Espinal Camps, Luis

(1932–1980)

   Spanish-Bolivian priest and film critic. Born in the town of San Fruitós de Bagés, in the region of Catalonia, Spain, Luis Espinal joined the Society of Jesus, popularly known as the Jesuits, in 1949. He was ordained in 1962 and went on to receive a degree in journalism and film at the Università del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy. He worked briefly in Spanish television until 1968, when he was sent by the order to La Paz, Bolivia. In Bolivia Espinal Camps, popularly known as “Lucho,” would join the daily Presencia and Última hora, as well as develop a national television program. He also taught film at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés and the Universidad Católica de La Paz and worked for Radio Fides, one of the oldest Catholic radio stations in Latin America and perhaps the oldest in Bolivia, a country where radio stations played a key role in the labor movements, particularly among miners. In addition, he authored 10 books on film, joined the film-production group Ukamu, and directed the weekly magazine Aquí until his death. In the 1970s he was one of the best-known critics of film, television, and radio in Bolivia.

   Espinal Camps, who had acquired Bolivian citizenship in 1970, was also known for denouncing human-rights abuses in his adopted country. In 1976 he helped found the Asamblea Permanente de los Derechos Humanos de Bolivia (APDHB, Permanent Assembly for Human Rights in Bolivia). On December 1977 he joined the hunger strike led by Domitila Barrios de Chungara in the offices of Presencia. He continued his political activism until 22 March 1980, when he was kidnapped, tortured, and executed. Bound and gagged, he was left on the road to Chacaltaya and discovered by peasants the next day. APDHB blamed paramilitary groups, although to date no individual or groups have been charged with the crime. Several published reports hold that more than 70,000 people attended his funeral, an act construed as a denunciation of the regime. After his death, Oraciones a quemarropa (Point-blank Prayers), a book of poetic prose and prayers authored by Espinal Camps, was published. In his youth, he had translated the poetry of fellow Jesuit Gerard Manley Hopkins. The Society of Jesus in Catalonia maintains the Luis Espinal Camps Foundation in his memory.