For many in Miami’s Cuban exile community, hating Fidel Castro is as natural as loving one’s children. This hatred, Miguel De La Torre suggests, has in fact taken on religious significance. In La Lucha for Cuba, De La Torre shows how Exilic Cubans, a once marginalized group, have risen to power and privilegedistinguishing themselves from other Hispanic communities in the United Statesand how religion has figured in their ascension. Through the lens of religion and culture, his work also unmasks and explores intra-Hispanic structures of oppression operating among Cubans in Miami.Miami Cubans use a religious expression, la lucha, or "the struggle," to justify the power and privilege they have achieved. Within the context of la lucha, De La Torre explores the religious dichotomy created between the "children of light" (Exilic Cubans) and the "children of darkness" (Resident Cubans). Examining the recent saga of the Elián González custody battle, he shows how the cultural construction of la lucha has become a distinctly Miami-style spirituality that makes el exilio (exile) the basis for religious reflection, understanding, and practiceand that conflates political mobilization with spiritual meaning in an ongoing confrontation with evil.

La Lucha for Cuba: Religion and Politics on the Streets of Miami

Politics & Social Sciences

De LA Torre, Miguel A.

Social Sciences

University of California Press

This volume in the Belief series provides a new and interesting theological interpretation of Genesis through the themes of liberation and the concerns of the poor and marginalized. De La Torre wrestles with Genesis texts, remembering Jacob's wrestling at Peniel (Gen. 32:24-32), and finds that "there are consequences when we truly wrestle with the biblical text, struggling to see the face of God." This commentary provides theological and ethical insights that enables the book of Genesis to speak powerfully today.

Genesis (Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible)

Religion & Spirituality

Christian Books & Bibles

Westminster/John Knox Press

In this helpful addition to the Armchair Theologians series, Miguel A. De La Torre provides a concise overview of the global religious movement known as liberation theology that focuses on defining the major themes of this movement, as well as dispelling some common misconceptions. Liberation theology attempts to reflect upon the divine as understood from the poor, the marginalized, and the disenfranchised. The key figures, historical developments, and interfaith manifestations are all explored in this thorough introduction. Expertly written by De La Torre and accompanied by Ron Hill's illustrations, this book will serve as a primary text for those who may have little knowledge of or have never heard of liberation theology.

Liberation Theology for Armchair Theologians

The figure of Satan has for centuries embodied or incarnated absolute evil. Existing alongside more intellectualist interpretations of evil, Satan has figured largely in Christian practices, devotions, popular notions of the afterlife, and fears of retribution in the beyond. Satan remains an influential reality today in many Christian traditions and in popular culture. But how should Satan be understood today? De La Torre and Hernandez's volume probes the murky origins of the satanic legends and beliefs back to their pre-Christian roots in the Middle East. They unearth the Satan's roots in Egyptian and Babylonian understandings of evil. They also show, however, that the ancient Satan has some characteristics we would hardly recognize, especially his appearance in most ancient cultures and survival in many traditional religions as the "trickster" figure. While a minor tradition in historic Christianity, the authors argue, seeing Satan as trickster is historically accurate and holds real promise for Christian rethinking in "theology, philosophy, and practice of evil" and how it can be dealt with. This is a fascinating story that helps the reader reframe basic elements of our worldview of good and evil.

The Quest for the Historical Satan

History

Hernandez, Albert

World

Fortress Press

This book by Miguel De La Torre offers a fascinating guide to the history, beliefs, rituals, and culture of Santería ― a religious tradition that, despite persecution, suppression, and its own secretive nature, has close to a million adherents in the United States alone. Santería is a religion with Afro-Cuban roots, rising out of the cultural clash between the Yoruba people of West Africa and the Spanish Catholics who brought them to the Americas as slaves. As a faith of the marginalized and persecuted, it gave oppressed men and women strength and the will to survive. With the exile of thousands of Cubans in the wake of Castro's revolution in 1959, Santería came to the United States, where it is gradually coming to be recognized as a legitimate faith tradition. Apart from vague suspicions that Santería's rituals include animal sacrifice and notions that it is a “syncretistic” form of Catholicism, most people in America's cultural and religious mainstream know very little about this rich faith tradition ― in fact, many have never heard of it at all. De La Torre, who was reared in Santería, sets out in this book to provide a basic understanding of its inner workings. He clearly explains the particular worldview, myths, rituals, and practices of Santería, and he discusses what role the religion typically plays in the life of its practitioners as well as the cultural influence it continues to exert in Latin American communities today. In offering a balanced, informed survey of Santería from his unique “insider-outsider” perspective, De La Torre also provides insight into how Christianity and Santería can enter into dialogue ― a dialogue that will challenge Christians to consider what this emerging faith tradition can teach them about their own. Enhanced with illustrations, tables, and a glossary, De La Torre's Santería sheds light on a religion all too often shrouded in mystery and misunderstanding.

Santeria: The Beliefs and Rituals of a Growing Religion in America

Americas

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Short. Timely. Poignant. Pointed. Burying White Privilege is all of these and more. This is the book that everybody who cares about contemporary American Christianity will want to read. 
Many people wonder how white Christians could not only support Donald Trump for president but also rush to defend an accused child molester running for the US Senate. In a 2017 essay that went viral, Miguel A. De La Torre boldly proclaimed the death of Christianity at the hands of white evangelical nationalists. He continues sounding the death knell in this book.
De La Torre argues that centuries of oppression and greed have effectively ruined evangelical Christianity in the United States. Believers and clerical leaders have killed it, choosing profits over prophets. The silence concerning—if not the doctrinal justification of—racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia has made white Christianity satanic. Prophetically calling Christian nationalists to repentance, De La Torre rescues the biblical Christ from the distorted Christ of white Christian imagination.

