Feature
The Centro Raíces Latinas creates space for communal thriving
by Wendy Cordero Rugama
The Hispanic-Latinx Center, established in 1988, brought Hispanic-Latinx culture and experience into the life of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. In 2025, we honor the decades of this legacy and expand our call to serve the Latine community and those called to ministry within it. Newly relaunched as Centro Raíces Latinas (CRL), CRL honors the peoples of Abya Yala, the Indigenous name for the lands now known as Latin America, acknowledging the Indigenous, African, and colonial stories that shape our shared and complex identities.
Rooted in faith and committed to the way of Jesus, Centro Raíces Latinas cultivates justice, compassion, and hope. We empower Latine leaders and allies to be agents of transformation, helping the Church become an instrument of healing for the world. Through accessible, contextually grounded programming and intercultural education, we celebrate the culture, diversity, resilience, and spiritual wisdom of Latine communities. Whether you connect with Garrett in person or online, CRL is a home for all who seek connection to their raíces and the shared work of solidarity, growth, and renewal.
Dr. Emma Escobar serves as the Director of the Centro Raíces Latinas (CRL) and as the Assistant Professor of Faith-Based Organizing.
At the Centro Raíces Latinas, our work is rooted in faith. As part of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, we ground everything we do in our religious convictions and in the way of Jesus. This faith commitment is not abstract—it shapes how we form Latine leaders and allies to be agents of change. By cultivating a faith rooted in justice, compassion, and hope, we empower leaders to transform the Church so that it may truly thrive and become an instrument of healing for the world.
Centro Raíces Latinas provides theological and practical resources to equip Latine leaders and educate non-Latine communities in Latin American realities, offering formation rooted in Latin American theology, histories, struggles, and spiritualities, to better engage with el pueblo Latine. We do this by elevating Latine theological voices within the academy, church, and society; equipping leaders through accessible, contextually relevant programming; providing opportunities for intercultural learning and reflection.
CRL creates space for Latine leaders, clergy and laity, students, faculty, staff, and communities, as well as non-Latine allies, to engage in collective work around justice, advocacy, and organizing. This includes addressing issues that disproportionately affect Latine and marginalized communities; fostering faith-based organizing and community transformation; building networks of solidarity across cultures and borders; advocating for the well-being of Latine students.
We celebrate the diversity, resilience, and spiritual wisdom of Latine communities through cultural expression. This involves; highlighting the arts as a pathway for healing and transformation; honoring heritage and tradition through community events and creative platforms; gatherings for Latine students, faculty, staff, and alumni; partnering with organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean for mutual exchange.
There is a sense in which every Christian is a theologian, and so I hope to help my students become the best theologians that they can in the context of their particular calling.
Dr. Nancy Bedford
Georgia Harkness Professor of Theology
Through my interdisciplinary approach to education, my areas of interest range from Paulo Freire’s work, critical pedagogy, global citizenship, intercultural and postcolonial studies, cultural-historical theory activity (Lev Vygotsky), and liberation theologies.
Dr. Débora Junker
Associate Professor of Critical Pedagogies
In my teaching, I seek to inform and train future religious leaders in the practices of ‘true generosity’ so that the Church is an engine of transformation and liberation in the world, rather than a perpetuator of ‘false charity.’
Rev. Dr. Javier A. Viera
President and Professor of Education and Leadership
We can be in partnership with communities where people are being agents of change, walking with one another.
Dr. Emma Escobar
Assistant Professor of Faith-Based Organizing
Director, Hispanic-Latinx Center
