NAVIGATING BORDERLANDS: GAY LATINO MEN IN COLLEGE  By  Trace Camacho                    A DISSERTATION  Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of  Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education  Doctor of Philosophy  2016 ABSTRACT  NAVIGATING BORDERLANDS: GAY LATINO MEN IN COLLEGE  By  Trace Camacho    Despite the growing focus on Latino students within higher education little research has been done to explore how various subsets of the Latino student population experience the college environment.  This study explores the experiences of gay Latino men in college and the barriers and success they encounter.  This study was grounded in layering multiple theoretical perspectives, Ecological Perspective (Bronfenbrenner, 1993), Borderlands Theory (Anzaldúa, 1999), and the Reconceptualized Model of Multiple Identities (Abes, Jones, & McEwen, 2007).   This layered perspective guided the qualitative approach of this study.  Ten gay Latino men who attended college in the southwestern United States were each interviewed twice for this study.  Participants shared about their experiences as gay Latino men in college which resulted in the creation of a new theoretical perspective to view the experiences of gay Latino men in college.   Through this new theoretical perspective gay Latino men experience multiple borderlands between various identities, cultures, and worlds across various environmental levels.  This perspective is illustrated by showing ways students experience the borderlands between gay and Latino as well as college.  These multiple borderlands provided both barriers and opportunities for success for participants.  Participants employed various methods to navigate the multiple borderlands they experienced.  These methods occurred both within and outside of the academic environment.  Students used ethnic studies courses as a way to better understand their various identities and how the related to one another.  In addition, students used involvement with identity-based organizations and fraternities as another method for navigating borderlands.   Finally, I provide recommendations on future directions for practice, research, and theory.  The goal of these recommendations is to create more inclusive campus environments for gay Latino students and students with multiple marginalized identities.  In addition, opportunities for ways to combine and layer theories are discussed.  Copyright by TRACE CAMACHO 2016  v To my family and participants vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  The journey of writing this dissertation was not possible without the help of many people.  First and foremost, I want to thank the 10 men who were willing to share their stories with me during this study.  I hope that through this project I was able to honor your experiences while helping other students like yourselves.  I must also thank my family, including my parents and brother, whose unwavering personal and academic support has enabled me to take risks and pursue my passions.   A study like this would not be possible without the guidance and support of an amazing committee of faculty members.  Kris, you have served as a pillar of support and encouragement even before I started this journey.  You are the embodiment of challenge and support.  Matt, you have always pushed me to think differently and more deeply about how I integrate my scholarly and professional practice.  Patricia, you have provided me with ongoing support since arriving at MSU.  Thank you for taking the chance and joining me on this journey.  Finally Django, from our bonding over our California roots to your pushing me to think about research not just as a process but as a passion, thank you.   In addition to my faculty support, there have been numerous people who have pushed me and cheered me on as I worked to complete my doctorate.  I would have not known about student showed me what it means to have a passion for what you do.  I also found mentors in Dr. Susana Hernandez, Dr. Michelle Espino, Dr. Lori Patton Davis, and Dr. Ryan Gildersleeve, who served as guides and support as I navigated the doctoral process.  My brothers of Sigma Lambda Beta, both within and outside of higher education, served as my biggest cheerleaders throughout this  vii journey, especially Omar Padilla, Jose Cabrales, Cristobal Salinas, Eduardo Diaz, Alex Perez, and Marc Johnston-Guerrero.  ing people at Michigan State who have supported me: My cohort members Qiana Green, Erich Pitcher, and Jasmine Lee; my co-workers Kelly Schweda and Alex Lange; and friends Melissa McDaniels and Jim Lucas.     viii TABLE OF CONTENTS   LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 Statement of the Problem .......................................................................................................... 1 Significance of the Study .......................................................................................................... 3 Purpose and Research Questions .............................................................................................. 5 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................. 6 Identity ................................................................................................................................ 7 Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity ................................................................... 9 Borderlands Theory .................................................................................................... 10 Borderlands and multiple dimensions of identity ....................................................... 13 Ecological Model .............................................................................................................. 13 Theory Summary .............................................................................................................. 17 Summary ................................................................................................................................. 17 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................. 18 Latinos in Higher Education ................................................................................................... 18 Gay Latinos in Higher Education ..................................................................................... 20 Latino Identity Development ............................................................................................ 21 Latino Summary................................................................................................................ 24 LGBT Students in Higher Education ...................................................................................... 