| Luís Espinal Camps | |
| Birth Date: | 2 February 1932 |
| Birth Place: | Sant Fruitós de Bages, Spain |
| Death Place: | La Paz, Bolivia |
| Nationality: | Bolivian |
| Other Names: | Lucho Espinal Lluís Espinal i Camps |
| Occupation: | Jesuit priest, poet, journalist, filmmaker, film critic |
| Years Active: | 1962-1980 |
Luís Espinal Camps (1932–1980), also known by the nickname "Lucho" and by the Catalan name Lluís Espinal i Camps, was a Spanish Jesuit priest, poet, journalist, filmmaker, and film critic.
Luís Espinal Camps was born on 2 February 1932 in Sant Fruitós de Bages, Catalonia, Spain.[1] He aspired to be a priest even as a child.[2] Espinal was educated at the minor seminary of San Jose in Roquetes, Baix Ebre between 1944 and 1949.[1] He joined the Society of Jesus of Veruela, Zaragoza in 1949, made his perpetual vows in 1951, and studied Humanities and Greco-Roman Literature (1951–53) there.[1] [3] He studied Philosophy at the Facultad Eclesiástica of San Cugat del Vallés from 1953 to 1956.[3] While doing another licenciate course in Philosophy at the Universidad Civil de Barcelona, Espinal gave classes of Greek literature and Latin poetry to Jesuits.[3] He studied Theology (1959–63) at the Facultad Eclesiástica of San Cugat del Vallés,[3] and was ordained priest in 1962.[1] He later obtained a degree in film and television from the Italian Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (1964–65).[1]
In 1968, Espinal moved to La Paz, Bolivia, as a missionary.[4] There, he lived alongside the families of miners during the dictatorship of Luis García Meza.[5] Becoming a human-rights activist,[6] he co-founded the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights.[4] [7] He gained Bolivian citizenship in 1970.[4]
Beyond priest and activist, Espinal was also a poet, journalist, and filmmaker.[5]
He had worked for a brief period in Spanish television.[4] In December 1967, he left Spain in protest against Francisco Franco's dictatorship censorship of him and his program channel, TVE.[3] [7] In Bolivia, he directed the social issues-themed Cuestión urgente[2] ("Urgent Issue"). In Bolivia, he directed a similar program,[2] En carne viva (lit. "In living flesh"), a series of 20-minute documentaries for Televisión Boliviana (TVB). The show lasted from 1970 to 1971, when Espinal was sent off from TVB because he interviewed the Ñancahuazú Guerrilla.[3]
Espinal was a film professor at the Higher University of San Andrés and the Universidad Católica Boliviana,[4] [2] and worked for Radio Fides.[4] Espinal was a film critic for the newspapers Presencia, Última hora and Aquí,[4] a member of film company Ukamu, and author of ten books on cinema.[4] He was one of the most informed critics of film, television and radio in the country.[4]
In 1980, a Bolivian-government death squad murdered Espinal in La Paz.[8]
In the headquarters of the newspaper Presencia Espinal joined a December 1977 hunger strike led by Domitila Chúngara,[4] requesting amnesty for exiled labour and political leaders. Espinal was killed by a right-wing paramilitary death squad in March 1980.[6] [9] He was kidnapped by the paramilitaries on 21 March and was tortured.[4] [5] His bounded and gagged body was only found by peasants the next day on the road to Chacaltaya.[4] [5] Some sources say Espinal was killed because he would publicize the cocaine traffic done by military personnel.[10] Other say that the reason was that he informed against efforts to censor a public exhibition of Jorge Sanjinés's film El coraje del pueblo,[11] a documentary that denounced the massacre of 67.
Espinal's funeral on March 24 was reportedly attended by over 7,000 people in a manifestation against the regime.[4] [5] A posthumous book written by Espinal, Oraciones a quemarropa (lit. "Point-blank Prayers"), was published containing his poetic prose and prayers.[4] In his homage, the Catalonia's Society of Jesus created the Luis Espinal Camps Foundation.[4] For Espinal's contribution to cinema and human rights, Morales declared in 2007 the "Bolivian Cinema Day" to be commemorated on 21 March.[5] In 1982, Bolivian historian Carlos Mesa published the book El cine boliviano según Luis Espinal.[12] Bolivian writer Alfonso Gumucio Dagron wrote a biography of Espinal in 1985. The 2007 documentary Lucho: Gastar la vida por los demais, directed by Nelson Martínez, explored the life of Espinal.[13] [14]
In 1985, the song "A Luis Espinal" appeared on their debut album El Huerto by the Bolivian group Rumisonko, based in Washington, DC.[15]
In July 2015, Pope Francis visited the site where Espinal was killed.[5] Espinal gained international notoriety as the author of a crucifix that incorporated the hammer and sickle after Bolivian president Evo Morales gave a replica of it to Pope Francis.[16] The Pope said the Jesuit "preached the Gospel, the Gospel that bothered them, and because of this they got rid of him".[17] Vatican representative Frederico Lombardi said that the object stands for open dialogue and his commitment to freedom.[16] However, Espinal's friend, Xavier Albó, said it symbolised that the Church should be in dialogue with Marxism, peasants and miners.[16]