In memoriam: Juan Díaz Bordenave

Juan Díaz Bordenave passed away on 22 November 2012, aged 86. Bordenave was a pioneer of communication for development, since his early work in the 1960’s. In 1977 he published “Communication and Rural Development” (UNESCO ), but most of his work was in Spanish. He contributed to the “Communication for Social Change Anthology”, co-edited by Ørecomm co-director Thomas Tufte, e.g. with a chapter on Communication Theory and Rural Development, online here (pp 133 ff).

Bordenave was born and raised in Paraguay, educated in Argentina and United States, and worked in international organisations such as the Instituto Latinoamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA), and the OAS – the Organization of American States. In 2002 he returned to Paraguay and was appointed rector at the Universidad Teko Arandú. His contribution to the Communication for Development environment in Paraguay and elsewhere will remain for many years to come, through his books on many curricula, in Masters programmes he helped to conceive, in the library he donated to Universidad Nacional del Este few weeks before his death.

Here a brief moment with Bordenave, as he participated in the launch of the “Communication for Social Change Anthology”, in 2009:

“Otra comunicación es posible” said Juan Díaz Bordenave – echoing the World Social Forum’s “Another world is possible”. Many obituaries of this great colleague have already been published – as an example see this blogpost by Alfonso Gumucio – and several events are being organised to honour Bordenave and his work.