24 LGBT Identity Development ............................................................................................ 27 LGBT Summary................................................................................................................ 29 Gay Latinos ............................................................................................................................. 29 LGBT Students of Color in Higher Education ....................................................................... 34 Gay Latino Experiences in Higher Education .................................................................. 35 Peña- ................................................................................... 37 Literature Review Summary ................................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................. 40 Researcher Positionality.......................................................................................................... 40 Qualitative Approach .............................................................................................................. 42 Participants, Site Selection, and Recruitment ......................................................................... 44 Data Collection ....................................................................................................................... 47 Reflection as Research ............................................................................................................ 49 Research as a Borderland ........................................................................................................ 49 Participant Profiles .................................................................................................................. 50 Alex ................................................................................................................................... 50 Christian ............................................................................................................................ 50 Eddie ................................................................................................................................. 51  ix Enrique .............................................................................................................................. 51 Juan ................................................................................................................................... 52 Marcos............................................................................................................................... 52 Mike .................................................................................................................................. 52 Omar ................................................................................................................................. 53 Oscar ................................................................................................................................. 53 T ........................................................................................................................................ 53 Analysis................................................................................................................................... 54 Trustworthiness ....................................................................................................................... 56 Limitations .............................................................................................................................. 57 CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................................. 58 Findings................................................................................................................................... 58 College as a Borderland .................................................................................................... 59 The Borderlands Between Gay and Latino ....................................................................... 59 Gay Latino Borderlands and Challenges at Different Environmental Levels ........................ 61 Places of Support for Gay Latinos in the Borderlands ..................................................... 63 Environmental levels and grit. .................................................................................... 64 Borderlands and Resilience............................................................................................... 64 Moving beyond the gay and Latino binary ................................................................. 66 From binary to borderlands ......................................................................................... 66 Borders as constructed environments ......................................................................... 69 The Borderland Between Home and School ..................................................................... 69 The borderland between family and school ................................................................ 71 Siblings ....................................................................................................................... 72 Supporting the family ................................................................................................. 73 From Borderland to Borderlands ............................................................................................ 75 Initial Model: The Borderland .......................................................................................... 75 Revised Model: The Borderlands ..................................................................................... 76 Navigating the Borderlands .............................................................................................. 77 Academics ................................................................................................................... 77 Latino studies courses ................................................................................................. 78 Involvement ...................................................................................................................... 78 LGBT and Latino student group involvement ............................................................ 79 Navigating involvement opportunities ........................................................................ 82 Gaining LGBT knowledge .......................................................................................... 83 Navigating the fraternal experience ............................................................................ 