Date of Lecture: November 16, 2016
About the Speaker: Miguel De La Torre is professor of social ethics and Latino/a studies at the Iliff School of Theology and author of "The U.S. Immigration Crisis: Toward an Ethics of Place" (Cascade, 2016). His documentary, “Trails of Terror,” explores the historical and economic reasons for the current immigration and humanitarian crisis on the U.S. border.
About the Talk: De La Torre talks about the situation for Latinos and Latinas in the United States and suggests that to stand in solidarity with them, we must embrace the hopelessness of the Latino/a community.
"What hope does is it short circuits activism," he said. "Because as soon as we don’t reach the goals of liberation, then we give up, and — ugh — it failed, so why bother? And what I want to say is, we’re not going to reach it. But our humanity is not defined by our success. It’s defined by the struggle for justice."
One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity, the talk was co-sponsored with Latin American and Latino Studies, and Peace and Conflict Studies. 