Experiment in Literacy: Distance Education on Colombia’S Eastern Frontier

By Jane M. Rausch

In his recent thesis, Radio Sutatenza y Accin Cultural Popular (ACPO): Los Medios de Comunicacin para la Educacin del Campesino Colombiano, (Bogot: Universidad de los Andes, 2009) Jos Arturo Rojas Martnez offers a comprehensive summary of the efforts of Radio Sutatenza, the radio network begun in 1947 by padre Jos Joaqun Salcedo, to create escuelas radiofnicas (radio schools) for the purpose of teaching illiterate adult campesinos (peasants) throughout Colombia not only how to read and write, but also how to better their living conditions and those of their communities. Within twenty years, the project which Rojas Martnez describes as the most important radio experiment of the Catholic Church, grew to include more than 20,000 individual radio schools with an enrollment of some 160,000 to 220,000 students. Consolidated within the Catholic Church in 1949 as Accin Cultural Popular (ACPO), the schools were reinforced by a widely read weekly newspaper, El Campesino (1958-1989), and the publication of cartillas (primers) and books to reinforce the lessons provided via the radio. The program reached its height in the 1970s, but by the 1980s, insurmountable problems began to appear. Disagreements between church authorities, competition from commercial radio stations, conflicts between the leftist revolutionaries, and withdrawal of funding by the national government forced the leaders of ACPO to sell the Sutatenza stations to the radio channel CARACOL. By the 1990s the program had disappeared, but not before it had changed the lives of thousands of campesinos throughout Colombia.

Because throughout the world educators hailed Radio Sutatenza during the 1950s and 1960s as a unique and practical way to teach illiterate adults, its methods were closely studied and copied by other countries in Latin America and Africa. The published bibliography concerning the institute is immense, yet, as Jos Arturo Rojas concludes, many aspects of ACPO and the Radio Sutatenza experience remain to be investigated. (p.94). One such aspect is the impact the radio schools had on the inhabitants of one Colombian frontier regionthe Llanos Orientales.

The Llanos Orientales or eastern tropical plains, are vast grasslands, that stretch eastward from the towering Eastern Andean Cordillera to continue on into Venezuela. Bisected by tree-lined, fast-flowing tributaries that join the Orinoco River, the region comprises 220,000 square miles or 30% of Colombias territory, but until the mid twentieth century, it was largely a lightly-populated frontier, isolated from the Andean heartland by the barrier posed by the mountain range. In addition to the problem of communication (only one unreliable road linked Bogot to the town of Villavicencio, the gateway to the Llanos), the harsh climate (nine months of heavy rain. three months of drought) and the prevalence of endemic tropical diseases deterred most would-be colonists from settling there. Nevertheless, by 1951 the population had reached 115,124 divided among four political entities: the three national territories of the Intendencia del Meta, the Comisaras Especiales of Arauca and Vichada; and Casanare, a province of the Department of Boyac.

Since mountains do not necessarily posed insurmountable barriers to radio waves, it seems reasonable to expect that the arrival of Radio Sutatenza helped break down the traditional isolation of the people in the Llanos. The purpose of this book is to test this proposition by analyzing the impact ACPO and Radio Sutatenza had on the inhabitants of the most prosperous of the Llanos territories, the Intendencia del Meta which became the Departamento del Meta in 1959. Chapter One provides a general overview of organization and operation of Radio Sutatenza and ACPO from 1947 to 1974. Chapter Two briefly reviews the history of Meta and discusses the unique conditions that made it receptive to radio-promoted literacy. Chapter Thr

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477110478

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Copyright © 2012 by Jane M. Rausch.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2012908366

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4771-1046-1

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4771-1045-4

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4771-1047-8

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A much shorter version of the present work appeared in Spanish as Promoción de la alfabetización en la frontera de los Llanos: la influencia de Radio Sutatenza y Acción Cultural Popular en el departamento del Meta, 1950-1990, Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico, 82 (Julio 2012).

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Contents

Preface

1 Radio Sutatenza and ACPO: An Overview

2 Church, State, and Education in Meta, 1909-1964

3 Escuelas Radiofónicas in the Department del Meta, 1957-1974

4 The Decline of Radio Sutatenza in Colombia and in Meta, 1974-1990

Notes

Bibliography

Maps

1. The Llanos of Colombia

2. The Republic of Colombia

3. Department of Meta, 1970

Illustrations

1. José Joaquín Salcedo

2. The First Radios Used by the Campesinos

Tables

1. Radio Schools in Meta, June 15, 1960

2. Radio Schools in the Vicariato de Villavicencio, December 1961

3. Expanded Report on Radio Schools, December 1961

4. Population of Colombian Departments, 1974

5. Number of Radio Schools in Departments, 1974

6. Students enrolled in Radio Schools, 1974

7. Percentage of population enrolled in Radio Schools ranked by Department

PREFACE

IN HIS RECENT thesis Radio Sutatenza y Acción Cultural Popular (ACPO): Los Medios de Comunicación para la Educación del Campesino Colombiano (Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, 2009), José Arturo Rojas Martínez offers a comprehensive summary of the efforts of Radio Sutatenza, the radio network begun in 1947 by Padre José Joaquín Salcedo, to create escuelas radiofónicas (radio schools) for the purpose of teaching illiterate adult campesinos (peasants) throughout Colombia not only how to read and write but also how to better their living conditions and those of their communities. Within twenty years, the project which Rojas Martínez describes as the most important radio experiment of the Catholic Church grew to include more than 20,000 individual radio schools with an enrollment of some 160,000 to 220,000 students. Consolidated within the Catholic Church in 1949 as Acción Cultural Popular (ACPO), the schools were reinforced by a widely read weekly newspaper, El Campesino (1958-1989), and the publication of cartillas (primers) and books to reinforce the lessons provided via the radio. The program reached its height in the 1970s, but by the 1980s, insurmountable problems began to appear. Disagreements between church authorities, competition from commercial radio stations, conflicts between the leftist revolutionaries, and withdrawal of funding by the national government forced the leaders of ACPO to sell the Sutatenza stations to the radio channel CARACOL. ¹ By the 1990s the program had disappeared, but not before it had changed the lives of thousands of campesinos throughout Colombia.

