The Expert is a Latin Americanist geographer and an expert on Honduras, where they have lived and worked off and on since 1991. My PhD is from Louisiana State University (2001), Master's from University of Texas, and B.A. from Penn State. The Expert has taught in several universities in the US and China, and currently an independent consultant.
The Expert is an author on over 50 professional publications and have given around 100 presentations, many related to Honduras. Their main contributions to the academic literature include the historical and spatial dimensions of land- and identity-based conflicts in Honduras, relationships between people and the environment (particularly ethno-ornithology and ethnobotany), and the development of theory for applying the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari to research in the social sciences.
In addition to publishing, The Expert consults to community groups in Honduras and Mexico on a range of topics related to environmental and social struggles.
The Expert served as a country of origin expert for Honduras since 2001 in a total of 13 cases, for all of which they have prepared reports based on original ethnographic research. All of the cases The Expert has worked on involved Hondurans in the US seeking asylum, withholding of removal, or relief under the Convention Against Torture.
Risk from non-state actors: organized criminal networks; risk to journalists and environmentalists; trafficking--narcotics, timber, people, LGBTQ, Child abuse, sexual abuse/assault, gender-based violence/domestic violence, trafficking, criminal deportees, risk of destitution/homelessness, land tenure disputes, ethnic, religious, or tribal discrimination or persecution, torture/risk of political persecutin/risk from state actors, risk from non-state actors, risk of retaliation, safe internal relocation, sufficiency of protection
The Expert has produced 13 reports since 2001, including two that are pending introduction in court. All cases were of Hondurans seeking asylum, withholding of removal, or CAT relief in the US.
The Expert was admitted by immigration courts as expert witness (country of origin - Honduras) for all cases.
Zayas, L. H. Forgotten citizens: Deportation, children, and the making of American exiles and orphans, Oxford University Press, 2015. Testimony of M. Bonta described (risk to Honduran-born children removed with parent to Honduras).
Bonta, M. 2001. Mapping enredos of complex spaces: A regional geography of Olancho, Honduras. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University. Authoritative treatment of contemporary and historical environmental and social issues in eastern Honduras, including culture of violence and oppression related to land tenure disputes, Indigenous identities, and trafficking.
Bonta, M. 2002. Jealous conservationists: Terratenientes and wildlife protection in Olancho, Honduras. Cultural and Physical Expositions: Geographic Studies in the Southern United States and Latin America. Geoscience and Man 36:87-95. Includes analysis of land tenure issues involving cattle ranchers and peasants.
Bonta, M. and J. Protevi. 2004. Deleuze and Geophilosophy, A Guide and Glossary. Edinburgh University Press and Columbia University Press. Scholarly book with over 830 citations. Utilized Honduras’s social and environmental problems -- particularly in land tenure disputes and community-based environmental protection -- as an example of how to apply the theory of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in the social sciences.
Bonta, M. 2004. Death toll one: An ethnography of hydropower and human rights violations in Honduras. GeoJournal 60:19-30. Human rights issues focused on conflict between local communities and the hydroelectricity sector, involving abuses by private companies and government.
Bonta, M. 2005. Becoming-forest, becoming-local: Transformations of a protected area in Honduras. Geoforum 36:95-112.mhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2004.03.011. Land tenure disputes and resource struggles involved with protection of watersheds and forests for local communities.
Bonta, M. 2008. On Olancho: Geographers, spatial identities, and the construction of a region. Ethno- and Historical Geographic Studies in Latin America: Essays Honoring William V. Davidson. Geoscience and Man 40:193-206. Includes culture of rural violence related to struggles over natural resource access and land tenure.
Bonta, M. 2009. The dilemma of indigenous identity construction: The case of the newly recognized Nahoa of Olancho, Honduras. In P. S. Urquijo Torres & N. Barrera-Bassols, eds., Temas de Geografía Latinoamericana, Reunión CLAG-Morelia (pp. 49-86). Centro de Investigación en Geográfia Ambiental, UNAM Morelia; INE, SEMARNAT; CLAG; Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de Estado de Michoacán. Only major historical and ethnographic treatment of the Nahoa de Honduras Indigenous group.
Bonta, M. Taking Deleuze into the field: Machinic ethnography for the social sciences. 2009. Review essay, Deleuze Studies 3:135-142. https://doi.org/10.3366/E175022410900052X. Analysis of ethnographic fieldwork methodologies used to understand and critique rural socio-environmental dynamics in Honduras.
Graham, D., M. Bonta, R. Ulloa. 2011. Cycad conservation, peasant subsistence, and the military coup in Honduras. Society and Natural Resources 24:193-200. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2010.512359. Risks to rural community-based environmentalists and collaborators with outside researchers during a period of eroding human rights.
Bonta, M. 2017. Review essay on The Lost City of the Monkey God, A True Story; Jungleland. The AAG Review of Books 5:276-280. https://doi.org/10.1080/2325548X.2017.1366845. Includes historical geographical data on the Pech indigenous group and conflicts with resource extraction and other issues on the rainforest frontier.