Blase Bonpane is the director of the Office of the Americas. He has served on the faculties of UCLA and California State University Northridge. His articles have been published internationally, and he has worked as a contributor to the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times.Blase previously served as a Maryknoll Missioner in Guatemala during the revolutionary conflict of the 1960s. As a result of his work in peasant organization, he was expelled from that country in 1967. On his return to the United States, Blase and his family lived at the headquarters of United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, where he was editor of UFW publications.He is host of the weekly radio program "World Focus on Pacifica Radio" (KPFK, Los Angeles). Blase previously hosted the program "World Focus" on Time/Warner TV Educational and Public Access Channels. He was named “the most underrated humanist of the decade” by Los Angeles Weekly. In 2006, he was awarded the Distinguished Peace Leadership Award by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.His previous books include: Civilization is Possible (Red Hen Press, 2008); Common Sense for the Twenty-First Century (2004); Guerrillas of Peace: On the Air (2000); and Guerrillas of Peace: Liberation Theology and the Central American Revolution (iUniverse, 2000, 3rd edition).
