.: Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, 2014), 86.

17. Carlos Vargas Vanegas, Cursos campesinos para principiantes (program script), August 8, 1963, ACPO Archive, Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá [hereafter ACPO], 2.

18. Mary Jeane Roldán, “ACPO, Estado, educación y desarrollo rural en Colombia, 1947–1974,” in Radio Sutatenza: una revolución en el campo colombiano (1947–1994), Zuly Zabala León et al., eds. (Bogotá: Banco de la República, 2017), 39.

19. Hernando Bernal Alarcón, “Radio Sutatenza: un modelo colombiano de industria cultural y educativa,” Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico del Banco de la República 82 (2012): 16.

20. Alfredo Vázquez Carrizosa, Historia crítica del Frente Nacional (Bogotá: Ediciones Foro Nacional por Colombia, 1992).

21. Rosa Ortega de Meza to ACPO, February 22, 1965, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 110, no. 875.

22. Ortega de Meza to ACPO, February 22, 1965.

23. Ana Beatriz R. de Morales to ACPO, August 26, 1969, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 243, s/n.

24. Enrique Lozano, Noción de alfabeto–principiantes (program script), February 10, 1964, ACPO. Ellipses in the original.

25. María Elsa and Agniria Casas Ocampo to Euripides Triana, ACPO, May 10, 1971, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 114, s/n.

26. Alicia Zambrano, Disfrutemos la naturaleza (program script), 1980, ACPO, Mss 3796.

27. León Zamosc, “Peasant Struggles of the 1970s in Colombia,” in Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements, Susan Eckstein, ed. (University of California Press, 2001), 113.

28. Zamosc, “Peasant Struggles,” 102–131.

29. Jafte Dilean Robles Lomeli and Joanne Rappaport, “Imagining Latin American Social Science from the Global South: Orlando Fals Borda and Participatory Action Research,” Latin American Research Review 53:3 (2018): 597–612.

30. ACPO, Mensaje de la Dirección General a los colaboradores de la Institución (Bogotá, 1972).

31. Enrique Lozano, De alfabeto para principiantes (program script), February 9, 1965, ACPO.

32. Buenos días - Alfabeto (program script, author unknown), May 31, 1977, ACPO, Mss3404.

33. Stefan Musto et al., Los medios de comunicación social al servicio del desarrollo rural. Análisis de la eficiencia de Acción Cultural Popular, Radio Sutatenza (Colombia) (Bogotá: Editorial Andes, 1971), cited in Hernando Bernal Alarcón, ACPO - Radio Sutatenza. De la realidad a la utopía (Bogotá: Fundación Cultural Javeriana, 2005), 83.

34. Bernal Alarcon, ACPO - Radio Sutatenza. De la realidad a la utopía, 82.

35. Ilce Amira Correa, letter to the program Correo de Radio Sutatenza, July 21, 1969, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 113, no. 9885.

36. María Elena and Agniria Casas to Diego Duque Trujillo (ACPO), July 15, 1971, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 114, s/n.

37. María Cristina Hernández Ortiz (ACPO) to Norbey Antonio Zapata in San José del Palmar (Chocó), April 27, 1973, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 18, s/n.

38. Víctor Manuel González Rojas to ACPO, March 7, 1965, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 3, no. 5564.

39. Fabiola Osorio Forero (ACPO) to Gulfran Avilez, leader of campesino education in Tierralta, Córdoba, February 17, 1975, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 122, s/n.

40. Carlos Vargas Vanegas, Dirigentes seglares (program script), April 23, 1963, ACPO, Mss3427.

41. Tulia Hernández (ACPO) to Marcial F. Ocampo Q. in San José, Tumaco, Nariño, February 23, 1970, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 15, s/n.

42. Abel Ricardo López-Pedreros, “Conscripts of Democracy: The Formation of a Professional Middle Class in Bogotá during the 1950s and early 1960s,” in The Making of the Middle Class: Toward a Transnational History, A. Ricardo López and Barbara Weinstein, eds. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012), 170.

