Dr. Candelaria is from Roswell New Mexico.  He received his Masters degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  In 1987 he earned a Th. D., Harvard University, where he was a Teaching Fellow in the Harvard Divinity School.  He has taught Religion and Philosophy at California State University, Bakersfield and more recently he has taught Philosophy at TVI,  and in the Honors Program here at UNM.  In 1992-94 he held one of the prestigious Rockefeller Fellowships  at the Southwest Hispanic Research Institute, here at UNM and is the recipient of several other awards.  He is the author of the book, Popular Religion and Liberation.  The Dilemma of Liberation Theology. Published by SUNY Press in 1990.  Dr. Candelaria teaches Latin American philosophy and U.S. Hispanic philosophy.