Chuy Varela is a hustler. He once collected recyclable metals in East Bay industrial parks and worked as a gardener and hauler who cruised around Oakland's Fruitvale and Jingletown in his truck "looking for a dólar."

Today, the 44-year-old music director and host of La Onda Bajita, the lowrider show on KPFA (Pacifica Radio), also writes for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco Chronicle, East Bay Express, and Latin Beat magazine and has freelanced for NPR, Crossroads, Horizons, Latino USA, Radio Bilingue, CBC, and Radio Havana. On Sundays, he is the voice of the Latin Jazz program on KCSM.

"I fell into all this. I followed the paths opening before me in broadcasting," says Varela, who had dreams of becoming a professional guitar player before he started radio in 1980 at KBBF in Sebastopol. "Public media also spoke to my instincts as an activist for the civil and labor rights movements. The soul and struggle of countless peoples in this nation of immigrants deserve a space without commercial interruption."

Varela's perspective is the norm more than the exception for people employed outside of the mainstream, which he defines as "corporate-driven media based on capitalist economic principles that have articulated the views (and racism) of a powerful elite of largely white men. It's profit-oriented."

Going outside the mainstream usually involves a conscious choice to work for less money and to sacrifice benefits in order to achieve a social and political vision. It also calls for hard-core commitment to correcting injustices, to giving voice to the powerless, or simply to telling the truth--truth that, media workers say with much conviction, is not told by the mainstream press.

Elaine Elinson can testify. An activist and former worker for the United Farm Workers, she became a publicist for the FTA (Free the Army or *censored* the Army) show, an antiwar, antimilitary theatrical tour with Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, and a correspondent for Pacific News Service in Asia.

"We interviewed GIs who could point out every lie in every story in the major news magazines or network TV news. We met U.S. correspondents who could speak no Asian language and who had never studied anything about Vietnam, China, the history of the region; who could barely find their way from the airport to the air-conditioned hotel. And this was the filter through which the American public was learning about a war that was every day killing thousands of Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians and American GIs," recalls Elinson, who studied Chinese initially so she could work for a U.S. news bureau in China.

That experience led her to continue "movement work" through other media. She wrote Banking on Poverty and Development Debacle: The World Bank in the Philippines (with Walden Bello and David Kinley) and she hosted a monthly radio show on KPFA, Taking Liberties, for six years. As the first woman to be hired at Pacific News Service in 1970 and as a single parent when she started her job at the ACLU, Elinson says it is important, especially for women, to pay attention to benefits such as dependent health care, parental leave, and flexibility in schedule, even for jobs with a low salary.

Like Elinson, most freelance writers who decide to take full-time jobs often end up producing newsletters or doing public relations for nonprofits and unions. Marcy Rein recently became the communications assistant for the International Longshoreman's Union. She knows very well that money is definitely not the lure in alternative media.

"If they paid anything, it [covered] groceries, not rent," Rein says. "For years, I worked part-time in graphic design studios, proofreading. I worked for two places pretty steadily. If I went back to freelance again, I would end up writing and editing things that I really don't care about because I have to pay the bills."

A graduate of Wesleyan University, Rein, who is now 46 and identifies as bisexual, became a print junkie after taking journalism courses at San Francisco State University. "Sometimes, I joke that what I do is propaganda journalism, that I'm a propaganda artist."

Rein has written for publications such as Off Our Backs, a feminist magazine; People's World, an independent monthly for social justice organizations; and the Bay Guardian, which she considers "the most mainstream" publication she has written for.

"Union papers are interesting," explains Rein," because the work is "partly organizing."

As outgoing editor of the American Writer, the magazine of the National Writers Union, Rein strongly advises alternative media workers--especially freelancers--to know their rights in this industry that "has no respect" for already underpaid writers. She adds that in order to survive in the business, you must have good training, know the movement, and learn how to put things together yourself.

A freelancer "with big stories but no experience, no J-school," Helen Zia received zillions of rejection letters, including a mimeographed one from the Village Voice, which said it never considers stories from freelancers. She started out in journalism in the mid-1970s, after she got laid off from Chrysler Corporation in Detroit, where she worked as a large press operator, stamping out car hoods and fenders.

"I had to maintain a day job to pay the rent," says Zia, who wrote significant national stories on subjects such as the future of the UAW, the gender gap, sexual harassment, and politics in a city with a Black majority for the Detroit Metro Times. In another alternative paper, Metropolitan Detroit, she got paid very little but got "invaluable experience in magazine editing."

