Bringing Freedom of Speech to a Silent Country:

Radio Journalists in Quetzaltenango

Marcos Figueroa
Individual Website
Senior Division
Process Paper Word Count: 449

Project Paper
The role Radio Journalists took during Guatemalas Armed Conflict in the city of
Quetzaltenango was a risky and difficult role. Between 1960-1996, radio journalism was
a well known job, admired by certain people and hard. But, after that time, it all ended,
and what is it of its history? Writing about its risks, its history, and the sacrifices taken
might be an interesting story. This job, and the persons who took, are leaders, and leave a
legacy.
Ms. Maria Elena Marroquin was a lot of help. She is an ex Radio Journalist and
former poet. She helped me in setting up my project and gave me good ideas. Without her
I would still be stuck. One of the most useful sources was my interview with Mr. Mario
Dominguez. He is also an ex Radio Journalist and was active from 1960-1996 in
journalism. He is the best source for my project because there is nothing like having a
story told by someone who has been there. I consider him as my best source also because
he was very accurate.
I saw this project as an opportunity to research more about my topic. Ive always
had this idea in mind before history fair, and I wanted to learn more about it. My way of
thinking about other people has changed, such as corruption in Journalism. Ms. Maria
Elena helped me with my ideas and gave me advice on what to search. After that, I got in
charge of all the research, putting my thoughts together, and deciding to create a website
based on this.
The greatest problem I encountered was working on other school projects at the
same time It was hard but as a 12th grader, thats part of growing up. Having many tasks

to do at the same time and being able to complete them responsibly. That is my solution
fulfilling the tasks correctly and with no exceptions.
A radio journalist demonstrates leadership and legacy in some ways. They are
leaders because of the risks taken, including many of them dying because of doing their
jobs and giving their opinions. They risked their families, friends, and themselves for
speaking the truth, and I believe that is leadership. By dying because of speaking what
they believed is an example of freedom of speech, a right not given in Guatemala during
the Civil War. That is an amazing legacy because people learned from them that they had
the right to speak and to reveal their ideals to the world. In this time, anyone in
Guatemala can speak through lots of places such as a social media, and I believe it was
they who initiated a big concept like this.

Annotated Bibliography
Primary Sources
Castillo Lopez, Rolando Antonio. "El Periodista Edgar Rolando Castillo Rivera a Traves
De Sus Editoriales Radiofonicos (1981)." January 1, 2003. Accessed October 20,
2014.
Thesis paper made by Rolando Castillo Lopez talks about the history of Radio
Journalism in Quetzaltenango through his dads story (Rolando Castillo Rivera).
This helped for my project development because what this has taught me is that
freedom of speech was not given before and now there is freedom of speech
thanks to ideals such as radio journalism.
Estudios TGW la voz de Guatemala accessed picture at Cirma institution, database.
Accessed November 10 2014.
This image from radio TGW is demonstrating how a radio operates. The image is
used for project decoration.
Grupo Radio Fonico, accessed picture at Cirma institution, database. Accessed
November 10 2014.
This image from Grupo Radio Fonico is demonstrating how a radio operates. The
image is used for project decoration.
Hester, Albert L., and Wai Lan J. To. Manual Para Periodistas Del Tercer Mundo. 1st
ed. Mexico: Trillas, 1990. 205.
This manual specifically made for journalists talks about how valuable and also
different it is for a journalist in the third world to work as for journalists in the
first world. This book helped my research because it helped me state and

understand the risks a journalist in the third world can take, and how cautious he
has to be.
Julio Rodolfo Custodio, interview by Marcos Figueroa, Quetzaltenango Guatemala,
November 3 2014.
This interview conducted by Marcos Figueroa was with the Founder of el
Quetzalteco, and former Journalist. Mr. Custodio answers a formulary of
Questions I had in order to get finished with my project. He is able to explain
them because he was active in the time I am speaking about in my project.
Lopez Vigil, Jose Ignacio. Manual Urgente para radialistas apasionados. Generos y
Formatos. 1st ed. Quito: Artes Graficas
SILVA, 1997. 555.
It is a manual describing how radio works, and what job do radio workers take. In
order to complete my project I need a rising action, and part of the rising action is
radio. It help in developing the first part of my project such as explaining what is
radio and certain concise definitions.
Mario Dominguez, interview by Marcos Figueroa, Quetzaltenango Guatemala, October
11 2014.
This interview conducted by Marcos Figueroa with a famous Radio Journalist
named Mario Dominguez. The interview spoke about the time I am focusing my
project mostly on. Mr. Mario Dominguez was a journalist at the time so he
discusses journalists deaths, badly paid, corruption in journalism, and what side
they choose during Civil War. The use of this interview is all around the paper