Because throughout the world educators hailed Radio Sutatenza during the 1950s and 1960s as a unique and practical way to teach illiterate adults, its methods were closely studied and copied by other countries in Latin America and Africa. The published bibliography concerning the institute is immense, yet, as José Arturo Rojas concludes, many aspects of ACPO and the Radio Sutatenza experience remain to be investigated (p. 94). One such aspect is the impact the radio schools had on the inhabitants of one Colombian frontier region—the Llanos Orientales.

The Llanos Orientales, or eastern tropical plains, is a vast grassland that stretches eastward from the towering Eastern Andean Cordillera to continue on into Venezuela. Bisected by tree-lined, fast-flowing tributaries that join the Orinoco River, the region comprises 220,000 square miles or 30 percent of Colombia’s territory; but until the mid-twentieth century, it was largely a lightly populated frontier, isolated from the Andean heartland by the barrier posed by the mountain range. In addition to the problem of communication (only one unreliable road linked Bogotá to the town of Villavicencio, the gateway to the Llanos), the harsh climate (nine months of heavy rain, three months of drought) and the prevalence of endemic tropical diseases deterred most would-be colonists from settling there. Nevertheless, by 1951 the population had reached 115,124 divided among four political entities: the three national territories of the Intendencia del Meta, the Comisarías Especiales of Arauca, and Vichada; and Casanare, a province of the Department of Boyacá.

Map%201.jpg

Map 1. The Llanos of Colombia

Since mountains do not necessarily pose insurmountable barriers to radio waves, it seems reasonable to expect that the arrival of Radio Sutatenza helped break down the traditional isolation of the people in the Llanos. The purpose of this book is to test this proposition by analyzing the impact ACPO and Radio Sutatenza had on the inhabitants of the most prosperous of the Llanos territories, the Intendencia del Meta, which became the Departamento del Meta in 1959. Chapter 1 provides a general overview of organization and operation of Radio Sutatenza and ACPO from 1947 to 1974. Chapter 2 briefly reviews the history of Meta and discusses the unique conditions that made it receptive to radio-promoted literacy. Chapter 3 charts the growth of the program in Meta between 1957 and 1974, while chapter 4 chronicles the decline of Radio Sutatenza throughout Colombia as well as in Meta.

A comment about the sources for this research may also be in order. The ACPO archives, previously housed in Sutatenza, Boyacá, were moved to the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango (BLAA) in Bogotá in 2008. Although the majority of materials remained uncatalogued, it is now possible to examine hundreds of letters sent to ACPO from the Llanos between 1962 and 1977. The BLAA also has a complete collection of El Campesino, the weekly periodical published by ACPO between 1958 and 1984. During the summers of 2009 and 2010, I was able to review these materials as well as secondary sources dealing with ACPO unavailable in the United States. I also had the opportunity to speak with Hernando Bernal Alarcón, a former director of ACPO, who wrote several reports published by the organization and graciously sent me an electronic copy of his latest book (now out of print), ACPO—Radio Sutatenza: de la realidad a la utopia (Bogota: Fundación Cultural Javeriana, 2005), that proved to be quite useful.

In Villavicencio, the main archive containing information about ACPO and the radio schools is located in the Templete Eucarístico, a church built in 1955 at the instigation of the secretary of Vicariate Apostolic, Padre Gregorio Garavito Jiménez. This archive contains a complete collection of Eco de Oriente (1916-1950), the principal newspaper of Meta published by the Montfort Fathers and edited by Padre Mauricio Diéres Monplaisir. Because copies of the newspaper disappeared after 1950, the correspondence between Garavito (who as an active priest in the Vicariate Apostolic de Villavicencio was elevated bishop of the newly created diocese in 1969) and ACPO as well as correspondence between Garavito, the parish representatives, and auxiliaries of the radio schools throughout Meta between 1957 and 1974 are an essential source for understanding the development of ACPO activities in Meta.

A Fulbright Research/Lecturing Award for 2009 and the Universidad de los Llanos in Villavicencio supplied funding for this research for which I am very grateful. Special thanks go to Alexandra Moreno of Fulbright Colombia and to Virginia Hernández of the Universidad de los Llanos for helping with arrangements in Bogotá and Villavicencio, respectively, to the staff at the Sala de Investigadores at the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango and to Padre Edgard Antonio Bolaño Pérez for allowing me access to the archive in the Templete Eucarístico. Throughout my stay in Colombia, I received invaluable support from Wilson and Angélica Ladino Orjuela. The preparation of this manuscript would not have been possible without the able assistance of Peggy McKinnon. For all errors and shortcomings of this study, I take full responsibility.

Jane Rausch

Amherst, Massachusetts

March 2012

CHAPTER 1

Radio Sutatenza and ACPO:

An Overview

STUDIES OF COLOMBIAN history between 1940 and 1960 tend to focus on the political, economic, and social conditions that led to the civil war known as the Violencia—a phenomenon that was primarily a political conflict between Conservatives and