On Tuesday morning, Mexican co-hosts Angie Hinojos and Carlos Jimenez said,wireless Ya s tiempo! ” sits inside a radio booth decorated with large mariachi instruments. or Vihuelas at Centro Cultural Mexicano, a social justice nonprofit in downtown Redmond. A black sombrero hangs on the wall outside the recording booth, and a bold neon sign flashes in white: “Ya Es Tiempo, Now is the Time.”
From 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., they will speak with a variety of guests, from Washington state Rep. Vandana Slatter of the Eastside 48th District to families evacuated by nearby fires. Fluidly switching back and forth between English and Spanish, the hosts will discuss a mix of local and national news and entertainment and answer calls and questions from Redmond residents. Citing the show’s title, Jiménez and Hinojos said it’s time for Latino voices to be heard.
“Now is the time for our community to be considered and not taken for granted,” said Jiménez, who co-founded Centro Cultural Mexicano with Hinojos in 2018. Use your voice to help people take a closer look at our contributions to society. ”
The rise of community radio programming wireless “Ya es Tiempo!,” which airs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays on KXPA-AM (1540), reports that Latinos are the second fastest growing population in the state, with more than 231,000 people. It airs among more than 16,170 Latinos living in King County. in Redmond, according to the latest Census Bureau data. Hinojos and Jimenez said the radio show fills a gap in access to information for many Spanish speakers in the Seattle metropolitan area who do not have access to Spanish-language news media, services and resources.
“For the most part, they were ignored,” Hinojos said of the tens of thousands of Latinos who live on the East Side. “We needed to reach them in a language that resonated, whether it was Spanish or English or a mix of both.”
Hinojos and Jimenez launched the show last summer as a platform to uplift Latinos and reduce language barriers in accessing news about health, social justice and labor issues. This show is produced at Centro Cultural Mexicano, which provides space for local artists and supports small business owners and community resources such as rental assistance and COVID-19 vaccination clinics. Hinojos said that at the height of the pandemic, there was very little virus information available in Spanish, despite the high number of infections and deaths within the state’s Latino community.
“Our community has been ignored in many ways,” she said. “Without access, those opportunities don’t exist for the people they should.”
People frequently approach Hinojos and Jiménez at Centro Cultural Mexicano events and say they heard about them on the radio and need help connecting to services.
“What we hear from people is that they learned something,” Hinojos said. “It’s not just information, it’s people.”
Monica Trujillo, a KXPA-AM listener and nonprofit volunteer, spots small business owners like the members of the Seattle-based Latin band Trio Los Latinos. He said he appreciates the show because it shines a light on him. They were appearing in an episode about their challenge. What I faced as a local musician during the pandemic.
“People in the community suffered. [in ways] You wouldn’t even think about it,” Trujillo said. “There’s not a lot of information out there that we, as Latinos, can listen to every day and learn about all the events that are happening around our community.”
While some radio stations focus primarily on music, Trujillo said, wireless Hey Tiempo! ” focuses on social issues that directly impact the daily lives of Redmond residents.
“They touch on so many different subjects,” she said. Without programs like this to provide information to the community, “we’re kind of in the dark.”
Trujillo said that for many Spanish speakers in Redmond, the language barrier can make it difficult to follow local news that is primarily printed and broadcast in English.It is important for wireless Hey Tiempo! ” What exists in Redmond is that some people look for news on social media, but it’s not always filtered or moderated for a local audience.
“There’s a lot of stuff going around,” Trujillo said of news on social media. “It doesn’t really exist in your town.”
Few media outlets serve Latinos in Washington state.
” wireless Ya es Tiempo!,” broadcast to an estimated 70,000 listeners throughout the Puget Sound area, is one of the few Latino-run community radio programs on the air in the region. Other radio stations include Seattle’s El Rey 1360-AM, operated by Seamar Community Health Centers, known for curating Mexican music, news and sports coverage, and Portland-based Bastos. media.
Gloria Ibáñez, editor of the Spanish-language publication El Sol de Yakima, said that providing access to a variety of Spanish-language media on all platforms supports “informational equity” regarding local resources. “It’s a matter of local culture and government understanding.”
“These people need to be able to access this information in their native language,” Ibáñez said. “The risk of not providing information to communities in their own language is that this community will feel isolated.”
Without access to diverse sources of local media available in their native language, the Latinx community will be misinformed and unable to participate in local and national elections, voting, or even public health issues like COVID-19. Even news about the state of emergency will be unavailable, Univision Seattle anchor Jaime Mendez said. Reporter.
Bilingual form of “” wireless Hey Tiempo! ” is important to reduce these language barriers.
“If that information is provided in both languages, it applies not only to Spanish speakers, but also to English speakers,” Mendez said. “A lot of people, especially the next generation, are used to speaking Spanglish at home.”
Mendez said the program’s Spanglish format “opens up the possibility for more people to understand and feel recognized.”
” wireless Hey Tiempo! ” Hosts Hinojos and Jimenez said the show’s bilingual format helps listeners share the show with non-English speakers and English speakers at home.
Trujillo, who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and has lived in Redmond for more than 20 years, said she loves Redmond. wireless Hey Tiempo! ” The host speaks Spanish and English. This helps kids who are still learning Spanish feel included in the conversation.
“Spanglish, that was more of what I knew,” said Trujillo, who is bilingual. “If you listen to the conversation in English and Spanish, you can understand what’s going on.”
In the future, Trujillo hopes to see more organizations serving Redmond’s Latino community in addition to Centro Cultural Mexicano. She says Spanish-language radio, television and local groups help preserve culture and foster a sense of belonging.
“That way people can feel more included,” Trujillo said. “It will also help the next generation of Latinos learn more about their culture and language. I feel like a lot is lost within each generation.”