and concentrates on my main point; by far it is the most important source in my

project.
Newspaper picture accessed at Cirma institution, database. Accessed November 10 2014.
This image from newspaper el rayo is demonstrating how a radio operates. The
Image is used for project decoration.
Valdes, Jorge. La Noticia. 1st ed. Quito: Ministerio Holandes Para La Cooperacin Al
Desarrollo, 1985. 149.
This book describes the basics of a Journalist, how do they do their job, and the
scripts they run, their work structure. To get done with my project I need to
describe the basics of a Journalist and the way they work so this book has helped
me describe that and me concise about it.
Secondary Sources
Calderon, Giovanni. "Periodismo Radial En Quetzaltenango." Historia Del
Periodismo En Quetzaltenango. July 27, 2011. Accessed October 21, 2014.
http://historiadelperiodismoenquetzaltenango.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/periodis
mo-radial-en-quetzaltenango/.
This website contains history written over radio journalism in Quetzaltenango.
The author just explains of the multiple radios that held the news and their
Journalists. This article helped in my research because it gave me specific dates to
write about, and combine my other research with it.
Lujan Muoz, Jorge. Guatemala Breve Historia Contemporanea. 2nd ed. Mexico: Fondo
De Cultura Economica, 2002. 523.

This book also describes the Armed conflict and what had occurred with it. I
chose it because the author wrote about both sides in the conflict and not on what
side did he agree with.
Martinez, B. "Guatemala Al Aire." Cultura, February 12, 2014. Accessed September 2,
2014. http://www.prensalibre.com/infografia/Radio_en_Guatemala-TGWRadio_nacional-Historia_de_la_radio_PREFIL20140211_0003.pdf.
This newspaper article contains information on the invention of radio and how it
got to Guatemala it also has some visual content. In order for my project to be
done I need to explain its origins and I can find many of its origins through this
article.

Miller, Tallea. "Timeline: Guatemalas Brutal Civil War." PBS. March 7, 2011. Accessed
November 5, 2014. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/latin_america-janjune11-timeline_03-07/.
This website is a timeline/report on what occurred on the civil war during
Guatemala. It has helped because this website remains neutral on sides, and to
show the gravity of the problem you need to know what is the neutral opinion. I
included the concise information from this website to give a brief explanation on
the Civil War that occurred in Guatemala.
Pitan, Edwin. "Congreso Opina Que En Guatemala No Hubo Genocidio | Radio Emisoras
Unidas - En Lnea Desde Guatemala." Emisoras Unidas. May 14, 2014. Accessed
November 6, 2014.

http://noticias.emisorasunidas.com/noticias/nacionales/congreso-opina-queguatemala-no-hubo-genocidio.
This article from Emisoras Unidas speaks on the other side from conflict armado.
In a project like this you need to include what both sides think about the situation
so it helped me develop both sides, and have a neutrality.

"'Silent Holocaust:' The Mayan Genocide." The Center for Justice & Accountability.
Accessed November 10, 2014.
http://www.cja.org/article.php?list=type&type=294.
This Website is a timeline that describes some things that occurred during the
Armed Conflict. The Center for Justice & Accountability state that what occurred
during Civil War is Genocide so I have to put both sides that say if it was
Genocide or War.
Simon, Jean-Marie. "Guatemala: Eterna Primavera, Eterna Tirana." Guatemala: Eterna
Primavera, Eterna Tirana. Accessed November 18, 2014. http://www.primaveratirania.com/acercade.php.
This websites contain images about the Armed Conflict and descriptions on the
images. The website contained good images, and I used it to explain the civil war
through images.
United Nations "Agreement on a Firm and Lasting Peace." December 29, 1996. Accessed
November 4, 2014

This document contains all the norms for the peace treaty that ended Guatemalas
civil war. War needed to end and this is the approval, I used this as a description
for the end of the war section in my website.