84 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 87 CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................................................. 89 Discussion and Recommendations ......................................................................................... 89 Practice .................................................................................................................................... 90 Family Connection ............................................................................................................ 93 Research .................................................................................................................................. 95 LGBT Latinos ................................................................................................................... 96 Identities and Learning Outcomes .................................................................................... 97 Latinos at Hispanic Serving Institutions ........................................................................... 98  x Latino Fraternal Experience ............................................................................................ 100 The Role of the Environment .......................................................................................... 101 Theory ................................................................................................................................... 103 Borderlands Theory ........................................................................................................ 103 Layering Theory.............................................................................................................. 104 The Role of Time ............................................................................................................ 107 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 107 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................ 109 Appendix A  Reconceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity (RMMDI) .... 110 Appendix B   ............................................................ 111 Appendix C  Embedded Theoretical Framework ............................................................... 112 Appendix D  Reconceptualized Theoretical Model ............................................................ 113 Appendix E  Recruitment Email ......................................................................................... 114 Appendix F  Participant Consent Form for Study .............................................................. 115 Appendix G  Interview Protocol ......................................................................................... 117 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 118   xi LIST OF TABLES     Table 1 Participant Characteristics .....................................................................................54  Table 2 Codes and Themes .................................................................................................56      xii  LIST OF FIGURES     Figure 1 Reconceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity .............................110  Figure 2  ...................................................................111  Figure 3 Embedded Theoretical Framework ......................................................................112  Figure 4 Reconceptualized Theoretical Model ..................................................................113    1 CHAPTER 1 Introduction In the movie Dear White People one of the main characters, Lionel, a gay Black man, observes a group of gay students and a group of Black students.  Lionel proceeds to imagine the struggle to fit in to both the gay group and the Black group.  In the end, Lionel does not see a place for himself in either group.  students of color feel, which is that they must choose one group or the other, or that they must change who they are in order to fit in with either gay students or students of color (Tillapaugh, 2013).  influence the way gay students of color interact with their college environment (Jones & Abes, 2013).  It is because of situations like Lionelse to study the experiences of gay Latino men in college.  My hope is that I can bring the experiences of students like Lionel to light to help inform institutions of higher education to support gay Latino students. Statement of the Problem Studying how gay Latino students make sense of their identities is important as identity affects how individuals relate to their social world (Jackson & Hogg, 2010).  Focusing on identity presents a challenge because much of the research on college student social identity development has primarily focused on singular social identities or cognitive development (Torres, Jones, & Renn, 2009).  In the last 15 years, more attention has been given to multiple interact with their college environment (Abes, Jones, & McEwen, 2007; Jones & Abes, 2013).  While recent studies have begun to look at the experiences of LGBT students of color, there is still a dearth of research on this population (Renn, 2010).  This study is an opportunity to explore  2 the unique experiences of gay Latino men on college campuses.  In addition, this study will serve as a framework to understand how gay Latino male students make sense of the intersection of their gay and Latino identities.   While students, such as those who are gay and Latino, come to college with a variety of social identities, most institutions have structured support services for students primarily through a singular social identity lens (Renn, 2011); examples of these support centers are ethnicity-based resource centers, such as Latino and Black cultural centers or lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) student resource centers (Patton, 2010).  While other institutions may have a multicultural or intercultural center that is meant to address multiple identities, these offices are a support for students of color and the challenges they face on campus (Patton, 2010).  However, students are coming to campus with a variety of salient social identities that blur the borders of the identity groups these services are designed to address.  In order to better understand how study will explore how gay Latino students understand and make sense of the intersection between their sexual and racial identities and the influence this intersection has on their college experience.  Throughout this paper, the term gay Latinos will be used in reference to gay Latino men. Gay Latino men in college experience multiple environmental contexts that affect their multiple social identities.  