On November 20 and 21, 2015, Cultural Survival Executive Director Suzanne Benally visited three Indigenous community radio stations in Guatemala. After participating in several panels during the VII Continental Meeting of Indigenous Women of the Americas, Benally traveled to three Indigenous communities to learn about the efforts and initiatives they are undertaking in maintaining their community radios.
On November 3, 2015 Radio Juventud staff, legal defense and supporters attended the hearing scheduled by the Sololá District Court to determine the legality of the radio. Last December 2014, Radio Juventud was raided by representatives of the Public Ministry and National Police which resulted in confiscation of all equipment and the community radio temporary shut down.
By Barbara R. Duncan
John Standingdeer Jr., a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, has received a patent for his new and unique method for decoding the inherent patterns in the Cherokee language, making it simple and easy to learn this endangered language. The U.S. Patent Office issued Patent Number US 9,158,762 B2 on October 13, 2015 for a “new and useful invention” for the “Deconstruction and Construction of Polysynthetic Words for Translation Purposes.”
On October 13, 2015 leading Indigenous organizations organized a meeting with the two aspiring vice-president candidates of Guatemala. The meeting had as a goal the discussion of the Indigenous Political Agenda and the work still to be done to improve the situation of over 40% of the population. The candidates are Mario Leal Castillo, vice-president candidate for the left-wing political party UNE and Jafeth Cabrera vice-president candidate for the right-wing political party FCN.
By Alexis White-Mobley
From October 4th to the 11th 2015, Teresita Mendoza, Cultural Survival’s Indigenous Community Radio Regional Promotor, began her visits through Central America to meet with Indigenous Radios across all seven countries. Her mission is to contact, invite and coordinate Indigenous Community Radios in Central America to unite and create an International Indigenous Community Radio Network. The initiative is in collaboration with various Indigenous rights and communications organizations in Latin America.
By The Guatemalan Human Rights Commission
The 2015 Alice Zachmann Human Rights Award will be presented to the community media group Prensa Comunitaria (Community Press) by the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission (GHRC).
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
