Listening Room: Radio GLLU
All of Us Were Fearless
[Music]
Rita Gonzales
I was actually there at the very, very beginning when it was brought to GLLU to do a radio show. Oscar de la O, who was president of GLLU at the time, and I believe I was his Vice President. We went to some event and Josie Cattoggio, who was doing IMRU was at the event and we just started talking and she says, "You know, we don't have enough diverse voices on IMRU." And she says, "We need more voices. How would GLLU like to have a half hour show once a month?"
[1990 Archived Recording]
Irene Martínez
Bienvenidos and welcome to Radio GLLU! I am Irene Martínez. And for those of you tuning in for the first time and don't know who or what is Radio GLLU, I will explain. Radio GLLU means, Radio Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos. It is a half hour program produced by the Communications Committee of the educational nonprofit organization called Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos. Our program airs every fourth Sunday at 10:00 PM here on KPFK Los Angeles, 90.7 FM.
[Music]
Rita Gonzales
None of us had ever done radio before, much less be in a radio station. So we went to KPFK and they said, “We will have the engineers for you, but you're going to have to learn how to edit your own show.” This is before digital. We're talking reel to reel, the big tapes that you see. So they taught us how to do that where you cut, you splice, and then you do little splices here and there and then you drop the piece and you're trying to find it with all the other pieces on the floor, and then just to see if that's your piece. We learned how to do that, they taught us, and we had a couple of training sessions. Really didn't take that long. They just gave us a razor blade and tape and they said, "Go for it."
[1990 Archived Recording]
Eduardo Archuleta
This is Eduardo Archuleta, with what's her name.
Rita Gonzales
And this is what's her name, better known to family and friends as Rita Gonzales. Before we start this evening's show, I'd like to say a special hello to the women I met last weekend in Redlands. Hello. And tonight for our second anniversary show, we'd like to share some of our favorite readings, which he and I, Rita, will read for you.
Eduardo Archuleta
The he, being Eduardo. [LAUGHS] We'll also have some music. Rita, did you bring the records?
Rita Gonzales
No, I thought you were.
Eduardo Archuleta
Rita, you said you were going to bring the records.
Rita Gonzales
Well, I forgot.
Eduardo Archuleta
Well, it's a good thing I invited some of our favorite Latino artists to be with us tonight.
[Music]
Rita Gonzales
Eight of us were at that first meeting. It was very exciting because now we have a voice for our organization. So there were a lot of people that were involved at the beginning, but it is a lot of work.
Eduardo Archuleta
And it was pretty much an entire Saturday. We'd start in the morning, we would talk to whoever we were talking to, whoever the interviewee was, and then we'd spend kind of the rest of the day editing.
Rita Gonzales
We would go have lunch because Eduardo liked to look at the firemen that used to come at lunch at the same place [LAUGHING] and that was his big thing. So I said, okay. And they were good looking. The dog was too. I love that dog. But he would sit in the truck. So that was our big Saturday. And then after that, we would go back and edit and then our editing would take us into the night sometimes.
[Music]
Roland Palencia
Our radio was our social media.
[1992 Archived Recording]
David Trujillo
Hi, I'm David Trujillo and I want to wish David Apodaca a very merry Christmas and happy New Years and tell him that I love them very much.
Sandy
Hi, my name is Sandy and I'm a member of the Lesbianas Unidas Steering Committee and I want to wish all my Lesbianas Unidas Steering Committee, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you at the party ladies. Bye.
Roland Palencia
It was our high tech arm because it went beyond an event that had 200, 300, 500 people. We could theoretically reach thousands in one single event.
[1992 Archived Recording]
Unknown Speaker
Amanecí a la madrugada y los huesos me dolían. Te lo digo. Te lo prevengo y te provine. Tu de desarmas. Te lo digo. Te lo dije. Tu de desnudas. Tu de desposes. Tu de despones. Te lo predije. Alejandra, hiciste venir y morirte. Aquí, aun sigue, una sona de playas donde lentamente la dormida come su corazón de medianoche.
[Music]
Louis Jacinto
Not everybody was interested in the radio show, in terms of putting it together. It was part of the communication committee. You know, GLLU was made up of different committees and people would gravitate toward what activity they wanted to do. So the people who wanted to be involved in the radio show, they would meet in advance days before the show because it was only on once a month. So that gave us enough time to come up with ideas of what would we be presenting. But it gave people in the organization a chance to participate that way and be heard. If we wanted to interview somebody who was doing something in the community, then we would contact them far in advance, so that they would be available for the taping.
[1991-2 Archived Recording]
Rita Gonzales
Primarily, what we're going to do this evening is just give you some community events that are going on. There's a lot of things happening in the next few weeks and we wanted to share them with you.
Eduardo Archuleta
Yeah, we just wanted to take some time out, breathe a little, and let everyone know what's going on and try and keep people aware.
Rita Gonzales
And the first thing we would like to tell you is–
Eduardo Archuleta
An event that's coming up Friday, next Friday, July 31, at Circus Disco. It's called Para La Gente. It's a fundraiser to benefit the Latino victims of the civil unrest in Los Angeles. It's being sponsored by Gay and Lesbian Latino Unidos, the Valley Alternative Multicultural Council, the Latino Forum of the Pomona San Gabriel Valley Gay and Lesbian Coalition, Lesbianas Unidas, Bien Estar, Raices Latinas of Long Beach. And again, that'll be this coming Friday, July 31, at Circus Disco. The price of the admission includes a buffet, and again, it's going to a really good cause. So we're hoping that everyone will be there and be supportive. And it's real important because these monies will be going to the Pico Union area, which was also devastated by the riots that–
Rita Gonzales
Happened last May. And it's really, well, I guess it was the end of April, May. And it's really important because there was a lot done for the community the first couple of weeks after the civil disturbance. However, there's a lot of people that are still displaced and it's very important that we contribute to our community.