Burying White Privilege: Resurrecting a Badass Christianity

Eerdmans

"How curiously different is this white God from the one preached by Jesus who understood faithfulness by how we treat the hungry and thirsty, the naked and alien, the incarcerated and infirm. This white God of empire may be appropriate for global conquerors who benefit from all that has been stolen and through the labor of all those defined as inferior; but such a deity can never be the God of the conquered."&nbsp; Echoing James Cone's 1970 assertion that white Christianity is a satanic heresy, Miguel De La Torre argues that whiteness has desecrated the message of Jesus. In a scathing indictment, he describes how white American Christians have aligned themselves with the oppressors who subjugate the "least of these"--those who have been systemically marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status--and, in overwhelming numbers, elected and supported an antichrist as president who has brought the bigotry ingrained in American society out into the open.&nbsp; With this follow-up to his earlier&nbsp;Burying White&nbsp;Privilege, De La Torre prophetically outlines how we need to decolonize Christianity and reclaim its revolutionary, badass message. Timid white liberalism is not the answer for De La Torre--only another form of complicity. Working from the parable of the sheep and the goats in the Gospel of Matthew, he calls for unapologetic solidarity with the sheep and an unequivocal rejection of the false, idolatrous Christianity of whiteness.

Decolonizing Christianity: Becoming Badass Believers

Miguel De La Torre foresees a future America dominated by white nationalists—and equips us with the tools to resist it.  
  
In Burying White Privilege, he opened our eyes to white Christians’ complicity in maintaining racist hierarchy in America. In its sequel, Decolonizing Christianity, he encouraged us to decolonize Christianity and return it to its revolutionary roots. Now, in his conclusion to the trilogy, Miguel A. De La Torre shows us the America on our horizon, should we continue down the path of heretical white Christianity—and the outlook is not bright.  
  
Resisting Apartheid America assesses the past and present threads of systemic racism in American politics, from Plymouth Rock to the Capitol on January 6. Sweeping and unsparing in his critique, De La Torre takes on authors revered in Christian theology, including Paul, Augustine, and heroes of the Reformation, aiming to uproot the ideological foundations of racism in Christianity. Following these through lines of oppression, he warns of a decline in democracy and rise in political violence—but equips us with the nonviolent ethical framework to resist this bleak future. Resisting Apartheid America is a clarion call to Christians to remake America in the image of the God of liberation.

Resisting Apartheid America: Living the Badass Gospel

"A sweeping and stunning interpretation of Cuban religion and culture, from the religious fervor that surrounded the recent Elian Gonzalez saga in Miami to a religious view from the underside of Cuban history."--Luis Daniel Leon, Arizona State University
"A fascinating [and] controversial interpretation of Cuban history and religions that should be read by anyone interested in understanding North American Latino religions and culture."--Gaston Espinosa, University of California, Santa Barbara
In The Quest for the Cuban Christ, Miguel A. De La Torre examines symbols enriching the Cuban experience through a highly creative historical and cultural framework. He argues that for all Cubans, Christ must be understood through the historical analysis of the Cuban culture and that God saves Cubans in a quintessentially Cuban way.
De La Torre juxtaposes two disciplines long considered mutually exclusive--liberation theology and postmodernity--to test the relationship between the faith of marginalized Cuban groups and the overall Cuban identity. His approach challenges the Latino academic religious community to seriously consider and acknowledge how vastly the Cuban religious experience differs from that of other traditions. He also confronts the proposition that Christ can be understood through a general Latino social location.
De La Torre analyzes key figures, groups, and periods in Cuban history as well as the ways Christ is being depicted in Cuban art today. His focus centers on the art created by marginalized segments of Cuban society, both in Cuba and the United States, to illuminate points of view from those previously silenced throughout Cuban history. His argument moves beyond a purely spiritual reading to explore how Christ is created by those who were and are oppressed by the Cuban culture, a theme that he uses to debunk the Christ of the powerful and privileged who until recently have been the sole arbiters of the Cuban identity.
 Miguel A. De La Torre, assistant professor of religion at Hope College, is the author of Reading the Bible from the Margins and co-author of Introducing Latino/a Theology with Edwin Aponte.

The Quest for the Cuban Christ: A Historical Search (History of African-American Religions)

University Press of Florida

Jos&#233; Mart&#237;'s Liberative Political Theology argues that Mart&#237;'s religious views, which at first glance might appear outdated and irrelevant, are actually critical to understanding his social vision. During a time in which the predominant philosophical view was materialistic (e.g., Darwin, Marx), Mart&#237; sought to reconcile social and political trends with the metaphysical, believing that ignoring the spiritual would create a soulless approach toward achieving a liberative society. As such, Mart&#237; used religious concepts and ideas as tools that could bring forth a more just social order. In short, this book argues Mart&#237; could be considered a precursor to what would come to be called liberation theology.\nMiguel De La Torre has authored the most comprehensive text written thus far concerning Mart&#237;'s religious views and how they affected his political thought. The few similar texts that exist are written in Spanish, and most of them romanticize Mart&#237;'s spirituality in an attempt to portray him as a &;Christian believer.&; Only a handful provide an academic investigation of Mart&#237;'s theological thought based solely on his writings, and those concentrate on just one aspect of Mart&#237;'s religious influences. Jos&#233; Mart&#237;'s Liberative Political Theology allows for mutual influence between Mart&#237;'s political and religious views, rather than assuming one had precedence over the other.

José Marti’s Liberative Political Theology

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Vanderbilt Univ Pr

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