Radio KDNA or Radio Cadena is a community public radio station broadcasting on 91.9 FM, founded in 1979 by activists Ricardo Garcia, Julio Cesar Guerrero, Rosa Ramon, and Daniel Robleski. From the beginning, it has focused on the Yakima Valley's Latino/a population, especially farm workers. KDNA broadcasts news and educational content about health, employment opportunities, English language learning, and information about citizenship, as well as music. By the early 1980s, KDNA had about 80,000 regular listeners and many more during harvest season. Radio Cadena advocated for farm workers, both US-born Latino/as as well as recent immigrants. Soon after going on the air, Radio KDNA became known as "La Voz del Campesino" (the Voice of the Farm Worker). In the 1980s, the station would attempt to warn listeners about immigration agents conducting raids by playing a song about "la migra" (immigration) and dedicating it to the town being raided.
This image shows KDNA cofounder and station manager Ricardo Garcia (1938-2024) in the station's studio in Granger. In addition to his work at KDNA, Garcia was involved with other community organizations in the Yakima Valley: Northwest Rural Opportunities, which used federal and state money to help support farm workers, the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Health Clinics, the Office of Farm Worker Housing, and Evergreen Legal Services. Garcia also helped found the Washington affiliate of United Farm Workers (UFW). This picture was taken when Garcia was interviewed by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the growing influence of Latino/a voters on presidential elections.
Caption information source: KDNA website, retrieved from https://kdna.org/ Caption information source: "Radio KDNA," by Oscar Rosales Castañeda, Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, retrieved from https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/farmwk_ch8.htm Caption information source: "Ricardo Garcia," by Charles A. Coulmbe, Latino Leaders, retrieved from https://www.latinoleadersmagazine.com/aprilmay-2016/2018/1/15/ricardo-garcia.
