MEXICO CITY.- Radio INAH celebrates 20 years of divulgating cultural heritage through the air waves and celebrates it with the opening of an Internet space, the first step in the construction of a National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) virtual radio broadcast system.

Languages, music, legends and festivities are some of the intangible heritage material broadcasted to the general public, as “sounds are also culture”, declared Gabriela Marentes Garza, founder of Radio INAH.

The communicator recalled that at the beginning of Radio INAH, in the mid 1980’s decade, broadcast was conducted in governmental times, and spots were recorded in Radio Educacion booth, “institution that has always supported Radio INAH”.

“Our first radio booth became a reality in June 26th 1990 thanks to the director of the Institute, Roberto Garcia Moll, and Jaime Bali West, national coordinator of Divulgation at the time, who announced me that the resource to begin the construction of the booth in Cordoba 45 was ready.

“They envisioned that radio was an ideal communication media to promote in Mexican territory messages of knowledge, conservation and defense of historical heritage”, explained Marentes.

A series of interviews to INAH personalities inaugurated the booth; “this material has become a heap of sound documents of great historical value that enrich the culture in Mexico”.

The Archivo Testimonial Sonoro de Personalidades (Personalities Testimonial Sound Archive) is integrated with the voices of important archaeologists and historians, some of them already deceased, like Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, Jaime Litvak, Julio Cesar Orive Negrete, Irene Velazquez and Alfonso Muñoz.

“Having a broadcasting system is a dream come true thanks to the Internet, through the support of Alfonso de Maria, general director of INAH, and Julio Castrejon, director of INAH Communication Media; this year we started our blog http://radioinah.blogspot.com with a menu that includes interviews, news and capsules about the heritage found in museums and archaeological sites”, commented Gabriela Marentes.

Among Radio INAH productions are the INAHgotable Series, a weekly newscast, and the program Lo Nuestro that transmitted live for the first time in May 20th 2010, designed to promote the INAH Fonoteca Nacional (National Audio Library) heaps, where traditional music collection is guarded. The emission is available in the INAH Web Page www.inah.gob.mx