RAG RADIO / Thorne Dreyer : Peruvian Scholar/Activist Cristina Herencia, UN Observer on Indigenous Issues

Peruvian social psychologist Cristina Herencia in the studios of KOOP Radio, Austin, Texas, Friday, June 14, 2013. Photos by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Rag Radio podcast:
Social psychologist Cristina Herencia,
UN observer on Indigenous Issues

Sponsored by the United Tribal Nations of North America, Herencia has been an observer at the UN's Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues yearly since 2004, participating in caucuses on World Indigenous Women and Latin American Indigenous Peoples.

By Rag Radio / The Rag Blog / June 26, 2013

Peruvian social psychologist Cristina Herencia, active in United Nations efforts on behalf of the world's indigenous peoples, was Thorne Dreyer's guest on Rag Radio, Friday, June 14, 2013.

Rag Radio is a syndicated radio program produced at the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, a cooperatively-run all-volunteer community radio station in Austin, Texas.

Listen to or download our interview with Cristina Herencia here:


Cristina Herencia is a Peruvian social psychologist and activist who works in interdisciplinary social sciences, specializing in issues of gender and identity among Andean indigenous peoples and the effect of globalization on native peoples and cultures.

Sponsored by the United Tribal Nations of North America, Herencia has been an observer at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues yearly since 2004 -- most recently in May 2013 -- and has participated in numerous UN caucuses, including World Indigenous Women and Latin American Indigenous Peoples, and others addressing educational policies, resource management, climate change, water issues, and indigenous youth.

Cristina Herencia on Rag Radio.

The Permanent Forum is the UN's central coordinating body for matters relating to the concerns and rights of the world's indigenous peoples. It has played a major role in bringing to international attention the plight of and increasingly important role being played by the world's native peoples, especially in the Global South. At this year's UN meeting, Herencia participated in planning for a World Conference on Indigenous Peoples to be held in New York in September 2014.

Herencia, who is of mixed heritage, has been working in the Indian movement in Peru since she was 27 years old.

Cristina Herencia has a doctorate from the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and a masters in experimental psychology from the State University of New York.. She is an adjunct professor at Austin Community College and has taught at Universidad Particular Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru, and at the Universidad Nacional Mayor De San Marcos de Lima.

She has also served as a consultant with UNICEF, UNESCO, Swiss Technical Cooperation with Peru, the UN World Labor Organization, and the World Bank.

Cristina Herencia was previously our guest on Rag Radio on June 29, 2012. Jeff Zavala's video of our earlier interview with Herencia can be seen The Rag Blog.


Rag Radio is hosted and produced by Rag Blog editor and long-time alternative journalist Thorne Dreyer, a pioneer of the Sixties underground press movement.

The show has aired since September 2009 on KOOP 91.7-FM, an all-volunteer cooperatively-run community radio station in Austin, Texas. Rag Radio is broadcast live every Friday from 2-3 p.m. (CDT) on KOOP and is rebroadcast on Sundays at 10 a.m. (EDT) on WFTE, 90.3-FM in Mt. Cobb, PA, and 105.7-FM in Scranton, PA.

The show is streamed live on the web by both stations and, after broadcast, all Rag Radio shows are posted as podcasts at the Internet Archive.

Rag Radio is produced in association with The Rag Blog, a progressive Internet newsmagazine, and the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Tracey Schulz is the show's engineer and co-producer.

Rag Radio can be contacted at ragradio@koop.org.

Coming up on Rag Radio:
THIS FRIDAY, June 28, 2013: Democratic political consultant and writer Glenn W. Smith on abortion and the Texas legislature, voting rights and the Supreme Court, and more hot political dish!

The Rag Blog