Blase Anthony Bonpane (April 24, 1929 – April 8, 2019) was the director of the
Office of the Americas
The Office of the Americas is a non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, California and founded in April 1983 by Theresa Bonpane, who along with her husband, Blase Bonpane, Blase, continue as the Director and Founding Director, respectively, ...
in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, which he co-founded with his wife Theresa in 1983. Throughout his life, he worked on human rights issues as well as the identification of illegal and immoral aspects of United States government policy.
[
Bonpane served as a Maryknoll priest in Guatemala and was assigned by the Cardinal of Central America as National Advisor to Centro Capacitacion Social, a center for university and high school students working in the field with indigenous people on matters of health, literacy and labor organization. He was expelled from that country in 1967 in the midst of a revolution.
In 2006, The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation awarded Bonpane the Distinguished Peace Leadership Award.
In June 2018, Bonpane announced he would stop broadcasting World Focus.
]
Education
Bonpane received his PhD in Social Science from University of California Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
in 1984. He has served on the faculties of the University of California Los Angeles, California State University Northridge
California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge), is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. With a total enrollment of 36,848 students (as of Fall 2024), it has the ...
, and California State University Los Angeles.
Peace and justice activities
Bonpane hosted the radio program "World Focus" on Pacifica Radio
Pacifica may refer to:
Art
* ''Pacifica'' (statue), a 1938 statue by Ralph Stackpole for the Golden Gate International Exposition
Places
* Pacifica, California, a city in the United States
** Pacifica Pier, a fishing pier
* Pacifica, a conce ...
station KPFK
KPFK (90.7 FM) is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, which serves Southern California. It was the second of five stations in the non-commercial, listener-sponsored Pacifica Radio network.
KPFK 90.7 FM be ...
in Los Angeles at 10:00 am each Sunday (90.7 FM) as well as internationally from the KPFK site.
On 15 May 2018, after 50 years of broadcasting, Bonpane retired from the program. "Blase’s commentaries and his guests on World Focus were truth-tellers with a passion for justice, human rights, and peace. It’s an understatement to say he will be missed." He died two weeks short of his 90th birthday on April 8, 2019.invasion of Grenada
The United States and a Caribbean Peace Force, coalition of Caribbean countries invaded the small island nation of Grenada, north of Venezuela, at dawn on 25 October 1983. Codenamed Operation Urgent Fury by the U.S. military, it resulted in m ...
turned into a dramatic physical confrontation when Bonpane overturned George's desk, live on-the-air, and stormed out of the studio.
Blase Bonpane was a leader of th
International March for Peace
in Central America, December 10, 1985 – January 27, 1986. This venture from Panama to Mexico included some 30 nations and 400 participants.
Bonpane served on the Advisory Council of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) is a non-profit, non-partisan international education and advocacy organization. Founded in 1982, NAPF is composed of individuals and organizations from all over the world. It has consultative status to the ...
.
He played a significant role in the dialogue in Latin America between Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
and Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
. (Guatemala: Occupied Country, Eduardo Galeano, Monthly Review Press, 1969) Blase Bonpane led investigative delegations to Nicaragua
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...
, Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
, Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
, Panama
Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
, Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...
and Peru
Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...
. He traveled through the conflict zones of Chiapas, Mexico together with Bishop Samuel Ruiz on a series of peace missions and served on the board of SICSAL, a hemispheric ecumenical secretariat based in Mexico City. He also participated in peace missions to El Salvador
El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...
, Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
, Ecuador
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
and Iraq
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
. (See the Blase Bonpane Collection, Department of Special Collections, UCLA Research Library; Collection 1590).
Electoral politics
Bonpane ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992 as a member of the Green Party. He received 6,315 votes and 7.56% of the vote in Congressional District 30 (Los Angeles).United States Representative in Congress
elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov
Bibliography
Guerrillas of Peace; Liberation Theology and the Central American Revolution, originally published by
South End Press
South End Press was a non-profit book publisher run on a model of participatory economics. It was founded in 1977 in Boston's South End. It published books written by political activists, notably Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Win ...
''Guerrillas of Peace on the Air'' Red Hen Press 2002.
Common Sense for the 21st Century'Red Hen Press 2010
Red Hen Press 2008.
* The Central American Solidarity Movement", University of California 2005.
(Blase Bonpane's autobiography) Red Hen Press 2011.
Blase Bonpane Comments on The 2nd Encyclical of Pope Francis: Laudato Si (Praise Be to You) On The Care of Our Common Home CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2015.
The Nicene Heresy - Christendom and War - Reverence and Critique Office of the Americas publication, 2016.
References
External links
Office of the Americas website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonpane, Blase
American Roman Catholic priests
Maryknoll Fathers
Liberation theologians
Catholic pacifists
American Christian pacifists
American democracy activists
American human rights activists
Central America solidarity activists
American talk radio hosts
Pacifica Foundation people
American memoirists
American political writers
American male non-fiction writers
California Greens
Green Party of the United States politicians
Activists from California
1929 births
2019 deaths