María Eugenia Chávez Fonseca She is a decades-long feminist activist in Mexico. Chávez currently directs the organization Freedom of Expression in Comprehensive Health for Women, AC and is the founder of the feminist station Violeta Radio 106.1 FM from Mexico City, a station that, according to INRA, had more than 18,000 listeners at its peak audience.
The name of María Eugenia Chávez Fonseca appears as legal representative of the Alliance for the Human Right of Women to CommunicateAC, the civil organization that was formed to obtain a spectrum concession in November 2017 to create the first feminist radio station on FM in the capital. It also appears in documents from the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) related to the technical transmission characteristics of Violeta Radio and is the signature that stands out in the document by which that entity returns the 106.1 Megahertz frequency to the State, so that it can now be competed by other interested parties who want to transmit social or indigenous radio in the capital of Mexico.
Chávez Fonseca decided return the frequency to the IFT of a station that sought to empower women, because two women wanted to take over Violeta Radio from within, Chávez says in an interview. These are also activists Aimée Vega and Lucía Lagunespromoters of the organization Communication and Information of Women, AC (CIMAC). In an interview with El Sol de México, these two feminists and the CIMAC producer, Hazel Zamora, claimed to be the leaders of the Alliance for the Human Right of Women to Communicate, still a week ago the concessionaire of 106.1 FM.
Aimée Vega Montiel also appears as one of the main advisors of the feminist organization Conectadasone of the most recognized entities in the telecommunications sector for its work in bringing Mexican girls closer to information technologies and for the character of the profiles that make up that entity, so it remains in doubt whether the organization Conectadas will establish position on this plot. Vega Montiel was contacted by this means, but so far she has not responded to WhatsApp messages.
Chávez Fonseca denies the leadership of his now former collaborators and narrates in a fifteen-minute phone call alleged abuses by the Violeta Radio controlwhich led to the end of that feminist station on the capital’s FM. What is true is that Violeta tried to make visible the challenges that women still face in Mexico.
Violeta Radio also had its own challenges and succeeded in its almost five years on the air, because in its life on the air it accumulated more than half a million listeners in the capital, despite using a tower loaned by Radio Educación, an antenna given by Reporters Without Borders and despite being enabled with only 3,000 watts of transmission power, but with broadcasting booths in various parts of the city, because its directors were never able to agree and reconcile. Now, all that remains is for Chávez to go to Ángel Urraza Street to turn off the Violeta Radio switch.
—A document from the Federal Telecommunications Institute says that you returned the concession of XHCDMX-FM 106.1 in Mexico City. The document does not tell the reason, could you?
—Indeed, the concession of 106.1 FM was returned by me on Monday, October 14, 2024. The reason is because this was a story that started badly. It is a story that has turned out to be very beautiful in the public eye, but in reality it had a very tortuous internal history.
I started working on this project in 2003, together with the World Association of Community Radio Stations and the leader was Aleida Calleja. Later I invited other women communicators or those linked to communication and feminism, but particularly they, Aimée Vega Montiel and Lucía Lagunes Huerta, got involved in the project, always trying to take ownership of it.
We were four. The fourth person is Lourdes Barbosa. Subsequently, Lourdes Barbosa resigns and precisely because of harassment by Aimée Vega and Lucía Lagunes. Lourdes Barbosa resigns and I remain in the minority.
The last time I remember that I spoke with them, trying to be on good terms, was in November 2019 and let’s say, face to face. Later they stopped my speech and we continued working remotely. It was a very tortuous situation, they always tried to make me invisible. They, publicly all the time, have said that only they are the Alliance for the Human Right of Women to Communicate.
—What would have happened, for you to suddenly go to the IFT with Violeta Radio’s resignation of its spectrum concession after having endured five years of tension?
—In legal terms, they had already taken over the presidency and the treasury of the civil association, and they relegated me to the secretary. They already had the powers and in a conversation about equity, a notary accepted my proposal that we all have the same powers. But it wasn’t quite like that.
They called an assembly where the revocation of my powers was on the agenda. On Monday, they intended to take away those powers from me, it was a meeting with a law firm. I had been able to build Violeta Radio precisely because of those powers. That seemed like an outrage to me, in addition to the fact that Aimée Vega Montiel does not do radio, since she gave up her programmatic bar to Lagunes and I was dissatisfied, since I consider that in any case it should have been distributed in a more tripartite manner.
It seemed to me then that the right thing to do was to remove the bone of contention from the middle. This was never a money issue. It’s a matter of them wanting to stay with the frequency and I don’t know the purposes.
—This same day, the IFT may receive requests to allocate the frequency again. The winner, according to current regulations, may be another organization, including Mrs. Montiel and Lagunes and yourself in separate projects. Would there then be a future for a Violeta Radio 2.0?
—It is not anything to return a radio station, just like that, especially when we in the community media sector spent decades fighting. I know the implications this has. These are very strong implications, but it seems to me that, given the abuse of some people, we must stop; We must rethink and restructure a communication project that is truly community and feminist
That is why we are going to consider the spaces so as not to disappear the concept. Let’s consider several things. When I say “let’s go”, I am entering into my organization Salud Integral para la Mujer, since we have been doing radio with a gender perspective since 1991 and we have already occupied spaces at some point on citizen radio and on Radio Educación; also with Oaxaca radio and community radio stations in Latin America.
I believe that when you want to communicate you find the channels, especially now with the technological platforms that we have. So, the project does not disappear, but we will not be broadcasting through 106.1.
The project continues and will continue on the Internet; Where it won’t be is on FM. We are also already in conversations with community radio stations to somehow continue, finding outlets.
They can now compete in the season, it is their right. They can compete it with another project. No one can deny that they have a thirty-year history of feminist communication.
—Don’t you think that the return of Violeta Radio’s concession calls into question the feminist work of these organizations? How to separate issues of human nature from those of a gender perspective?
—You are going to realize some things from all this that I am telling you, because, for example, in several interviews they said that we had won the concession through a contest, which is not true. This was a direct assignment, we didn’t win a contest; We made a request, which by the way was written by me.
I understand all the hassle that this legally entails. You will be able to talk to them and they will tell you that they are the possessors and that I am committing a crime. But that is not the point. It is these last eight years in which I tried to generate a truly community project.
I know that people are going to come out and say that feminists cannot agree. Well, I believe that in feminism we should sit down and talk about this type of thing, which is not the first time it has happened in the media and which clearly has a tremendous impact.
I am clear that there may even be certain legal repercussions, but I think it is necessary to tell the truth. It is my version and they will say another, but I am only telling the truth, because I believe in the truth. They are going to say that we women are fighting. Well, let me say that this is not new, there are stories of fights within community radio stations where men are also directing. That’s not a gender issue. If it is something of human nature, it has nothing to do with it. What you have to know is that this should not be repeated.
