Indymedia Cancún, Radio Hurakán, and the Sounding of Altermundos Sonoros

Abstract

This paper explores the sonic engagements and possibilities brought forward at Radio Hurakán and the Indymedia Cancún audio space, temporarily set up in 2003 during the mobilizations against the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) fifth Ministerial Meeting in Cancún, Mexico, where close to 300 media activists from Latin America, the United States, and Europe converged to provide independent coverage of alternative actions, forums, and events. It reconstructs and (re)sounds this experience by examining a variety of Indymedia Cancún and Radio Hurakán artifacts and materials, including Indymedia Cancún audio productions found in online audio archives and websites, and interviews highlighting the audio and radio collectives from the Global South that participated in Radio Hurakán, particularly focusing on community radio activists from Mexico. In this way, this paper poses that audio and radio activists were engaged in the making of altermundos sonoros, or sonic alterworlds, through skill-sharing efforts, collaborative organizing and production practices, and autonomously developed tech, generating a bottom-up sonic infrastructure to make audible a variety of sounds, textures, tonalities, and stories that resonated near and far, making possible the sounding of radical imaginaries and the opening of pathways for different ways of listening.