The relationship between social identity and context is illustrated through the Reconceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity (RMMDI) (Abes et al., 2007) (see Appendix A).  While the model provides a basis for understanding a multiple identities, it does not provide a framework for understanding how intersections of those identities influence a scollege.  I present 99) Borderlands  3 Theory as way to understand how gay Latino students make sense of the intersection between their gay and Latino identities and how they construct these identities or create new identities all together.   Significance of the Study Understanding the experiences of gay Latinos will help higher education administrators create supportive campus environments that will help these students meet their post-secondary education goals.  Educational attainment for Latinos is important as Latinos are the fastest growing population in the United States, yet their educational attainment lags far behind their White counterparts (Santiago & Calderon, 2014).  Latinos who do make it to college often face an unwelcoming campus climate that can inhibit their ability to obtain a college degree (Hurtado, 1992; Hurtado & Ponjuan, 2005; Ponjuan, Palomin, & Calise, 2015).  This unwelcoming campus climate is amplified for gay Latinos, as LGBT students, particularly LGBT students of color, also face unwelcoming campus climates (Dessel, Goodman, & Woodford, 2016; Rankin, Blumenfeld, Weber, & Frazer, 2010; Woodford, & Kulick, 2014).  This hostile campus climate emic integration and adjustment to college (Hurtado, Griffin, Arellano, & Cuellar, 2008).  The purpose of this study is to better understand the experiences of gay Latino men and to examine the ways colleges and universities support or inhibit support for this population.  Understanding these experiences will help colleges and universities craft programs to support gay Latino men. Why focus on Latinos?  Latinos will surpass Whites as the largest ethnic group in the United States .  Currently only 20% of Latino adults over the age of 25 have earned an adegree from higher education institutions as compared to 36% of the  4 general population (Santiago & Calderon, 2014).  Therefore, in order for the United States to maintain its global competiveness in college degree attainment, Latino degree attainment will be crucial.  -in-ten (89%) Latino young adults say that a college education is important for success in life, yet only about half that number (48%) say that t.  And those who make it to college have to overcome an unwelcoming campus climate that can affect academic performance (Hurtado & Ponjuan, 2005; Hurtado et al., 2008).  Gay students also experience unwelcoming negative campus climates (Rankin et al., 2010).  Little is known specifically about how negative campus climates affect LGBT students of color, as there is a lack of research on the experiences of LGBT students of color (Renn, 2010).  There is a small body of literature on LGBT Black students (Means & Jaeger, 2013; Patton, 2011; Patton & Simmons, 2008; Squire & Mobley, 2015), but there is even less research on the experiences of gay Latinos in college (Peña Talamantes, 2013).   For gay Latinos, educational attainment may lag even farther behind their heterosexual counterparts, as LGBT youth of color are less likely to attend college due to lack of family support, which can lead to lack of financial support and homelessness ("Movement Advancement Project," 2013).  A report by the Williams Institute (2013) noted that Latino individuals who were in a same-sex relationship had a higher rate of college completion compared to their peers in different sex relationships, but LGBT Latinos who were not in relationships had lower rates of college completion.  College may provide an environment where gay Latino students feel comfortable enough to date, which may be an explanation for why Latinos in same-sex relationships have higher rates of college completions.  Despite the lack of  5 direct empirical evidence about education outcomes of gay Latino men, it is reasonable to conclude that these students may not attend college at the same rate as their peers. Purpose and Research Questions While higher education administrators may point to existing support systems that are already in place for students from underrepresented populations (e.g., student organizations, identity-based offices, and identity-centered events), many organizations and units are so focused on one single type of identity such as race or sexual orientation that they are not structured in 2011).  The goal of this study is not just to inform practice but also to fill a void in the higher education and student affairs literature.  There have been studies on Latino students in higher education (Identity Development [Fredman & Gallegos, 2001, 2010; Torres, 1999, 2003, 2004]; College Experiences [Kim, Rennick, & Franco, 2014; Trevino, & DeFreitas, 2014; Villalpando, 2003; Yosso, Smith, Ceja, & Solorzano, 2009]).  However, there still remains a considerable paucity of research on the experiences of gay Latino students in higher education (Renn, 2010).  There is only one researcher who has published work in major student affairs journals on the experiences of gay Latinos (Peña-Talamantes, 2013).  In addition to illuminating the experiences of gay Latino men in college and their barriers and opportunities, in the current study I sought to fill this void in the literature in order to better support gay Latino students, as both LGBT (Rankin et al., 2010) and Latino (Arbona & Jimenez, 2014; Hurtado, 1992; Hurtado & Ruiz, 2012) students experience negative campus climate.  The study is framed by the following research questions: 1. How do gay Latino male students experience the borderland of their gay and Latino identities?  6 2. What barriers and supports do gay Latino students experience because of this borderland? Theoretical Framework In order to answer these research questions, a theoretical framework that examines the individual within the college environment is necessary.  College environments are important because they can be affirming spaces for students.  Students who feel affirmed and welcomed at their college or university are more likely to be retained and ultimately to persist to graduation (Hurtado, 1992, 2005).  In addition, college provides an environment for students to explore and develop psychosocial identities (Patton, Renn, Guido, & Quaye, 2016; Torres, Jones, & Renn, 2009).  