Alberto Rembao (1895--1962): Mexican American Protestant for internationalism and Christian holism

Alberto Rembao (1895-1962) is recognized as one of a small number of Latin American mainline Protestants who worked with the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America (CCLA)---which coordinated Protestant missions in the region---and brought visions of nationalism and social consciousness to Latin American Protestantism in the generation preceding liberation theology. What little has been written about Rembao is usually connected to critiques of the "liberal phase" of Latin American Protestantism in the first half of the 20th century. Rembao and his generation are accused of having acquiesced to North American missionary leadership and to a CCLA focus on reaching Latin America's elite with a utopian social gospel and bourgeois liberal democracy.; An intellectual biography of Alberto Rembao in his own context reveals a more complex figure who worked cooperatively with different groups to promote Christian-based models of international good will, political and economic justice, and other social concerns. Rembao's labors were rooted in a holistic belief that Christianity should improve all aspects of human life and society. The past tendency to focus on Rembao through his work with the CCLA has meant that the first half of his life and other influential factors (besides Protestant liberalism), as well as his jobs, associations and activities outside of the CCLA have never been properly studied.; Important influences on Rembao were his revolutionary family legacy and early education, which brought him into contact with Protestant missions and the ideals of democratic liberalism. These factors led to his participation and near demise in the Mexican revolution. Also influential were exceptional models of holistic Protestant mission he witnessed in Mexico and admired. Previously unexplored but critical for understanding Rembao are the ideals of pacifism, internationalism, and renewed social concern in the period between the two world wars that became central to mainline Protestant missions and other organizations with which he worked. By the time Rembao became Editor of the CCLA's journal, La Nueva Democracia (1933), these ideals had already been formed and continued to be important to his work throughout the interwar years and beyond.