Go ahead caller, you can let loose

Indignant Spanish rolls over the airwaves as the speaker, calling herself Maria from Guatemala, chronicles her woes to AM radio listeners across Boston.

She is a single mother who works 60 hours a week, holding two jobs to support her four children here, she says. She's angry because her sister, an illegal immigrant, was sent back to Guatemala. ''We came here to work; we didn't come to hurt anybody," she says.

Radio host Victor Tejeda cuts Maria off, guiding her back to the topic of today's show: ''If you had the ear of the federal government right now, what would you say, mi amor?" he asks.

It's a regular Sunday on ''La Voz del Pueblo," (''The Voice of the People"), a 1 1/2-hour talk show at 1600 on the dial, WUNR-AM. The program draws in Latino listeners with provocative questions about immigration or discrimination, educates them with useful information on topics from healthcare to starting their own business, and guides them in complex issues like workers' rights and local politics.

The show, Tejeda says, aims to give a voice to the state's burgeoning population of Latino immigrants, some of whom don't speak English and who are usually absent from mainstream media.

On this recent Sunday, Tejeda -- who grew up in Brooklyn, the American-born son of a Puerto Rican mother and Dominican father -- invites callers to let loose on what they'd like to say to the US government.

Almost all callers, giving their first names and identifying themselves as natives of a host of countries stretching from Mexico to the Andes, go right to US immigration policy.

Before Tejeda got started on the air here four years ago, he says he listened to a lot of Spanish-language talk radio. It irked him that most shows focused on issues in immigrants' home countries, rather than on what was happening on the American streets where they had made their homes.

''They wouldn't even tell us the weather" in Boston, says Tejeda, a tall, barrel-chested man who often wears overalls.

He also thought that too much was made of the national rivalries between Latinos. ''If we're going to live here together, we might as well learn to help each other and defend each other," Tejeda says.

''La Voz del Pueblo" has been broadcast for four years on WUNR, a 5,000-watt station licensed in Brookline, with studios in the North End. Tejeda also does a show early on weekday mornings for WRCA-AM, 1330, out of Waltham.

WUNR, owned by Champion Broadcasting Systems, is one of the most popular radio stations among Boston Latino immigrants, says Maria Elena Letona, executive director of the Cambridge immigrant rights group Centro Presente.

Tejeda's show is far from the only community-oriented show on Spanish-language radio. Centro Presente itself broadcasts information about the economy, immigration policy, and workers' rights once a week. But Mohamed Ziani, WUNR manager, says Tejeda's show is important because it targets all Boston-area Latinos, not just those from a single country.

''It is an opportunity for them to speak in the same language, to discuss issues they're facing in their communities, to give out information," especially on issues related to immigration, Ziani says.

WUNR has programs in Yiddish, Polish, and Russian, but its main audience is Hispanic and Haitian.

''Our role is to reach out to the people who don't have any other ways of getting information," Ziani says. They are often the same people who believe their contribution to the US economy is overlooked.

Silvia Flores, a caller who says she is from Guatemala, wants a work permit -- and a little respect. ''I would tell [the government] to esteem us as people," she says. ''. . . I would tell them that they should value what we do here, because we contribute a lot."

Missy Ryan can be contacted at ciweek@globe.com.