College provides for rich meaning making of a student social identities because it provides many different venues for the exploration of identity. Social construction of identity occurs in different contexts on campus such as in how student organizations are created and which students are drawn to them, or in the social identities among those in leadership positions and those who are not, as well as in issues of institutional fit within access and retention. (Torres et al., 2009, p. 578)  Colleges and universities have created identity-based support for students from underrepresented backgrounds, however these services primarily address a singular social identity (Patton, 2010).  Students with multiple minoritized identities face hostility in campus environments, but in different ways, from different environments, which forces students to choose from which office(s) to seek support (Jones & Abes, 2013).  This choice causes students to think about their campus experience through one of their social identities (Patton, 2010), rather than multiple identities.  By exploring the experiences of gay Latinos in college, I hope to  7 discover ways to create support services for students with multiple salient underrepresented social identities, and more specifically for gay Latino students.   Identity Research on identity development in college students dates back to the early days of the student affairs profession (Torres et al., 2009).  Early research focused on how college students developed into mature individuals, examining such things as group dynamics and human interaction (Patton et al., 2016).  Sanford (1968) was the first theorist to look at the effect of college on student identity development.  While Sanford looked primarily at challenge and support in the college environment, and their effect on student transition from adolescence to .   The study of social identity development evolved and primarily focused on racial or ethnic identity development.  When I discuss identity development, I concur with Torres et al.: identity is commonly understood as about the self in relation to social groups (e.g., race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation) and (2009, p. 577).  Since studentall social identities, many theories have been developed and studied in relation to the two primary social identities discussed in this manuscript, race and sexual orientation.   Theories of gay identity development started as stage models that examine individuals from their coming out process, to their introduction to the gay community, to an integration of their gay identity into their daily life (Cass, 1979, 1984b).  Moving beyond linear models, the move through as they develop their LGB identity.  Both Cass' (1979, 1984b) and   8 models were developed using participant pools that primarily consisted of White individuals, which can limit adaptability to individuals of color.   Latino identity development theories have included fluid orientation models in which individuals move between various orientations depending on their current context, but none have specifically looked at or included gay participants (Fredman & Gallegos, 2001, 2010; Torres, 1999).  Both gay and Latino identities, and how they influence students in college, have been studied outside of developmental theories (Hurtado & Ponjuan, 2005; Rankin, 2005).  By exploring the experiences of gay Latino men in college, this study may shed light on how students experience social identities while in college.   In order to explore this under-studied topic, I will combine three existing theories.  I will use the Reconceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity (Abes et al., 2007) (see Appendix A) as a foundation to illustrate that students come to college with various social identities that can vary in saliency depending on the environment.  I will use Borderlands Theory  to explore the and Latino identities.  How students make sense of this intersection is a result of their interactions with the college environment.  The college environment is this study in viewed through the lens of concentric nested environments: the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, and finally the macrosystem (see Appendix B).  Particular focus will be paid to the exosystem and mesosystem to understand the ways in which peer groups and campus environment, such as student organizations and student affairand Latino identities.    9 Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity.  To respond to early models of student development that examined identities as compartmental silos, Jones and McEwen (2000) developed the Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identities (MMDI).  This model proposed identity.  In this mo.  The multiple identities intersect with one other and become more or less salient to an individual depending on their context.  The context is affected by family background, sociocultural conditions, current experiences, career decisions, and life planning (Jones & McEwen, 2000).  This model was one of the first that examined the interaction between identities, rather than the compartmentalizing of each identity.  social and historical context (West & Olsen, 2006).  In other words, how does the context in time and place in which a student lives influence their understanding of their social identities? This context was partially addressed when Abes, Jones, and McEwen (2007), based on Abes and Jone (2004) research on lesbian identity development, reconceptualized Jones and .  In the re-conceptualization Abes et al. (2007) placed a meaning--perception of multiple identity dimensions and contextual influence.  This addition of the meaning-making filter resulted from a constructivist view of the reconceptualized model, which was influenced by queer and feminist theories as well as self-authorship theory.  The meaning-making filter recognizes that individuals make meaning of their identities based on how they interact with and assign meaning to contextual influences.  This re-conceptualized model is valuable in thinking about the  10 experiences of gay Latino men in college, because the meaning-making filters of Latinos influence how they view their gay and Latino identities. Borderlands Theory.  The Reconceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity is static because it does not allow for the creation of new identities.  The model shows a process of making meaning of identity within the individual.  Since the model deals with how an individual understands themselves it can be seen as situated in the macro level of environment in systems of power which influence how an individual move through the environment.  Borderlands Theory, in contrast, provides a third space where identity is deconstructed and reconstructed.  Identities grate up against each other causing new identities to be formed (Anzaldúa, 1999).  Borderlands Theory places the influence for identity construction on both the individual and the environment.  