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“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]
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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

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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.

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