{"id":138972,"date":"2026-10-15T17:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=138972"},"modified":"2026-10-16T09:49:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T16:49:59","slug":"juanita-bogue-across-generations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=138972","title":{"rendered":"Juanita Bogue \u2013 Across Generations"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Leigh Fondakowski<\/strong> is the playwright and director of the play, \u201cThe People\u2019s Temple,\u201d and author of <\/em>Stories from Jonestown. Her collection of articles for this site is <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

It was one of those interviews that you never forget. More than twenty years later, I can readily recall her words, the picture window in her cramped Oakland apartment, and our conversation. Juanita Bogue, who died earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kelli Simpkins as Juanita Bogue in “The People’s Temple” \u2022 Photo by Sarah Lambert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The morning my colleagues and I spent with Juanita was part of our research and interview process for the play, \u201cThe People\u2019s Temple,\u201d which premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theater in 2005. Margo Hall, Steve Wangh, and I met Juanita through Melody Ermachild Chavis, who had been one of the investigators on Larry Layton\u2019s legal defense team and who herself had interviewed hundreds of survivors in Jonestown\u2019 aftermath.<\/p>\n

Melody had stayed in touch with Juanita over the years, and prepped us ahead of our time with her. She cautioned that Juanita might be mentally fragile, physically frail, or unable to recall details because she had \u201cblocked them out\u201d completely. Juanita had struggled with alcoholism and addiction over the years, Melody explained, so we should be prepared for that as well, that she might be under the influence.<\/p>\n

What we found when we arrived at Juanita\u2019s apartment was a welcoming presence. She was not under the influence. She was cogent. Friendly. She wanted to talk. She sat in an armchair looking out that window, answering our questions as they came at her one by one.<\/p>\n

Some things stood out, details and sentiments that have stayed with me. \u00a0First, Juanita was pregnant with her son Chad when she left Jonestown with her family that day, but she didn\u2019t yet know it.<\/p>\n

She recalled with clarity, Jones saying to the family in the pavilion, \u201canyone who leaves here, leaves in a pine box.\u201d She talked at length about the surreality of her parents joining Peoples Temple in Redwood Valley, when she was just a teenager, and having no choice but to go along to get along. She spoke often about her brother, Tommy Bogue, and a different pine box \u2013 a deprivation box, the one used for punishment \u2013 which we had heard about, but had found hard to believe. Juanita confirmed its existence.<\/p>\n

The most striking thing by far was her statement about responsibility. She calmly explained how people in the Jonestown community would turn on one another and mete out punishment.\u00a0 How she and her brother had both been on the receiving end of physical punishment by other members. And then, she included herself in it. \u201cI would do just the same to them,\u201d she acknowledged. \u201cWe all participated. Every last one of us.\u201d Juanita\u2019s inclusion of herself in that statement was for us, at that time, a revelation. As thoughtful and self-reflective as so many of the survivors had been when we spoke to them, no one had stated the truth in such clear and direct terms: \u201cWe all participated.\u201d That phrase continues to resonate for me today.<\/p>\n

She also spoke of her experiences as a survivor, especially in the years immediately following Jonestown. She had found a job in an office doing secretarial work, but when she went to work one day, she found the office completely empty, with a note telling her to take her things and not to come back. That image of the empty office summed up the impossibility of rebuilding a healthy, stable life after Jonestown. The hill she \u2013 and so many others \u2013 had to climb.<\/p>\n

Juanita explained to us that she told her kids about their family history during an episode of the \u201cOprah\u201d show, which had featured survivors of Jonestown. She pointed to the TV and said to her kids, \u201cThat\u2019s us. That\u2019s our family.\u201d She recounted how people \u2013 other survivors \u2013 had blamed her after Jonestown, saying things like, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you take my kids with you when you left\u2026\u201d It was a thought she lingered on for a long time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Juanita Bogue, with kids, mid 1980<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I heard the news of Juanita\u2019s passing, I felt sad for what she had suffered, the trauma she had lived through, and the lasting imprint it had made on her life and her children\u2019s lives. I thought about her son, Chad, who was convicted of killing a police officer in Oakland. Melody Ermachild Chavis had stayed in touch with Juanita because she was part of Chad\u2019s legal team as well \u2013 fighting in the sentencing phase for Chad to have life in prison instead of the death penalty. Telling his life story in court, in order to save his life, a story which included being in utero on November 18, 1978.<\/p>\n

From time to time, I do feel sad and sorry for Juanita. I\u2019m not sure pity is the right response to tragedy, but I fall into it sometimes. In writing this remembrance, I want to honor the wisdom in her simple phrase: \u201cWe all participated.\u201d Whether it\u2019s our current administration, our family system, or a fall out with a friend, when things go awry, there is participation, culpability, responsibility on all sides. Juanita\u2019s legacy is her recognition of our interdependence. We are all connected.<\/p>\n

After our visit with Juanita, Melody spoke to us about generational trauma \u2013 she was well ahead of her time on that \u2013 and how Chad carried that burden of Jonestown into his own life, the circumstances of where he lived, who he interacted with, everything that led to the violence that unfolded in Oakland, the day he killed a cop by firing an assault rifle into the air. The starting point for healing seems to me to be an acknowledgement of that generational trauma, and that recognition of participation.<\/p>\n

We did promise Juanita\u2019s youngest son, who was there that day of the interview, that we would return to take him to Chuck E. Cheese. We never did make it back for that. I think about that broken promise from time to time. I\u2019m sorry we never made it back.<\/p>\n

Juanita\u2019s words were included in our play, \u201cThe People\u2019s Temple,\u201d and the moral clarity of the statement \u2013 \u201cWe all participated. Every last one of us\u201d \u2013 was an important part of how the drama unfolded on stage. Adding to the complexity of this story. I\u2019ve spent my whole career conducting interviews, and there are some that stay with you. This one has stayed with me ever since that day more than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

May Juanita rest in peace, and may her family legacy be one of healing, across the generations. May her moral clarity uplift her and hers, and may she be made whole in mind and in body, on into the future beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Leigh Fondakowski is the playwright and director of the play, \u201cThe People\u2019s Temple,\u201d and author of Stories from Jonestown. Her collection of articles for this site is here.] It was one of those interviews that you never forget. More than twenty years later, I can readily recall her words, the picture window in her cramped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":138814,"menu_order":41,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-138972","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138972"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138979,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138972\/revisions\/138979"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/138814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}