But the newspaper was only one way Chicago’s Poles were united with a tragedy so far away.

They read local Polish blogs. They followed the news on Polish news websites produced in Chicago. And they listened to the news in Polish on the radio. News that didn’t just appear for a few hours but continued for most of the weekend, going way beyond the traditional amount of broadcasting.

Monika Starczuk listens to Polish radio.

But never as much as this weekend. She listened to hear what was happening in Poland, to hear what others were saying and many wanted to talk. She listened to hear where there were masses being held here in Chicago and where people were gathering all over Chicago’s Polish communities.

“A lot of people were calling in,” says Starczuk, a Polish community activist and worker with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

She and others listened to Polish radio because they wanted to be connected and they turned to the media that connects them and that is why the ethnic news media is so very important here.

Stephen

The front page photo from the Polish Daily News of the late President and his wife

It’s what ethnic radio does so well. It connects, translates, and transforms.

Here’s is a piece about it from In These Times. Read the whole story and you will appreciate what ethnic radio can and should do.

On Air With Black America

Chicago’s only black-owned talk radio station gives voice to a complex people still struggling to be heard.

By Salim Muwakkil

Callers’ mistrust of white America is deep; some of it can be attributed to many listeners’ familial links to the South and its tradition of overt and and brutal racism.

Good evening, you’re talking to Salim Muwakkil on 1690 WVON. What’s on your mind?” I ask.

“The election of Barack Obama is the worst thing to ever happen to black people in America,” the caller snarls. “He’s a perfect Trojan Horse for American imperialism and corporate control. What do you think?”

That kind of question is typical fare on The Salim Muwakkil Show, broadcast every Saturday night by Chicago’s only black-owned radio station. These days, one year after the nation’s first black president took office, callers make it clear that African-Americans are divided sharply on Obama’s performance.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5443/

Also, thanks to the Garfield-Lawndale Voice I know that the Regal Theatre is open again. And thanks too to Lou Ransom for his column in the Defender for his take on what happened with the election for the Cook County President’s job.

If you come across other stories that you want to pass on like these, let me know.

Stephen

There will be a specially long broadcast from 4:30 p.m to midnight by Frantz Remy on WHPK, 88.5 fm, on Saturday. And Euniel Mondesir will talk about the situation from 6:30 to 7:30 Sunday on 1590 WNOX AM.

When an event like this happens, this is when ethnic radio matters. And here  too is a good example, likewise, of coverage by WBEZ on the issue locally and globally

http://www.wbez.org/Program_WV.aspx

But if you try to travel to the U.S., then know this is what you will face.

Hundreds of miles away in Tapachula, Mexico – a town on the border with Guatemala, there’s a small clinic that is a miracle. It’s financed by human spirit but because the spirit is so lacking the clinic barely supplies more than a bed for the Central American immigrants who have lost arms and legs trying to cross into Mexico on the way to el Norte.

Here is a blog from a reporter at Radio Arte that reminds me of these two places I visited not that long ago, that talks about the human wave snared daily in these traps, and about the power of a story from far away that feels close to those who have roots or legacies or even emotional bonds with those in Honduras or elsewhere. This is the power of the ethnic media.

Steve

Jose Luis Hernandez, 23, made his first attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border at age 18 because he felt there was a lack of economic opportunities in Honduras. The attempt was unsuccessful, but Jose Luis was undeterred. Determined to help support his parents and siblings in Honduras, Jose Luis tried again.

“I overheard doctors in the hospital saying, “God must really want him here. He’s lucky the train didn’t kill him,” Jose Luis says remembering his ordeal. Jose Luis, however, was not the only lucky one. In his hometown in Honduras, with a population of slightly over 2,000 people, there are 69 others who shared his fate.

After days, with no food or water, of making the journey “train hopping” to the U.S., Jose Luis’ American dream became a nightmare. Weakened, he fell from a train which severed his leg, and arm. The pain was so excruciating he tried to use his other arm to pull at the leg which had been caught by the train– his hand was almost entirely crushed. He had made it to a small town in Mexico.

In the beginning, Jose Luis wished he had died. Not only had he lost his limbs but he felt, instead of helping his family, he would be a burden.

Nostalgic Jose Luis says, “All I could do was cry like a little boy… The doctors would sedate me to calm me down”.

He spent two years in a hospital in Mexico rehabilitating himself. The hospital donated the prosthetic on which Jose Luis now walks, and he is grateful to the man who helped him the moment of the accident, but Jose Luis doesn’t stop at just gratitude.

“My mission is now to let others know that it is not necessary to immigrate to reach your goals.” Jose Luis works to warn others of the dangers of crossing borders undocumented. Sharing his story with young people, he hopes to motivate them to reach for their dreams, and search for opportunities in their homeland. Radio Progreso, in Honduras, helps Jose Luis spread his message.

When questioned about his future, Jose Luis is not shy in saying that he likes to sing, and he wants to continue to share his story in the hopes of helping others, but there is another dream that he wants to fulfill. Jose Luis requires specialized reconstructive surgeries for his hand, which can only be done in the United States, and a new prosthetic as his has become worn from use and age.

Jose Luis ends by saying, “I had everything, and I could of done a lot of things, but I did not do them, and now I regret it.”

*****If you know of an institution or individual that may be able to help Jose Luis Hernandez, here in the U.S., please visit WRTE.ORG, and post the information to Radio Arte’s Facebook or Twitter. You can also leave your comments and/or information on this blog. Part of this story is available on www.vocalo.org/explore in Spanish audio format.

http://tinyurl.com/yeswae7

What stories we tell each other tells us who we are.

When we are moved by the humanity around us, when we are touched by the dramas we see and hear and sense everyday, this is what brings a newspaper alive.

And this is when a newspaper that talks to a community connects.

I was thinking about this when I read Oscar Avila’s wonderful piece on Horacio Esparza in the Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0719-blind-fatherjul19,0,1259253.story

Click here:

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