Most radio stations pick a genre. Radio Deseo picked a fight, and has been broadcasting it from La Paz for years as the media arm of one of Latin America's most confrontational feminist collectives.
Born From a Street Collective, Not a Broadcaster
Radio Deseo is the radio arm of Mujeres Creando, an anarcha-feminist collective founded in La Paz in 1992 by María Galindo, Mónica Mendoza, and Julieta Paredes. According to background on the group's history, the three formed the collective out of frustration with a 1980s Bolivian left they saw as exclusionary toward feminist and LGBTQ+ voices, and built their politics around street theater, graffiti, and direct action rather than conventional party organizing. Radio Deseo grew out of that same impulse, turning the collective's public interventions into a daily broadcast instead of a one-off protest.
A Station That Names Its Enemies
The station states its own ground rules plainly on its website: no machismo, no misogyny, no homophobia, no racism, no classism, with explicit support for abortion rights and for women in situations of prostitution. That is an unusually direct editorial stance for a radio station to publish, and it shapes everything broadcast under the Radio Deseo name, from talk programs to music, rather than sitting off to the side as a mission statement nobody enforces.
María Galindo's Morning Fire
Co-founder María Galindo hosts the station's flagship program, a long-running morning show described in coverage of Bolivian feminist media as an effort to "celebrate the presence and warmth of utopian fire in society." Alongside talk shows built around explicitly feminist framing, like "Mi Garganta Es Un Órgano Sexual," the station runs music programs such as "La Beatleoteca" and "DesnudArte," mixing confrontational politics with genuinely broad cultural programming rather than staying locked into a single register.
Same Address, Same Fight
Radio Deseo shares its headquarters address with Mujeres Creando itself in La Paz, and the connection is not incidental. Since 2001, when members occupied Bolivia's Banking Supervisory Agency alongside debtor advocacy group Deudora to confront predatory microlending, and through a 2002 incident where members were assaulted by La Paz police while filming a documentary on violence against women, Mujeres Creando has treated media and street action as the same project. Radio Deseo is where that project stays on air every day.
Tune in to Radio Deseo on Radio Shuffle for feminist talk, activism, and music broadcasting straight from La Paz, Bolivia.