In addition, it humanizes participants by exploring the difficulty and, at times, emotional pain that come with negotiating intersecting identities.   Borderlands Theory was brought to prominence by Gloria Anzaldúa (1999).  Anzaldúa was a cultural theorist who saw her social identities as a woman, as a Chicana, and as a lesbian in conflict.  This conflict caused her to exist in what she described as a third space or borderland where these identities scraped up against each other.  This image of the border is like that of es una herida abierta where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds.  And before a scrape can form it hemorrhages again, the lifeblood of two worlds merging to form a third country, .  This graphic representation of the border colors the way I see the intersection of gay and Latino identities. In her book Borderlands/La Frontera.  This borderland  11 became a place of meaning making and identity negotiation and formation for Anzaldúa.  A border is often seen as a point of differentiation that can illuminate systems of power.  Anzaldúa proposed that a border is not a point of differentiation but rather an in-between space of intersections and transformations (Hammad, 2010). Anzaldúa (1999) delved deeper into the in-between space of the borderlands in her r (Keating, 2006) and is (Lunsford, 1998, p. 8).  is not only a place but also a process.  Keating (2006) called this chaotic, identity shattering process dis-identification and transformation (p. 9).  This dis-identification with existing social structures and beliefs allows individuals to transcend traditional boundaries to create their own identities.   Borderlands Theory provides a framework for exploring what is happening at the point of .  this research 1).  identities in college men.  Using Borderlands  In viewing identities as mutually constructed and intersecting, researchers and practitioners can see how identities influence each other.  In the case of gay individuals, one can t means to be Latino.  Borderlands Theory allows one to understand that middle ground where both gay and Latino identities .  Borderlands are a place for the formation of a new identity that embraces, at times, multiple competing identities.  12 Valadez and Elsbree (2005) explored physical boundary but a psychological one as well.  A border is a line or boundary that exists as a place of differentiation.  Anzaldúa (1999), however, urged individuals to see borderlands as places of intersection where identities are blended (Valadez & Elsbree, 2005).  In studying gay Latino students this means that their gay and Latino identities cannot be looked at as separate but rather as interconnected. to create a more accepting environment for queer individuals in education.  In Native American culture, coyotes are messengers and tricksters who possess mystical powers.  In contemporary Mexican culture, a coyote is an individual who assists others in crossing the border.  Coyotes are 2005, p. 175).  They are viewed as dangerous because they are not always benevolent: some exist just to take advantage of those they are supposed to help.  The coyotes can also be viewed as valuable because they can navigate the often treacherous terrain of the borderland.  Finally, those who have very stringent views of the border view coyotes as undesirable. assisting others in navigating not just the borderland of their intersecting identities but also the dominant heterosexual environment.  theory and his notion that individuals develop a homosexual social identity.  heterosexual identity that allows them to interact more freely in the dominant society.  In thinking about the experiences of gay Latino male  13 their gay and Latino identity.  the intersection between their gay and Latino identities but also how to navigate the college environment as a gay Latino. Borderlands and multiple dimensions of identity.  Abes, Jones, reconceptualized model aligns more closely with Borderlands Theory than does the original Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identities.  The reconceptualized model does this through the use of a meaning making filter.  Critical negotiation, like multiple dimensions of identity, also operates from a constructivist lens.  In critical negotiation the process of negotiation is seen as a co-rearticulate meaning and identity, and the rearticulating of identity and meaning are connected to .  The primary difference between multiple dimensions of identity and the Borderlands Theory is that Abes, Jones, and McEwen (2007) proposed their model as a completely internalized process for an individual.  However, Borderlands Theory situates identity formation and meaning making not only as an internal but also an external process that is situated in the social world in which the individual is existing.   Ecological Model .  Brofenbrenner (1977) first conceptualized the Ecological view of human development as a way to understand how environments influence individual identity development.  He later expanded his view of human ecology: the ecology of human development is the scientific study of the progressive, mutual accommodation, throughout the life course, between an active, growing human being,  14 and the changing properties of the immediate settings in which the developing person lives, as this process is affected by the relations between these settings, and by the larger contexts in which the settings are embedded.  (Bronfenbrenner, 1989, p. 188)  -(Brofenbrenner, 1993, p. 10).  Context, and Time (PPCT).   The Process component of the model is focused on the development that takes place (Bronfenbrenner, 1993).  This development is ever-s interaction with their immediate surroundings, which includes peers.  understanding of the intersection of their gay and Latino identities. .  The person or research participants have inherent characteristics such as social identities that affect their relation to the environments.  The first type are characteristics that invite or inhibit certain responses from the environment (Renn & Arnold, 2003).  Examples of this type of characteristic from higher education is the creation of programs to support LGBT or Latino college students.  The second type of characteristics is how individuals o and explore their (Renn & Arnold, 2003, p. 268).  For example, a more extroverted gay Latino student may seek involvement in order to become more networked in the social life of campus, whereas a more introverted student may choose solitary experiences that involve interactions with smaller numbers of students.  The third type are characteristics that affect how students  15 (Renn & Arnold, 2003, p. 269).  