Orlando Espín
Orlando Espín was born in 1947, and arrived in the U.S. in 1961. Espín attended schools in Miami and Boca Raton, Florida. He earned college and graduate degrees in theology/religious studies. Orlando continued his educational pursuits at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he earned a Doctorate in Theology, in both systematic and practical theology, graduating summa cum laude in 1984.
In his subsequent teaching and writing, he has specialized in the theological study of popular religion, as well as in the theologies of culture and traditioning. He is regarded as one of the founders of U.S. Latino/a theology. Espín was one of the founding members of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States, in 1988, and served twice as its president. He also founded and was the first chief editor of the Journal of Hispanic/Latinoax Theology.
In 1991, after a few years of teaching in Florida institutions, Espín joined the faculty of the University of San Diego as professor of systematic theology in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. In 1993, at USD, he founded the Center for the Study of Latino/a/x Catholicism. He retired from USD, as professor emeritus, in 2019.
Espín is the author of more than four hundred articles published in U.S., Latin American and European journals, and is the author or editor of a dozen books. He was co-founder and convener of the Latino/a/x Roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Berkeley’s Pacific School of Religion. He is also active in local and national organizations that advocate for Latino/a/x and immigrant rights and equality.
In June 2016, Espín received the John Courtney Murray Award from the Catholic Theological Society of America–- Catholic theology’s most important and prestigious recognition. He was among the first in his field to write and speak on LGBTQ rights and realities, and has encouraged others to do so. He continues to lecture locally, nationally and internationally on Latino/a/x LGBTQ persons, families and religions.
Orlando and his partner, Ricardo, have been together for 29 years. They were legally married in 2008.