Christian de la Huerta is an author, public figure, spiritual and LGBTQ leader.
Background
De la Huerta was born in
Havana, Cuba
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. and is the son of prominent Cuban psychiatrist René de la Huerta. His family left
Cuba when he was ten and he spent the rest of his childhood and early adulthood in
Milledgeville, Georgia
Milledgeville is a city in and the county seat of Baldwin County in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is northeast of Macon and bordered on the east by the Oconee River. The rapid current of the river here made this an attractive location to buil ...
and
Miami, Florida.
He is an alumnus of
Belen Jesuit Preparatory and then graduated with honors in psychology from
Tulane University.
After residing in
San Francisco for twenty years, de la Huerta is currently residing again in South Florida within the
Coconut Grove area.
Career
De la Huerta's career has focused on personal transformation and he is an active public speaker, seminar leader, group facilitator, and consultant on the subject. Informed by his spiritual studies and psychology background, one important focus of his career has been the healing practice of
breathwork. In 2000 he founded Soulful Power, a South Florida-based organization that hosts spiritual breathwork retreats, workshops, and offers coaching services.
Soulful Power has offered remote retreats to locations including
Hawaii,
California,
New Mexico,
Peru,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Southern France
Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French language, French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi ...
, and
Egypt.
De la Huerta first became a national figure following the release of his acclaimed 1999 book ''Coming Out Spiritually: The Next Step.'' In it he presents the spiritual roles
LGBTQ people have fulfilled throughout history and across many cultures, and organizes them into ten
archetypes. The book was chosen by ''
Publishers Weekly'' as one of the ten best religion books of 1999, and was also nominated for a
Lambda Literary Award.
De la Huerta has since become an influential writer and speaker on spiritual, LGBTQ, and self-development topics. His writing has appeared in significant LGBTQ outlets such as ''
The Advocate
An advocate is a professional in the field of law.
The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to:
Magazines
* ''The Advocate'' (LGBT magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States
*''The Harvard Advocate'', a literary magazin ...
'', ''Genre'', ''
OUT
Out may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
* ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander
* ''Out'' (2002 film), a Japanese film ba ...
'' and others. He has also been a contributor to mainstream media outlets such as
The Huffington Post as well as
ABC News and
Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
and has been interviewed by
Medium and ''
The Advocate
An advocate is a professional in the field of law.
The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to:
Magazines
* ''The Advocate'' (LGBT magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States
*''The Harvard Advocate'', a literary magazin ...
''. Throughout his career de la Huerta has been covered by the
Asheville Citizen-Times
The ''Asheville Citizen-Times'' is an American, English language daily newspaper of Asheville, North Carolina. It was formed in 1991 as a result of a merger of the morning ''Asheville Citizen'' and the afternoon ''Asheville Times''. It is owned ...
,
York Daily Record,
San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...
,
Yahoo! Finance,
and discussed in the 2016 book ''Postcolonial Practice of Ministry: Leadership, Liturgy, and Interfaith Engagement''.
On April 6, 2013, he delivered a
TEDx Talk titled "The Power of Breath" at the
Missouri Theatre in
Columbia, Missouri
Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...
.
De la Huerta's second book, ''Awakening the Soul of Power,'' was released in October 2020 and is the first installment of "Calling All Heroes," a three part series.
The book received early high-profile endorsements from singer
Gloria Estefan
Gloria Estefan (; born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García; born 1 September 1957) is a Cuban-American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is a seven-time Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been ...
, theologian
Matthew Fox, and leading
Civil Rights activist
David Mixner.
The book debuted at number 1 and number 4 in
Amazon's Psychology and Religion Bestseller category in its paperback and hardcover formats, respectively.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huerta, Christian De La
Living people
Tulane University alumni
People from Havana
American spiritual teachers
American spiritualists
American gay writers
Spiritual writers
American writers of Cuban descent
Hispanic and Latino American writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
Cuban emigrants to the United States
American male essayists
American male non-fiction writers
People in alternative medicine
Transpersonal psychologists
Mindfulness (psychology)
Mindfulness movement
Spiritual retreats
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American LGBTQ people