Juan Carlos Ortiz (1934–2021) was an Argentine preacher, evangelist, and author whose dynamic ministry spanned over 65 years, leaving a profound impact on evangelical Christianity across Latin America and beyond. Born on July 8, 1934, in Santos Lugares, a suburb of Buenos Aires, he was the fifth child of Concepcion Martos, a seamstress, and Hilario Ortiz, an alcoholic railroad engineer who was largely absent. Raised by his mother and older siblings in a deeply religious Pentecostal home, Ortiz began teaching Sunday school at age 14 and preaching at 16 to a congregation of Italian immigrants. He graduated from the Instituto Bíblico Río de la Plata, an Assemblies of God seminary, in 1954, and that year served as personal secretary to American evangelist Tommy Hicks during his Buenos Aires campaign. Married to Martha Palau, he fathered four children—Robert John, David, Vera, and Georgina—though Robert John predeceased him, dying of AIDS in 1991. Ortiz’s preaching career took off as he founded five churches, including one of Buenos Aires’ most influential evangelical congregations from 1966 to 1978, often cited as Argentina’s first megachurch. In 1990, invited by Dr. Robert Schuller, he moved to the United States to start a Spanish-speaking ministry at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, growing it from 32 to over 1,200 regular attendees within five years. Known for his grace-focused theology and innovative leadership—highlighted by his 1974 Lausanne Congress sermon “Mashed Potato Love”—he preached in over 65 countries, produced TV and radio programs like La Hora del Poder, and authored books such as Disciple (1975), a classic on Christian discipleship. Ortiz died on December 1, 2021, in Tustin, California, surrounded by family after a long illness, leaving a legacy as a visionary preacher whose progressive views on church unity and inclusivity, praised by peers like Dante Gebel, often put him ahead of his time.