NElson arroyo

Board Secretary

Chaplain Nelson Arroyo is from the first generation of both of his parents’ families for many generations to be raised outside of Puerto Rico. Some of both of his parent’s ancestors were born and living in Borinquen for continuous generations at least as far back as the 1600s.  Yet like so many Newyoricans, thanks to family, friends, and communities, Nelson never disconnected from the Puerto Rican experience both on the island and in the states. He has remained immersed in both cultures and is bilingual.  He is now retired, but still very selectively volunteering the use of his gifts, training, and experiences to provide care and guidance to others.

 For over 30 years, he served congregations, military members with their families, hospital patients with their loved ones and military and hospital leaders as a full time ordained clergyperson and chaplain. He recruited, trained, and supervised countless volunteers in many diverse settings. Besides typical clergy duties, some of his areas of expertise included providing accommodations for different religions, leading complex crisis interventions, and facilitating support groups to help meet various longer term human needs. He specialized in multi-cultural and multi-generational spiritual support. His decades of ethical guidance to persons in the hospital and military settings faced with crucial and oftentimes life or death crisis decision making responsibilities; gave Nelson many opportunities to be a consultant assisting in meeting a variety of crucial human needs. He remains a devoted lifelong student of religions and ethics.  He was entrusted with leading and supervising 44 military chaplains during a period of 12 plus years.  Many of those who he helped mentor have continued to excel to great positions of authority, responsibility, and influence. He remains married since his twenties to his ‘born and raised in Puerto Rico’ wife. After too many years of the continuous missed opportunities due to multiple military deployments overseas and his multiple trainings traveling away from home and family; Mrs. Arroyo and Nelson now devote much of their retirement time to their grown children and growing grandchildren. After decades of an extraordinary number of addresses resulting from active duty service throughout many states, Chaplain Nelson Arroyo and his wife have now begun to 'set some roots' in San Antonio, Texas. Nonetheless, they know where they come from and keep in touch with their Puerto Rican family and friends living now both in the ‘diaspora’ and in our beloved Borinquen.  He is honored to serve as a team member of the Board of Directors for MiPatria Puerto Rico.