Radio Ambulante Tells Latin American Stories EFE
go to original March 20, 2012

Peruvian-born writer Daniel Alarcon at KALW radio in San Francisco. (EFE)

LOS ANGELES - Peruvian-born writer Daniel Alarcon is transcending the written page with Radio Ambulante, a podcast that will allow users to tell and hear thousands of stories from every corner of the Western Hemisphere where Spanish is spoken, including the United States.

Radio Ambulante is a radio project over the Internet that features stories, often told by their protagonists, that include the diversity of what is Latin America with issues that do not always make news headlines but that are certainly part of the feelings of the people.

"It's a way to get to know ourselves more, to share our stories," Alarcon - named one of the best young Latin American writers by the Hay Festival Bogota39 and one of the best young U.S. writers by The New Yorker - told Efe.

"We're looking for a Bolivian to listen to a story from Argentina, or for an Argentine to hear a story from Mexico, from Honduras, from Colombia, or from Chile and for a Latino in the U.S. to hear all those stories that can be so different and so common for everyone, that is what seems to me to be so nice about this project," said the author of prizewinning books such as "Radio Ciudad Perdida" ("Lost City Radio") and "Guerra a la luz de las velas" ("War by Candelight").

Alarcon, along with journalists, feature writers, poets and writers, is dedicating a good part of his time to this non-profit venture, the official launch date for which will be April 15 via the website www.radioambulante.org.

But there are already six stories posted for the public, including "La caida del River," the story of iconic Argentine soccer club River Plate's relegation to the second division, and "La palabra prohibida," which recounts the struggle of an immigrant to open up a space for himself in his new school in North Carolina.

The creators of Radio Ambulante view the United States as a Latin American country.

"We're more than 55 million Latinos who are speaking Spanish in the U.S. That is to say, more than the population of Peru or of Colombia. We look at the border not as something hard and impenetrable, but as a zone of cultural transition, and therefore when we say we're going to tell Latin American stories, we also include those that occur here in the U.S.," said the 35-year-old writer, who has lived in the United States since 1980.

In addition to its transmission via the Internet, it will also create alliances with radio stations in Latin America and the United States to reach an audience all over the hemisphere.

So far during its test run, which began in the third week of January, the Web site reports that listeners in more than 70 countries - including surprising places such as Indonesia, Belgium and Namibia - have visited the Web site.

"The idea is that any listener, in any part of the world, can download these stories. The response we've received to our content has been extraordinary, the reception has been something exceptional and very moving. People really identify with the project, which tells us that we're going along a good road," Alarcon said.

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