Luis R. Rivera traces the origins, context, and transformative history of a Latinx Protestant movement from the margins that changed the landscape of American theological education in the 1970s. Rivera's careful research and comprehensive analysis identifies and defines the emergence of the Protestant Latinx Academic Movement, or PLAM, a groundswell of activism that catalyzed new ideas, programs, and ways of educating for ministry across the geographic and denominational landscape from the late 1960s through the end of the 1970s.
Inspired by and connected to the diverse Hispanic social justice and civil rights movements of the period, PLAM grew increasingly bold in seeking change and more organized in challenging and negotiating with the Protestant theological establishment. Rivera traces the movement's development from its initial coalescence, centered on programs such as the Hispanic American Institute at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, through the first waves of transformation in theological education with the establishment of programs at schools including Perkins School of Theology, New York Theological Seminary, McCormick Theological Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Wartburg Theological Seminary. Throughout, he paints a rich picture of the personalities and approaches involved in PLAM, also connecting the movement's advocacy to that undertaken by other minoritized populations.
By the end of the 1970s, Rivera argues, PLAM had seen the emergence of a variety of academic programs for Latinx students, the development of a cadre of Latinx scholars and educators, and the validation of the field of Latinx theology by stakeholders in the academy and philanthropic foundations. PLAM had moved from the outskirts to the margins of the academy, from which it has continued to fight externally and struggle internally to keep its vocation as a Latinx academic prophetic and reformist movement.
