Where You From? (and the benefits of technology)

Where you from? My Greek grandma Vivian used to be notorious for asking this question to anyone she encountered. I remember as a kid visiting my Grandma in Spokane, Washington with my mom, sister, Aunt Angie and cousin Sarah. We’d go shopping at the mall and eventually leave my Grandma on a bench were she was content to rest while we shop-a-holics hit the stores. We’d always come back and my Grandma had met a new friend, usually be starting the conversation with, “Well…where you from?”. My aunt, my mom and now I have inherited this trait.

Our cultural roots tell so much about who we are. Since I was 18 and went to college this question has been increasingly harder to answer. Am I from Encinitas, San Luis Obispo or now Bellingham?

Although it is the reality, I felt bad leaving the last blog on such a downer. Thankfully, I met an amazing person yesterday who has an incredible vision and project in progress in Aguacatán. So here comes a blog of inspiration and hope.

William Lopez works for the radio station produced by the Catholic Church in Aguacatán. He also happens to be relatives with the family I know in Bellingham. He has a passion to connect Aguactecos with their loved ones in the United States through low powered radio programs. This project is separate from the Church’s radio program and is entirely voluntarily on his part. Fortunately, he uses Blogger, a free blog through Google to share his programs. Meeting William was incredibly exciting because we discussed the future possibilities for connecting more families through cost effective communication programs like Skype. He said migrants typically do not use Facebook because of more security risks for those without documentation. Also, this is not as good for children who may be too young to be on Facebook.

Each week William visits different aldeas, communities, surrounding Aguacatán and brings a video camera and recorder. People in the community join together to relay messages to loved ones in the United States. He then transmits the recordings onto his blog so migrants from Aguacatán living in the United States can listen to the recordings! He also records special holidays, ceremonies, and traditions that people in the U.S. then visit online to remember their culture and native home.

My favorite part on the site is on the bottom right hand corner called “clusters”. You can click on the map and see what states and countries have people listening to the radio. For example, I just went to the website and people from Bellingham, Ferndale and Maple Falls, WA are “active listener!” (For those of you in Bellingham, this is pretty crazy. Right?! Or maybe I’m just nerdy).

Part of my thesis was determining what type of technology people are using to communicate with migrants in the United States. For almost everyone, this is cell phones. However, a major barrier even with cell phones is the cost for families to make calls. The amount of communication women and children have with their spouse/father also seems to be directly correlated with children’s behavior. Therefore, one cost effective solution to connecting parents and children is using the benefits the internet has to offer. William’s radio program along with Skype both offer great ways for families to connect. William’s program is all voluntarily. I’m going with him to a remote area in the mountains this week to do some interviews for his radio. Another barrier is that Aguacatán just got internet two years ago. Similar to the United States, the older generation is just finally getting used to cell phone technology let alone internet and webcams. The internet is really slow in all the cafes and from what I’ve been told, teens go to internet cafes mostly to listen to music, watch videos, etc. that their parents probably don’t want them watching.

On my way out of William’s office yesterday, which is in the Catholic Church, we ran into a K’iche family who knew William from his radio program. They were asking about trying to use Skype to contact their son in Colorado. I had to get home so he text me afterwards and told me how it went.

Hi it is incredible, I found the people on Skype the people were looking for. There were tears  to see their family-They hadn’t seen their son in three years.

I recommend you check out these link! http://parroquiadeaguacatan.blogspot.com/. This is the future for connecting transnational families and an incredible way for migrants to remember their homeland.

So…where you from?

In hallway at Catholic Church