[Music]
Louis Jacinto
None of us came with necessarily any experience of, for example, running a radio show. But we said, okay, but if we could, what would we want it to be like? And so we said, okay, well, we have the opportunity, now we can make it be the way we think it should be. And we would just do it, fearlessly. All of us were fearless, all of us were fearless.
Rita Gonzales
Some people weren't out, so we respected that. Eduardo and I made a commitment that we would be out on the air. I wasn't going to use any other name and I introduced myself, Rita Gonzales, out in the public from Radio GLLU. It was important for me to do that as a person. I thought, I can't be somebody I'm not on the airwaves. If I'm asking other people to talk about themselves, then I need to be upfront with people also.
[1992 Archived Recording]
Eduardo Archuleta
Bienvenidos and welcome to Radio GLLU on Lesbian and Gay Day. I'm Eduardo Archuleta.
Rita Gonzales
And I'm Rita Gonzalez. Today on our show, various guests will be sharing with all of us their poems and short stories. And now, here's our show.
Eduardo Archuleta
Around Gay Pride, they would do a whole day of programming and they had, Rita and I were in studio that day for the segment that we had produced, and they had announced that there was going to be a segment about gay and lesbian Latinas and Latinos. And the station got a call from this woman who said she thought they were just blaspheming Latinos and saying negative things and how we're not queer and we're not gay or lesbian, and how can they be degrading the community of Latinos and saying, we're this and we're that. So she was on the phone talking and they came to me and they said, would you please talk to her? And I did. She verbalized her sentiments to me about, they're just trying to, you know, make us look bad and that we're not queer. And I said, "I'm gay and I'm Latino, and we've done this show, this is done and produced by Latinos and Latinas and it's going to be on a little later," kindtalked to her and found out in fact that she had a gay brother and she was just distraught by the whole process. And we talked for a while and hopefully as a result of our conversation, she was a little more supportive of her brother or even the fact that he's not alone, that there are tons of us out there.
[1986 Archived Recording]
Eduardo Archuleta
Today we're proud to be speaking with Oscar de la O and Geneva Fernandez, President and Vice President of Gay and Lesbian Latino Unidos.
[1987 Archived Recording]
Bob Saavedra
Tonight, Eduardo Archuleta will be speaking with members of the gay and lesbian Latin community about the new immigration law.
[1990 Archived Recording]
Rita Gonzales
Our guests tonight are Pat Martel, who has just been elected to GLLU's Board of Directors as Vice President.
[1992 Archived Recording]
Mercedes Marquez
My name is Mercedes Marquez. I'm a member of GLLU and LUU.
[1991 Archived Recording]
Eduardo Archuleta
Our guest will be Fernando Castro, who is a writer here in the Los Angeles area. This is Eduardo Archuleta. We're here tonight with Beto Araiza.
[1991-2 Archived Recording]
Rita Gonzales
We have a very exciting show this evening, and our guest tonight are-
Eduardo Archuleta
George Hadley Garcia, who is the writer of Hispanic Hollywood.
Rita Gonzales
Mike Moreno, who is the coordinator of the Gay and Lesbian Talk line.
[Music]
Rita Gonzales
Doing the radio really helped my self-esteem to really be who I'm out there because I realized–well, I didn't realize, I knew it–that there were a lot of gays and lesbians out there that couldn't come out because of their job or their family. Yes, I did lose family members. I lost some great friends, which I found out they were not great friends if they could not accept me for who I am. So I had to be me. And I think the show, meeting other Latinos that were doing such great work in the community, the gay community, it was just like, we were all taking a risk to do it. And I thought, I'm not going to back down from this. It helped me to be who I am today. It made me who I am today. Take it or leave it. It made me.
[1992 Archived Recording]
Rita Gonzales
Thank you for listening to Radio GLLU. Radio GLLU airs the fourth Sunday of each month at 10:00 PM, right here at KPFK Los Angeles, 90.7 FM.
Eduardo Archuleta
We'd like to thank everyone who contributed to today's program.
Rita Gonzales
Radio GLLU is a production of the Communication Committee of Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos.
Eduardo Archuleta
This has been Eduardo Archuleta.
Rita Gonzales
And Rita Gonzalez.
Rita Gonzales & Eduardo Archuleta
On behalf of Radio GLLU, gracias y buenas tardes
[GLLU Jingle]
Credits:
“Radio Gay and Lesbian Unidos GLLU #1 1986 April 27,” open reel audiotape (7 inch reel). IMRU Radio Sound Recordings and Administrative Records, 1970-2011. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
“Radio Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU) 1987 April 26,” open reel audiotape (7 inch reel). IMRU Radio Sound Recordings and Administrative Records, 1970-2011. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
“Radio Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU) Coming Out 1990 September 23,” open reel audiotape (7 inch reel). IMRU Radio Sound Recordings and Administrative Records, 1970-2011. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
“Radio Gay and Lesbian Unidos (GLLU) Terri De la Peña 1991-1992 September 27,” open reel audiotape (7 inch reel). IMRU Radio Sound Recordings and Administrative Records, 1970-2011. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
“Radio Gay and Lesbian Unidos (GLLU) Beta Ariazo, Meet My Beat; Mario Perez Cebellos; 1991-1992 July” open reel audiotape (7 inch reel). IMRU Radio Sound Recordings and Administrative Records, 1970-2011. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.
“Radio Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos (GLLU) Lesbian/Gay Day 1992 July 02,” compact disc. IMRU Radio Sound Recordings and Administrative Records, 1970-2011. ONE Archives at the USC Libraries.