In this Open Plaza Podcast, Stephen Rocco DiTrolio talks to Dr. Lauren Frances Guerra about how millennial Latinxs attempt to decolonize their spiritual lives through Curanderismo, Santería, and Brujería. Young Latinxs have rediscovered and reconnected with ancestral wisdom through a broad range of spiritual practices. While many Latinxs feel a continued sense of ambivalence towards organized religion, the desire for spiritual connection and community remains. This movement highlights the complexity and syncretic nature of Latinx faith.

Date recorded: 14 January 2019

Millennial Latinxs Reconnect with Ancestral Wisdom

Leadership development is a life-long process, and churches have proved to be the perfect training ground for young people to develop leadership skills. In this Open Plaza podcast, three scholars --Dr. Daniel Ramirez, Dr. Mati Moros, and Dr. Elizabeth Tamez -- share their testimonios and explore what growing up in the church has meant to them. They discuss their early opportunities to exercise leadership (hands-on experiences/agency) and how this has impacted their leadership work now as adults and even influenced their commitment to theology/church.

Date recorded: 14 January 2019

Leadership and Youth Development in Local Congregations

Looking through a Latina Lens  

It is important to read the Bible through a self-consciously Latina interpretive, or hermeneutical, lens. In this three-episode podcast, Dr. Jacqueline Hidalgo and Dr. Kay Higuera Smith discuss the moment when they first realized how much context matters in thinking about the Bible.  In the third episode of this podcast, they turn their hermeneutical lens on another genre: the song “Baby It’s Cold Outside” by Frank Loesser. Turns out that meaning can be double-edged.

Hermeneutics in the Latinx Context- Episode 1

HTI Open Plaza is an online platform within the Hispanic Theological Initiative that amplifies the voices of diverse thinkers and scholars in the public square.