Walter Bosque was a member of the acupuncture collective at the Lincoln Hospital Detox program that developed the now widely practiced National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) protocol. This important community work was prominently featured in the 2018 “People’s Detox” and 2020 documentary film ‘Dope is Death.’ He was one of the first American students to graduate from the Quebec Institute of Acupuncture in 1977, and the first Puerto Rican to be licensed to practice acupuncture in the state of California in 1979. This year marks 45 years that Walter has been bringing acupuncture and Tai Chi Chuan to underserved populations in New York City. Now retired, he continues to volunteer and participate in free community clinics and programs throughout Puerto Rico and New York City with SAPP collective (Salud y Acupuntura Para el Pueblo), New York Harm Reduction Educators (HYHRE), Friends of Brook Park, and Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB). In 2021, he became the Treasurer of the reinvigorated Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America (BAAANA), an organization that originated in 1979 to continue the more revolutionary work begun at Lincoln Detox after the radical origins were suppressed. As a History Keeper, he will be working on his memoir and continuing to teach acupuncture and tai chi.