An example of this characteristic is when a gay Latino student joins a fraternity and as he remains in the group he moves from new member, to active member, to chapter officer, and then possibly he becomes an officer in the fraternity governing council at the university level.  The fourth type of characteristics are .  For example, an academically high achieving student may believe that a certain amount of studying will produce a certain grade (Renn & Arnold, 2003, p. 269).  The third component of Bronfenbrenner's (1993) model is Context.  The context as it relates to this study is the college environment, which places the student in nested environmental systems.  Moving from most proximal to most radial, the systems are: the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem.  In the college environment, importance is placed on .  Peer interactions are important because one of the axioms of impact of face-to-face interaction on identity development.  These smaller systems included the microsystem and mesosystem.  For the purpose of this study, the focus will be on the micro and mesosystem in which a majority of the interactions with peers, faculty, and staff take place.   Microsystems are the:  pattern of activities, roles, and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing persons in a given face-to-face setting with particular physical, social, and symbolic features that invite, permit, or inhibit engagement in sustained, progressively more complex interaction with, and activity in, the immediate environment. (Bronfenbrenner, 1993, p. 15)  16 For a gay Latino college student, microsystems may include where he lives, such as a residence hall, and with whom he lives, as well as student organizations such as the Latino Student Union or the campus Gay/Straight Alliance.  These different microsystems may encourage different behaviors from the student, such as more social behaviors, (e.g., going out with friends) or more academic behaviors such as staying in and studying.  For the purpose of this study, I will use  Ecological Model to examine the ways the various environmental levels influence the experiences of gay Latino men in college. ises linkages and processes taking place between two or more settings containing the developing person.  Special attention is focused on the synergistic effects created by the interaction of developmentally instigative or inhibitory features and processes .  For gay Latino college students, family, social, and academic life are mesosystems that affect their identity development.  The family mesosystem exerts particular influence on gay Latino dentity because of cultural views of being gay and the importance of family.  I believe these family and cultural views are challenged by the microsystems with which students interact in the college environment.   The final component of the model is Time, which takes into account the social and political landscape of the time period in which the person exists and how the social forces and events of the time period influence development.  For gay Latino students, there are several current events that could affect their development.  The first is the ever-growing Latino population in the United States, resulting in Latinos becoming the largest racial group in the country.  The second includes the growing recognition of the rights of gay individuals illustrated by recent legal rulings in favor of marriage equality.  While there are more aspects of this current  17 context which may affect gay Latino students, these two events point to a growing awareness and attention to both gay and Latino individuals.  The confluence of these two events should raise the exposure of gay Latino students to campus administrators. Brofenbrenner (1977) provided a lens for this study by laying out the various environmental levels that may influence a gay Latino college students development as well as how they navigate the college environment in route to graduation.  By looking at process, person, context, and time, this research project looks in bidirectional ways in which both the individual and the environment influence one another.   Theory Summary  Gay Latino students have various social identities with varying levels of saliency depending on environmental context.  The intersection of students gay and Latino identities is a borderland where gay and Latino identities mutually influence each other and influence how a student interacts with the college environment.  This intersection of identity is all happening  Summary In this chapter I provided the significance and purpose for the study of gay Latino men in higher education.  To ground the study I provided a theoretical framework that combined .  In Chapter 2 I will provide a review of relevant literature related to both gay and Latino students in higher education in addition to current literature that explores the experiences of individuals who identify as both gay and Latino. In Chapter 3 I will present the method for conducting this study on the experience of gay Latino men in higher education. In Chapter 4 I present the findings from this study. I conclude in Chapter 5 providing implications for practice, research and theory.     18 CHAPTER 2  Literature on the experiences of gay Latino students in higher education is sparse.  In order to situate this study in the broader higher education literature, in this chapter I address gay and Latino identities by consulting research that looks at each of these identities individually.  Then, I provide an overview of research on gay Latinos from disciplines outside of education.  The final part of the literature review examines previous research on LGBT students of color in higher education.  In this final section, I will pay particular attention to the work of Abraham Peña-Talamantes (2011, 2013a, 2013b), one of the only researchers who has published on the experiences of LGBT Latinos in higher education.   Latinos in Higher Education Research on Latinos in higher education has grown considerably in recent decades.  One primary reason research in this area is bourgeoning is that Latinos are the fastest growing subgroup of the United States population and by the year 2020 they will make up 20% of the United States population (Santiago & Calderòn Galdeno, 2014).  The rise in the Latino population has come with increased visibility and has also garnered greater attention from those involved in marketing and politics.  However, while more and more groups and individuals are competing for the hearts, minds, and wallets of the Latino population, there has also been an increase in hostility and fear directed toward the Latino population, resulting in stringent and draconian immigration laws and bans on ethnic studies (Gallegos & Fredman, 2012).  