From September 15 to October 15, we honor Hispanic Heritage Month. During this month (and every month of the year!), we celebrate our Latine and Hispanic authors and the intricate and diverse layers of their identities. The following nonfiction books explore ways you can find sacred belonging in your life through their stories of liberation, identity, and ancestral wisdom.
Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez was an invisible architect behind evangelical Christianity's digital empire, crafting messages of belonging for some of the most influential megachurches while secretly questioning his own place within the faith. In a desperate attempt to "fix" himself, he turned to conversion therapy. Conversion Therapy Dropout is a behind-the-scenes look at megachurch culture, the hidden harm of non-affirming Christian spaces, and the ongoing impact of conversion therapy on gay Christians. This isn't just a coming-out story—it's about what happens after. About rebuilding a life outside the only world you've ever known. And the radical act of stepping into the light after being told your whole life to stay in the shadows.
"Pursue your calling." "Become the best version of yourself." "Make your life count." These messages inundate us everywhere. But so many of us are worn out from constantly pursuing more and always feeling like we fall short. In You Don't Need a Calling, former minister Damon Garcia turns our standard ways of thinking about purpose upside down. Purpose isn't something we find—it's something that finds us when we learn to be present to the world in front of us. For anyone disillusioned by the idea of "God's plan" for their life or exhausted by the achievement treadmill, this book will dislodge your narrow thinking and reframe the way you view your life, desires, gifts, work, success, and relationship to the world.
What if desert elders from more than a millennium ago could walk beside us and nourish our spirits now? Desert spirituality doesn't mean going it alone; it means finding companions to walk with us. The Way of the Desert Elders is a spiritual expedition into the stories and wisdom of ancient, desert-dwelling Christians, who show us how to forge faith at the edges of empire.
For the first time, Brother Lawrence's work is translated by a woman of color and a renowned scholar who creates a dynamic, faithful translation for a new generation of readers. Carmen Acevedo Butcher frees The Practice of the Presence of God from its centuries-long prison of dogmatic, binary language and brings fresh, inclusive treatment that readers are sure to find transformational as they seek to experience God's loving presence throughout the day.
The wilderness of the heart may be untamed, but you don't need to go there alone. In The Wild Land Within, spiritual companion and podcast host Lisa Colón DeLay offers a map to our often-bewildering inner terrain, inviting us to deepen and expand our encounters with God. In opening ourselves up to God's healing, we will inevitably come across wounds we didn't even know we had. Colón DeLay uses theology and neuroscience to help us work through buried fear or pain and find embodied spiritual healing from trauma.
Read a Q&A with Colón DeLay here.
When we look at Scripture, we see that the God of the Bible was never neutral. Again and again God chooses the side of the oppressed. In The God Who Riots, popular YouTuber and public theologian Damon Garcia uses his frank, tell-it-like-it-is style to connect us with the Jesus who flipped tables in the temple and led an empire-destabilizing movement for liberation. The spirit of this God is embodied in today's protests, riots, and strikes. As we join this struggle for liberation, we are joining the God who riots alongside us, within us, and through us.
Each of us has traumas, triggers, and painful experiences that have shaped our existence in this world. With the powerful voice of a woman, pastor, mother, and advocate, Rev. Aurelia Dávila Pratt gives us the compassionate nudge and tools we need to access our inner authority. By stepping out of harmful belief systems informed by white supremacy and scarcity, we can step into healthy paradigms of abundance, liberation, and power. A Brown Girl's Epiphany is a love letter to all of us in need of guidance on our journey.
To view all of our books and resources, visit broadleafbooks.com.
