Gonna Trouble the Water

by Miguel A. de la Torre, Bill Ritter (Foreword)

To deny water is to deny life."Gonna Trouble the Water" considers the sacred nature of water and the ways in which it is weaponized against non-white communities. With compelling contributions from scholars and activists, politicians and theologians, "Gonna Trouble the Water" de-centers the concept of water as a commodity in order to center the dignity of water and its life-giving character. Firmly grounded at the intersection of environmentalism and racism, "Gonna Trouble the Water" makes clear the to deny water is to deny life.

With compelling contributions from scholars and activists, politicians and theologians—including former Colorado governor Bill Ritter, global academic law professor Ved P. Nanda, Detroit-based activist Michelle Andrea Martinez, and many more—Gonna Trouble the Water de-centers the concept of water as a commodity in order to center the dignity of water and its life-giving character.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment

159 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 10, 2021

About the author

De La Torre received a Masters in Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a doctorate from Temple University in social ethics. The focus of his academic pursuit has been ethics within contemporary U.S. thought, specifically how religion affects race, class, and gender oppression. He specializes in applying a social scientific approach to Latino/a religiosity within this country, Liberation theologies in Latin America, and postmodern/postcolonial social theory.

De La Torre currently servers as the Professor of Social Ethics and Latino/a Studies at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado.

Reviews

[Miesha Wilson Headen]

Reverend de la Torre’s Gonna Trouble the Water is a compilation of writers of color asserting water and sanitation as a human right. Water is a public good rather than a private commodity. The writers call for “survivance” -- an active repudiation of dominance and tragedy. Everybody knows about the lead contamination travesty in Flint, Michigan. The writers in Gonna Trouble the Water make known that this travesty repeats itself across the Global South - in Newark, Bangladesh, South Africa, and West Asia.

This book is essential for any person who wants to increase their knowledge of environmental racism as a weapon against people

[Aimee]

I found most of this book to be unnecessarily dense and difficult to read. I'm not sure who the target audience for the book is, but I read a lot and don't normally struggle to understand reading, and found that a good deal of the book was incomprehensible. The points the authors were trying to make were buried under layers of academic language. I was also put off by the lack of problem solution discussion and where to go from here. Nothing I read was news to me.