María de los Ángeles Mendoza sat inside Santa Rosa’s 89.1 radio studio Saturday afternoon, minutes away from going live.
She carefully adjusted the knobs on the sound board while tapping her feet to the beat of her catchy intro song, “La Carcacha” by Selena. Mendoza smiled warmly as she told her guest sitting in front of her “you’ll do great.”
Then, it was show time.
“Y estás escuchando su programa Voces de Mujeres,” Mendoza said into the mic as sound levels on a screen behind her rose and fell.
Mendoza, 42, is one of three who host “Voces de Mujeres” on a rotating basis. The show, which is one of the oldest radio shows run by women since it began in the late 70s, airs Saturdays from 1-2 p.m. on KBBF, Santa Rosa’s bilingual radio station. The interviews are in Spanish, English and Spanglish.
As a host, Mendoza highlights the captivating, yet complex stories of Latinas from all walks of life: a single mother in the community, a first generation student going to college, a thriving business owner and a community leader fighting for the rights of women farmworkers, just to name a few.
Through Mendoza’s eyes, no story is ordinary and every woman has one to tell.
“Our stories are important and valid,” Mendoza said with fierceness in her eyes. “Our lives aren’t just passing by — what we do is important, whether you’re a homemaker, a business woman or a new graduate. Even if the person doesn’t feel that what they’ve done is important, because they’re not named in some article or on TV, their story matters.”
Growing up in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood, she remembers helping her parents grow fruits in their community garden — placing seeds into soil while she listened to their stories of growing vegetables in fields near their home in Mexico.
Mendoza’s mom, Ana Maria, is the oldest of nine kids who immigrated to the United States by herself at 23 in 1978. She landed in Marin County, then had the challenging tasks of navigating a new country and a new language on her own.
“Her immigration story was something I always wanted to hear even though I heard it a million times,” Mendoza said.
At 13, Mendoza saw her mom using her voice for a good cause by participating in rallies and marches on immigration reform in Marin County.
Her mom finally become a citizen in 1996. Then Mendoza helped petition her mom’s six siblings in Mexico to come to the United States.
“Through that, I realized how important it is to use your voice,” Mendoza said. “My mom was a voice for her siblings. I knew I wanted to learn how to use mine.”
Those experiences led to her majoring in sociology and Chicano/Latino studies at Sonoma State University, joining a leadership program at school and attending a storytelling workshop. Those programs and connections helped Mendoza become more confident in sharing her voice with others.
“I spoke up during my classes and started sharing my story and my parent’s immigration experience,” she said. “That’s when things started to change. I wasn’t afraid to speak up anymore. I wasn’t afraid to share my story.”
In 2016, Mendoza met Maria C. Mendoza, one of the “Voces de Mujeres” hosts, while volunteering for a local nonprofit. After meeting the other host, Amalia Contardi, the two invited Mendoza to share her story with audiences on air. The next year, they met again after Contardi noticed Mendoza was engineering for a host at the station every week. After learning about Mendoza’s hopes of bringing women from other counties onto the show, Contardi invited her to become a show programmer in 2018.
“It was apparent she had a love for radio,” Contardi said. “She had feminist ideas and dreams and was so open minded. Her interviews are wonderful, she adds her personal touch and roles with the punches when she makes mistakes. She brings so much joy to this show.”
Then, in 2019, Mendoza signed on to be the third host of “Voces de Mujeres.”
“I didn’t know I was going to love hosting this show the way that I do — it’s a part of who I am now,” she said.
During the one-hour show, she breaks the episode into segments with three songs — all handpicked by her guest and each has an inspirational tie to their life. Mendoza will then take the picks, plus a few more songs, and carefully places them in sections based on the tone of the conversation.
One thing that sets Mendoza apart from her fellow hosts is that she highlights women in surrounding counties, too.
“I wanted to weave this path for women from different areas who could sit in Sonoma County via airwaves or phone and share and engage with other women’s stories,” she said.
When Mendoza hosts, it isn’t just about giving Latinas a platform but to pass on wisdom to other women tuning into the show.
In the same way her mom’s story inspires her, Mendoza is impacted by the stories women share with her on the show. One guest, Samantha, 18, who lived in Mendoza’s childhood neighborhood spoke about transitioning from the juvenile justice system, to a foster home and then finally living on her own.
She’s interviewed her younger sister, Mayra, who shared her experience as a nursing student.
“She’s always had a passion for community and for empowering women, especially women of color,” her sister, 35, who lives in Oakland said. “When she interviewed me, I was taken back by the positive energy she shoots to her callers. I’m proud to have a sister that always inspires and motivates people around her.”
A listener called in after hearing that story and said it inspired her to go back into nursing school, Mendoza said.
In 2023, she hopes two authors will appear as guests on the show. One of those is her favorite author, Reyna Grande, a Mexican author who writes books about her life before and after she arrived in the United States as an undocumented child immigrant. The other is Isabel Allende, a local Chilean author.
Since Mendoza created an Instagram for the show, she plans to expand and reach out to women online who live all over the country.
“I want people to know that sharing their story is more important than they think,” Mendoza said. “You never know how your story impacts others.”
You can reach Staff Writer Mya Constantino at [email protected]. @searchingformya on Twitter.
