Prior to his retirement in 2002 he was appointed by Henry N. Parsley to serve as Assistant Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, beginning on August 1.
Soto was born in 1932 in Omaja, a small town founded by American immigrants in the province of Oriente, Cuba.
In 1945 he won a scholarship to study in a rural training school in Victoria de las Tunas, a city 30 miles from home.
He graduated with honors in 1947 and received a scholarship to study secondary education at Irene Toland School in Matanzas, 100 miles from Havana.
Soto graduated with honors in 1952, and enrolled three months later at the University of Havana's School of Medicine where he completed four years of medical training..
At that time the province consisted of the dioceses of Mexico, Central America, Ecuador, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
While in El Salvador, he organized the provincial office and set up a wide communication system throughout the province and the rest of Latin America.
During this time he traveled widely and helped to foster better inter-Anglican and ecumenical relations through personal visits and communication.
Before his departure from Caracas, the President of Venezuela, Rafael Caldera, granted him the Order of the Liberator Simón Bolívar for his contribution to "the moral and spiritual welfare" of the country.
Soto and his wife, Nina, a Christian educator also a native of Cuba, have four grown children and six grandchildren who live in the Chicago, Washington, San Diego and Sacramento.