DR FELIX M PADILLA

By training I’m a Professor of Sociology. I received my Ph.D. from Northwestern University where I was most fortunate for having studied with Dr. Howard Becker, one of the leading American sociologists over the last sixty years. I have taught at several universities, including Northern Illinois, DePaul University, Lehman College and Yale University. I have written six leading academic books that include Latino Ethnic Consciousness, Puerto Rican Chicago, The Gang as an American Enterprise.

Over the course of my life, personal experiences have led me on a journey beyond the walls of the university. I’ve gone in search of knowledge in places I never imagined I would ever go. For a time Sociology was my only world, a world I never thought would leave my questions unanswered or constrain me. But it did. Hence, my introduction to and active participation in the realm of spirituality, our inner self or being where intuitive feelings, emotions, passion and creativity function as the most natural sources of knowledge and understanding. In my present book, The Struggle for the Authentic Self: Creating Your True Self for a Peaceful World, I blend my academic knowledge with my understanding and practice of living from my spirituality or inner self to produce a story of hope for those interested in seriously undertaking the process of personal transformation in order to return to the true, authentic self they were as children but which their social and cultural environment stripped from them.
I am passionately dedicated to helping awaken in people a desire to see themselves as the true shapers of not only their individual, personal lives but of this beautiful planet which interconnects us all. I believe this can only occur when individuals develop the knowledge and understanding necessary to become the true authentic selves they were meant to be.