Radio Cadena Forges a Vital Link for Poor Washington Farm Workers

For nearly two decades, Radio Cadena has been living up to its name, providing a vital link between the community and the Spanish-speaking people of the rural Yakima Valley.

Cadena means link or chain, and this little public radio station has forged countless connections for its audience with a steady supply of information aimed primarily at farm workers and their families.

Radio Cadena was born of the power-to-the-people movements of the 1960s and ‘70s, and its primary mission remains that of farm worker advocacy.

The weathered sign outside the red-brick building says: La voz del campesino. The voice of the farm worker.

“It’s still the station we can go to when there’s a meeting or some important event. They’ll get the word out,” says Guadalupe Gamboa, director of the state chapter of the United Farm Workers of America.

Radio Cadena (its call letters are KDNA) was the first full-time Spanish-language radio station in Washington state, says one of its founders, Ricardo R. Garcia, who is also the general manager.

Broadcasting from the only two-story building in town for the last 18 1/2 years, the station has become a cultural institution. It even inspired a children’s book called “Radio Man.”

Garcia, sitting in his cozy office for an interview, is surrounded by reproductions of historical photographs from the Mexican revolution.

“It’s a reminder of the struggles of poor people to regain their dignity, regain their land,” Garcia says of the photos of Villa and Zapata.

With farm worker rights come responsibilities, Garcia says, and Radio Cadena promotes those as well.

“We still see the need for empowerment,” he says.

The way to get it? “Learn English, become a U.S. citizen. Get registered to vote and then vote.”

Garcia, who has a daily public-affairs talk show, says he doesn’t hammer at his listeners; he just gives them information.

“It’s always an invitation to think,” he says.

He is committed to the idea that education is the great equalizer, regardless of race or sex.

“Education is always the answer to a stagnant way of life,” he says.

Garcia rejects cultural machismo and tells women they have a right to go to school, to learn English and to live without abuse. Children, too, have rights, he says.

The station (91.9 FM) is on the air 18 hours a day, seven days a week, offering a mix of public affairs programming, talk, music, even a sell-and-trade show. Over the years, serial dramas have been used to educate people about AIDS and overcoming alcohol abuse.

Anything salacious is out. Mean-spirited jokes, vulgarities and music that demeans people or glorifies drugs won’t be heard at KDNA, he says.

Each Sunday from 7 a.m. to noon is set aside for religious programming. It’s predominantly Catholic, but all are welcome. Fire-and-brimstone messages are not.

Garcia’s rules: “Don’t come and yell, don’t come and sell, just bring good messages.”

The station has competition from the commercial market now, and there are several Spanish-language radio stations in the Northwest.

But in 1979, 5,000-watt KDNA was the only game in town.

“It was a pioneer in the industry, kind of a model,” Gamboa recalls. “It really served a badly needed communications link.”

Juvencio Ramirez, 73, of Grandview has been listening to Radio Cadena since it went on the air.

A retired fruit picker and broadcaster from the old days of radio, Ramirez and his wife are especially partial to the “tradio” buy-and-sell show.

“That’s one of the programs we mostly like,” he says. “That’s why we support the station.”

What he doesn’t like is talk of union organizing for farm workers.

“One thing I am against, is they talk too much about how bad the farmers are and all of that, and that they’re underpaid,” says Ramirez, a native Texan who has lived in Grandview for 50 years.

“If it wouldn’t be for farming, they wouldn’t have a job.”

Up until the 1970s, most of the farm workers who came to the Yakima Valley to harvest fruits and vegetables were from Texas, and typically U.S. citizens.

But in the mid-1970s, there began an influx of undocumented workers, mostly from Mexico. They needed advocates in matters of health, justice and education, Garcia says.

“We used the radio to talk to the workers so they would know their rights,” says Garcia, himself a second-generation native of Texas.

KDNA is one of eight Hispanic-controlled radio stations receiving money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The others are in Fresno and Santa Rosa, Calif.; Denver; Miami; Albuquerque, N.M.; Lancaster, Pa.; and Harlingen, Texas.

The station has a budget of $300,000 a year, about $18,000 of which comes from listeners. The remainder comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, underwriters and grants.

The station has an estimated 13,000 listeners, from Ellensburg to the north to Goldendale, the Tri-Cities and the Oregon border to the south.

In 1993, Seattle author Arthur Dorros said he was inspired to write the children’s book “Radio Man” while listening to KDNA on a drive from Yakima to Seattle.

Written in English and Spanish, “Radio Man” is the story of a little boy named Diego whose farm-worker family travels from Texas to Arizona, then California and, finally, central Washington.

A series of Spanish-language stations provides continuity and comfort for Diego as his family moves with the fruit and vegetable harvests.

Like other public radio stations, KDNA does regular pledge drives--$15 is the requested donation, $25 gets a station T-shirt.

Raising money is always a challenge, but Garcia sees an important validation in each listener dollar, often from people with almost nothing to spare.

“You know they’re very poor, but they’re willing to give up $15.”