He is the first Latino in the United States and Mexican indigenous to receive this recognition; before him he was received by Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes.
By Araceli Martinez Ortega | La Opinon (translation by Google) | JUN. 6, 2023 | Photo courtesy of Harvard Univ.
At 74 years old, Hugo Morales became the first Latino in the United States and the first Mexican indigenous to receive the honorary doctorate from Harvard University in recognition of his work as founder and executive director of Radio Bilingüe, the most important public radio in Spanish in the country.
"It's incredible. I am moved by this distinction. I am the third Mexican who has received it over the years. Before me, it was received by the writers Carlos Fuentes and Octavio Paz," Hugo says in an interview with La Opinión.
And it makes it very clear that Radio Bilingüe is the result of teamwork and its main leaders such as journalist Samuel Orozco, its talented workers and collaborators, the effort of those who raise funds, radio listeners, the board of directors and many community volunteers.
He also recognized the radio stations affiliated with Radio Bilingüe in the United States and Mexico, the foundations and those who have believed in the work of providing intelligent programming to essential workers in their language.
"Without their participation and that of the indigenous Mixtec, Triqui and Zapotec volunteers who have dared to project their dreams we would not exist because at Radio Bilingüe we are a participation project."
And he recognizes that when he was young, he thought he was going to work alone, but he discovered that to make some impact, it had to be teamwork.
Hugo was born in a small town in the Oaxacan Mixteca, near Huajuapan de León in Oaxaca and Tehuacán, Puebla.
"My dad came to the North when I was less than a year old. In Mexicali he worked for Mariachi, and was secretary of the musicians with which he managed to get a passport and legally cross to the United States. After being a worker on the corners (Day laborer), he went to work with a Sonoma rancher and got a letter to be legalized."
This is how his father was able to bring his wife and three of his children, including Hugo.
"I arrived in the United States at the age of 9. When I came I was able to meet my father for the first time," he recalls.
And he says that he has always been a very dedicated child since he was in Oaxaca.
"In Huajuapan de León, my brother Cándido and I were able to go to the Pio XI Catholic school."
Already in California, Hugo grew up in a peasant home seeing the impact of the work of Oaxacans in the fields of California. He himself was a child agricultural worker in the pinch of the plum in Sonoma.
He attended public schools. In 1972 he graduated from Harvard University, and in 1975 he studied law from the same university.
He returned to Fresno in 1976 and founded Radio Bilingüe.
"It came from the inspiration of the work of my brother Cándido who in 1964 established the first radio program north of San Francisco in Sonoma. He went out every Sunday morning, and he also had a news segment that he broadcast live."
He says that when he saw Candide's work, he looked at the opportunity to extend his radio work.
But before, at Harvard, on the station of that university, he had the opportunity to create the first bilingual radio for Latino students in the United States that they put La Hora on.
"It was broadcast every Saturday and Sunday night, and it was aimed at the Latino community. We offered a mixture of the music of that time, Carlos Santana, northern music, jarocha, mariachi and the Puerto Rican brothers whom we invited to participate, they also selected the artists."
Hugo shares that the creation of Radio Bilingüe was due to the need to have a platform of Latin voices with women, Chicanos, Texans, indigenous, among others.
"I was thinking of a democratic and broad platform to promote our traditional music because the cultural aspect is very important."
But when he arrived in Fresno, he said that he discovered that he was not the only one who thought that way, and that's why many people of his generation joined him to create and launch Radio Bilingüe. "We got together and I was the organizer."
Radio Bilingüe was the third Spanish-language community radio station in the United States.
"The first community station opened in Santa Rosa in the early 70s, then another was created in Yakima, Washington. But ours has been the one that has been able to establish a good service with traditional, Chicano, indigenous music to reach our race, essential workers, Mexican Americans and even prisoners."
Radio Bilingüe will be 50 years old in 2026, what have been the biggest challenges in these years?
"The challenges have been economic. It has been very difficult to maintain the service with the necessary resources. We have brought a lot of talent, including Samuel Orozco, a great journalist and leader; and it has been a lot of sacrifice. We have had to accept low salaries and until recently, our budget was very limited."
Hugo recognizes that when he came to this country, he didn't even know that it was the United States. "I was just a very studious child and an observer of reality. Until I was 13 years old, I realized the differences in the racial treatment of poor people, of color, and also the impact of capitalism on working families."
That led him to read a lot and discover the reality of migrant, Chicano and indigenous people.
"I grew up poor with a limited economic reality. Son of an artist father, a field worker and a mother who, although he did not have access to school, has been my greatest influence through the values of charity and honesty that he taught us."
To the indigenous young people who arrive in this country, Hugo tells them to look for the opportunity to educate themselves.
"It is a way to help themselves, to improve their economic situation and that of their families and their community; and do not lose faith, work to improve."
During the ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the Oaxacan was recognized, the president of Harvard, Lawrence Bacow described Hugo as "a passionate pioneer in the public media, who created new spaces for unheard voices and awakened radio waves to inform and inspire, making service to others his 'station' in life."
Recently, Radio Bilingüe has been a fundamental messenger in the response to COVID-19, changing immigration policy and participation in the census for its hard-to-reach audience, mainly rural and low-wage workers.
And with the increase in climate disasters and voter misinformation, Radio Bilingüe often offers regular and reliable alerts in Spanish for listeners.
The key to Radio Bilingüe's work is to provide a platform for legislators and essential workers to mobilize public opinion on issues such as health care, access to education, job opportunities, racial justice, housing, civic engagement, criminal justice reform and life at the border.
Thousands of hours of Radio Bilingüe programs, such as the innovative national Spanish-language interview program Línea Abierta that is broadcast every day of the week, are part of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting in the Library of Congress.
