Fostering a “Revolution” in the Countryside: Education, Development, and Technology in Cold War Colombia, 1947–76

This paper focusses on the case of Radio Sutatenza/ Acción Cultural Popular (ACPO), a mass-media-based radio broadcasting, rural leadership, and community development network founded in 1947 by a Colombian priest that evolved into an internationally recognized, widely emulated experiment of transnational scope. Employing technologies such as radio, print, recordings, and film to promote literacy, health, citizenship, conservation, rural modernization techniques, culture, sports, and catechetical outreach, the RS/ACPO parish-based, radio school educational program was aimed at preempting the appeal of revolutionary ideologies by instilling an identification with self-help-based, democracy-building, economic and community development projects rooted in Christian principles. Through a close reading of select radio and theater scripts promoting projects ranging from the adoption of modern technology for home and farm improvement to ‘responsible procreation’ campaigns aimed at disciplining rural sexuality, and letters written by students, listeners, and radio school leaders to ACPO headquarters in Bogotá, this paper explores how individuals in different Colombian regions, including areas where Afro-Colombian and indigenous populations predominated, interacted with, challenged, selectively appropriated, modified or rejected ACPO’s educational and community development materials, altering one-channel radio sets, turning to Protestant evangelical broadcasts delivered in their native languages, etc. The ACPO case, this paper argues, illustrates the limits, potential, and challenges of harnessing technology for educational and ideological purposes in Cold War Latin America.