Zia eventually left the alternative press for a travel trade magazine to earn a living wage. But as an editor in chief who didn't hide her progressive views, she proudly says she made positive changes in hiring, content, illustrations, and headlines. The magazine won many awards for articles on the glass ceiling in the travel industry, homelessness, and the selling of travel destinations and the sex tourism industry.

Her dream job came along "after a lot of patience, determination, and good timing" as executive editor of Ms. in New York.

"My friends thought I was nuts," declares Zia, who joined the magazine when it was about to fold. "But Ms. went through a radical change by becoming ad-free. It was an incredible experience to be a part of rethinking what feminist editorial could be without having to factor in advertising in any way."

Zia is a founder of the New York chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association and board member of the Bay Area chapter. She is a member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and the New California Media, which serves thousands of Californians who rely on community and ethnic media, not the mainstream, for news. Last year, the Organization of Chinese Americans, the largest Chinese American political advocacy organization in the the United States honored Zia with the Most Outstanding Achievement Award for her work as an activist and a journalist. Now an Oakland resident, she has returned to freelancing and is writing a book about the emergence of Asian Americans as a political and cultural force in the United States to be published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2000.

"Over time, the mainstream has taken on coverage of issues that were once viewed as alternative--women's issues, for example," Zia explains. "The nation's media can no longer completely ignore communities of color or treat them as exotic alien places. So to be alternative today means to continue to push forward into new frontiers."

At the International Media Project (IMP), which produces the public affairs program Making Contact, "the organization is rapidly branching out beyond radio," says executive director Peggy Law, a retired mental health-educator-turned activist. Well-respected by progressive activists and analysts, IMP, whose programs are aired on 130 stations across North America, is pushing forward both through innovative grassroots projects and through the use of new technologies. "What's left out of the mainstream is wealth for us to draw on," explains Law.

A how-to handbook for activists who want to learn radio; an interactive CD on global economy for classroom use; an internship program; and collaborations with such groups as Corporate Watch on Internet work and the Southern Organizing Committee in Atlanta on environmental organizing and racism are critical projects that will fulfill IMP's founding goal to "amplify the voices of those who struggle for justice, peace, and sustainability." Increasing their reach even further, IMP programs are simulcast from three radio stations' Websites.

The veteran Varela sees such technologies as key. "Most people my age in radio are looking into Web-casting possibilities. This is the new communications frontier." It's also another venue for alternative-minded workers to ply their trade.

Photo ©1999 Rebeka Rodriguez

Steven Chin of Monkey King Media.Photo ©1999 Rebeka Rodriguez KPFA's Chuy Varela selects CDs for his radio show, La Onda Bajita.

Steven Chin is one such journalist-turned-Web designer. He says he "was burnt out from the pace of daily journalism, bored by the 10-inch daily reaction story." Chin, who won awards covering legal affairs, Asian affairs, City Hall, and investigative projects for the San Francisco Examiner, was a casualty of the San Francisco newspaper strike in 1994. "I wanted more creativity in my life, more control over my destiny, and lunch breaks," he writes, :) smiling through e-mail, "time to see if I could be a better manager than the folks managing me."

Chin helped establish Channel A, along with fellow journalists who left their craft for the new media (Harry Lin from KQED radio and Harry Mok from the San Francisco Chronicle). As the executive editor --and a fledgling in a promising field--he had high expectations for a first-ever interactive home for Asian Americans on the Web. Yet business was not good to a company with an unclear vision.

What was to be the premiere source of news about Asia and Asian Americans became a cyber-shopping site of anything Asian--Chinese and Japanese food and novelties, mostly. The audience changed from progressive and young Asian Americans to White businessmen. It was a typical clash of journalism and corporate mentality. Travel, food, finance stories, and astrology became the focus and replaced the human interest, cultural, and hard news pieces. The word quickly spread among the community that Channel A was in trouble and that contributors were not getting paid. Many were disappointed, and many saw it coming. Chin left Channel A last year before it went out business.

Not even a year later, Chin bounced back with a clearer vision and a new mindset.

"I am much more confident of myself as a businessman than before. I have avoided partners and investors so far for fear of sidetracking my vision this time," Chin says. "At Channel A, I gave up a lot of power to people whom I thought had the knowledge, brains, and experience to run it well. That was a mistake. While it was a painful experience, I am grateful for the lessons it taught me."