43. Houtart and Pérez, Acción Cultural Popular: sus principios, 53.

44. ACPO (author name unknown) to Elsa Inés Rojas C. in Furminá (Cauca), May 26, 1965, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 3, no. 5737.

45. Julia B. de T. C. to ACPO, November 2, 1963, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 1, no. 114.

46. Rosemary Galli, “Rural Development as Social Control: International Agencies and Class Struggle in the Colombian Countryside.” Latin American Perspectives 5:4 (October 1978): 71–89.

47. López-Pedreros, “Conscripts of Democracy,” 188.

48. Mercadeo agropecuario (program script, author unknown), October 13, 1980, ACPO, Mss3817.

49. Juan Mosquera Cossia (Restrepo, Chocó) to ACPO, September 14, 1974, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 121, s/n.

50. Mary Roldán, “Acción Cultural Popular, Responsible Procreation, and the Roots of Social Activism in Rural Colombia,” Latin American Research Review 49(S) (2014): 27–44.

51. ACPO, Mensaje de la Dirección General a los colaboradores de la Institución (Bogotá, 1977), 3–4.

52. ACPO, Mensaje de la Dirección General a los colaboradores de la Institución (Bogotá, 1979), 21–22.

53. ACPO, Cartilla agrícola (Bogotá: Editorial Pio X Ltda., 1962), 2.

54. Daniel Antonio Trillos (Paillitas, Santander) to ACPO, February 25, 1965, ACPO Correspondencia, vol. 110, no. 998, Mss3351-998.

55. Mercadeo Agropecuario, October 13, 1980, ACPO, Mss3817.

56. Rausch, Jane, “Promoción de la alfabetización en la frontera de los Llanos: la influencia de Radio Sutatenza y Acción Cultural Popular en el departamento del Meta, 1950 a 1990,” Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico del Banco de la República 82 (2012): 92–127Google Scholar.

57. Carlos Aníbal Zapata to Euripides Triana L. (ACPO), April 27, 1968, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 70, s/n.

58. Cadena, Gustavo Jiménez, Sacerdote y cambio social. Estudio sociológico en los Andes colombianos (Bogotá: Ediciones Tercer Mundo, 1967), 288–289Google Scholar.

59. Lopera, Alejandro, “Paternidad o procreación responsable: Iglesia Católica, Acción Cultural Popular y control de la natalidad en Colombia (1964–1978),” Historia y Sociedad, 31 (2016): 235–267CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

60. Juan Pablo Angarita Bernal, “La música en el programa educativo de Acción Cultural Popular: Radio Sutatenza y sus usuarios, 1955-70” (Master's diss.: Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, 2016), 29–60.

61. Angarita Bernal, “La música,” 29–60.

62. José Marcelino (surname and address unknown) to ACPO, December 31, 1963, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 1, no. 185, mss3351-185.

63. The Claretians are a community of Roman Catholic priests and brothers, founded in 1849 by Anthony Mary Claret.

64. José Marcelino to ACPO, December 31, 1963.

65. Juan Evangelista Torres Sosa to ACPO, no date (but catalogued with letters of 1970), ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 168.

66. Torres Sosa to ACPO (n/d).

67. Lucelida Torre Echeverri (ACPO central office) to Juan Evangelista Torres Sosa, April 22, 1970, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 168. Emphasis added.

68. Torre Echeverrí to Juan Evangelista Torres Sosa. Emphasis added.

69. Carlos Arturo Henao to ACPO, September 21, 1969, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 320.

70. Adelmina Qually to ACPO, May 28, 1971, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 244.

71. Zamosc, “Peasant Struggles,” 102–131.

72. César J. Buriticá to El Campesino, May 28, 1967, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 311.

73. César J. Buriticá to El Campesino, May 28, 1967.

74. Roldán, “ACPO, Estado, educación y desarrollo rural en Colombia, 1947–1974.”

75. Julio Abel Díaz Torres to Radio Sutatenza, November 1969, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 114, s/n.

76. Primitivo Rodríguez Carpio to Radio Sutatenza, December 10, 1975, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 132, s/n.

77. Juvenal Sambonis to ACPO, November 14, 1969, ACPO, Correspondencia, vol. 12, s/n.