*** Welcome to piglix ***

Miguel A. De La Torre

Miguel A. De La Torre
MiguelADeLaTorre.JPG
Born October 6, 1958
La Habana, Cuba
Nationality Naturalized U.S. citizen
Fields Social ethics, theology of liberation, Latinx religiosity, Santería
Institutions Iliff School of Theology
Alma mater Temple University
Known for Scholar-activist whose works analyzes social ethics and hispanic religiosity
Notable awards "Outstanding Hispanic Educator" award by the Michigan Hispanic Legislative Caucus; "2016 Outstanding Faculty Award" by University of Denver/Iliff Joint Doctoral Program

Miguel A. De La Torre (born October 6, 1958) is a professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at Iliff School of Theology, a scholar-activist, author, and an ordained Southern Baptist minister.

Born in Cuba months before the Castro Revolution, De La Torre and his family migrated to the United States as refugees when he was an infant. For a while the U.S. government considered him and his family as "illegal aliens". On June 6, 1960, De La Torre received an order from Immigration and Naturalization Service to "self-deport." He attended Blessed Sacrament School in Queens, New York and was baptized and confirmed by the Catholic Church. Simultaneously, his parents were priest/priestess of the religion Santería. He refers to himself as a Southern Baptist, Roman Catholic child of Ellegúa. He left Queens, moving to Miami, Florida in his teens.

At nineteen years of age he began a real estate company in Miami called Championship Realty, Century 21; becoming at the time the youngest real estate broker in the State of Florida. The office grew to over 100 sales agents. During this time he obtained a Masters in Public Administration from American University in Washington, DC. Eventually he was elected president of the Miami Board of Realtors. He was also active in local politics, becoming the founding president of the West Dade Young Republicans. In 1988 he was a candidate for the Florida House of Representatives, District 115, but lost to Mario Diaz-Balart.

In his early twenties he became a "born-again" Christian, joining University Baptist Church in Coral Gables, Florida. De La Torre dissolved the thirteen-year-old real estate company in 1992 to attend Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in order to obtain a Masters in Divinity and enter the ministry. During his seminary training he served as pastor at a rural congregation, Goshen Baptist Church in Glen Dean, Kentucky.

De La Torre continued his theological training and obtained a doctorate from Temple University in social ethics in 1999. According to the books he published, he focuses on ethics within contemporary U.S. thought, specifically how religion affects race, class, and gender oppression. His works 1) applies a social scientific approach to Latino/a religiosity within this country; 2) studies Liberation theologies in the Caribbean and Latin America (specifically in Cuba); and 3) engages in postmodern/postcolonial social theory. De La Torre is considered to be the most published Latinx in the field of religious studies with over thirty books and hundreds of articles.


...
Wikipedia

...