An author of three children's books and a father, Chin has started an independent consulting business called Monkey King Media named after the most popular children's tale in China about a monkey born from a stone who represents intellect and immortality and fights evil. Chin sees Monkey King Media as a company that will "use its magic to help clients succeed."

Part of Monkey King's mission is to help organizations create technically-savvy tools for marketing and fundraising through an affordable and caring service. One-third of his clients are local and national Asian nonprofits.

A board member of the Asian American Journalists Association for six years, Chin also designed and maintains the local chapter's Website and edits the weekly NCMonline Website, which was officially launched in February. Chin doesn't see himself going back to mainstream reporting.

Though many alternative outlets sprang from this technology boom, Varela is quick to remind us that communities of color and poor people are being left behind in opportunity and knowledge. However, he does believe that "when you wire up the ghettoes, barrios, and housing projects, life will change for the better."

A change for the better is something that many in the ethnic and community press pray for. These publications rely on the publisher's money or small business advertising and almost never receive grants. The copy often comes from international wire services, announcements of social and cultural functions, and volunteer local community contributors with little or no writing or journalism background. While most community and ethnic media publishers have e-mail accounts and have created Websites or online versions, there are still those who--because of budget, time, and staff constraints--have no choice but to do it the old-fashioned way. But for the committed journalist-activist, running a community newspaper is one more way to work the alternatives.

"We live frugally. Our living expense is food," says Mary Ratcliff, 59, editor and publisher, with her husband, Willie, 66, of San Francisco Bay View, a neighborhood weekly focusing on African American culture and issues. From their humble flat on Third Street, the Ratcliffs hire a few young people from the neighborhood to help them distribute 6,000 copies door-to-door in the Bayview district. The overall distribution is 20,000 in the Bay Area. On this rainy Sunday afternoon, Willie drove the boys around on their route.

Married for 23 years, the Ratcliffs bought the paper for $2,000 in 1992 with some borrowed money and a loan from their construction company. Mary is a sweet White grandmother with above-the-shoulder curls. Willie is a quiet, bespectacled African American man. She never forgets the moment they published their first paper.

"It was like having a baby. I cradled it in my arms. I jumped up and down. I still get excited about it," Mary says, her enthusiasm evident from her hearty laugh and red-warm face, her arms crossed over her chest.

She grew up in a segregated town in Seattle and fell in love with Frederick Douglass after borrowing his biography from the library and reading it on her way to school. She holds a law degree from Golden Gate University but had no prior journalism experience. "I had a tremendous amount to learn and unlearn. I had to work hard, and it made me a better editor," Mary adds.

Last year, the construction company that supported the paper went out of business because, Mary relates, "discrimination got so bad" for Blacks in the construction industry. So now, she says, "advertising has become a big focus" for this publication that requires an annual budget of $25,000 to barely cover the cost of printing and distribution. The Ratcliffs still depend heavily on volunteer staff and writers. Their daughter is working on the paper's Website.

While publications rooted in the ethnic communities struggle with progress, they fulfill an important purpose, the very notion of why alternative media began in the first place.

"The paper is the best organizing tool, to build consensus around issues like closing down the power plants," Mary says. "We love pulling the Black community together. We're more an advocacy paper, and we're very unsatisfied with the status quo. We would love to be a daily, a national."

It is difficult to run an alternative company and maintain a decent living even with multiple odd jobs. But most alternative media workers agree that no lack of money and resources will hinder them from being activists who will continue to right wrongs and tell the truth. And while racism and capitalism may continue to flourish, they will never defeat the visionaries and the committed of the alternative media.

"One of my early goals in life was to manage a public radio station. I'll never accomplish that," Varela realizes. "The racism against people of color these days--because of the Republican backlash--is incredible. And it shows in upper management posts."

The hope, he suggests, is with the future. "It's our youth who will change it because of their sheer numbers in population, but we have to provide the building blocks. That means keeping the door open. 'Hasta la victoria (On to victory)!'"

Photo ©1999 Rebeka Rodriguez

KPFA Music Director, Chuy Varela, at his office in Berkeley.

Wilma B. Consul is a board member of Media Alliance and a cultural worker in the Pilipino community. She has become a hustler as well, freelance reporting for KQED radio, writing for the New Filipina Website, and doing theater at night. She recently performed her one-woman show for the Asian American Theater Company's Suzie Wong Is Dead!