In addition to the increase in Latino visibility, currently only 20% percent of the Latino population has obtained any type of post-secondary degree, including both associates and Santiago & Calderòn Galdeno, 2014).  If there is no change in degree attainment this combination of the rise in the percentage of the population coupled with low  19 post-secondary degree attainment could have negative repercussions for the country.  As the United States tries to compete in a global knowledge economy, it is essential to increase college degree completion for Latinos. Along with the increase in the Latino population, Latinos are the fastest growing population of racially diverse students on U.S. college campuses (Ojeda, Castillo, Rosales Meza, & Pina-Watson, 2013).  While Latinos are one of the fastest growing populations in higher education, the primary growth in their enrollment is at two-year colleges.  In addition Latino male students enroll in institutions of higher education at rates less than their female counterparts (Sàenz, & Ponjuàn 2012).  This increased focus on the educational attainment of Latino men is a result of growing concern about Latino and Black men having some of the lowest degree attainment rates in higher education (Sàenz, & Ponjuàn, 2008).   In light of the growing Latino population and the need to increase their degree .  Important factors that can infimmigration status, and language spoken at home (Nunez, 2009a, 2009b).  Latino culture places a strong emphasis on family, and familial influence can affect attendance patterns (Rodriguez, 2009).  For example, some Latino families do not understand the need for children to go far away to attend college so students place emphasis on proximity to home when choosing a college (Nuñez, McDonough, Ceja, & Solorzano, 2008).  20 Gay Latinos in Higher Education There is very little current research on the experiences of gay Latinos in higher education.  This lack of research may be due to the fact that many gay Latinos do not get the chance to enroll in college due to lack of resources and family support ("Movement Advancement Project," 2013).  This lack of resources results in barriers, such as the cost of admission tests and application fees, to applying to college.  Because of these barriers to higher education for gay Latino students it is important to create support for those who do enroll in college.   Gay Latinos face educational and family barriers to enrolling in college.  Simply enrolling gay Latinos in college, however, is not the end goal; rather, graduation is.  The college environment presents its own challenges and negative campus climate for both Latino and gay students (Woodford & Kulick, 2014; Yosso et al., 2009).  In their study examining the college environment Hurtado and Ponjuan (2005) discovered a chilly campus climate faced by students of color.  This chilly campus climate can be isolating for students of color and can prevent them from seeking out campus resources and building peer networks of support (Hurtado, & Ruiz 2012). It is important for this study that as a researcher I have an understanding of the factors that influence a perceived hostile environment for gay Latino students.  For Latino students, a unique factor that influenced perception of a hostile campus climate was whether they spoke Spanish at home (Hurtado & Ponjuan, 2005).  While home language did have an influence on perception of the campus environment, what actually happens in college has a more significant impact.  For example, Latino students had a more positive perception of campus climate if they participated in academic support programs (Hurtado & Ponjuan, 2005).  Students who were involved in multicultural co-curricular programs reported positive interactions with peers and  21 viewed the campus climate as more hostile.  Hurtado and Ponjuan (2005) posited that involvement allowed students to critically reflect on campus racial dynamics at their college or university.  Latino students had a more positive view on the campus climate if they become more involved on campus. While gay Latinos relationships with their families have been studied, little work has been done on gay Latino student peer relationships.  Peer relationships among Latino students are important to consider because research has shown that same-ethnic peer relationships among Latino students assist in the development of cultural validation (Cerezo & Chang, 2012; Yosso et al., 2009).  This cultural validation has been shown to have a correlation with higher grade point averages for Latino students (Cerezo & Chang, 2012).   Latino Identity Development Latino college students experience an environment that can cause them to become more acculturated to mainstream culture and change the level of their ethnic identity (Torres, 1999, 2003, 2004).  atino Student Identity ethnic identity development.  The model identified four orientations a Latino student may experience based on their level of acculturation and ethnic identity: Hispanic, Marginal, Bicultural, and Anglo (Torres, 1999, p. 287).  The movement or negotiation presented in Torre model between a students ethnic identity and acculturalization to dominant American culture is similar to Borderlands Theory.  In a borderland two different worlds, or in this case identities, intersect and intermix.  In Torre model the two identities are a Latino ethnic identity and acculturated identity, and the four orientations she presents are different ways students can negotiate this intersection.  These orientations are fluid and can change depending on the  22 .  An important part of this model is that students can have both a high level of ethnic identity and acculturation to American culture at the same time.  The level of each is not adversarial and can be complementary.  For example, students with both a high level of acculturation and ethnic identity have a bicultural identity.  Torres (1999) describes biculturalism ltures and languages out of which a third arises that was previously not  288).  In summary these orientations represent a borderland for a student negotiating the intersection of two different identities.  All of the orientations contain varying presence of each of the two identities that a student moves through based on their environmental context. Torre (1999) Bicultural Model is not only useful to this study as example for understanding Borderlands Theory but also to think about the ways gay Latino students negotiate and understand the intersection of their gay and Latino identities.  Torre model, as stated before, acculturated identity.  In this study I am examining how students make sense of and negotiate an intersection with their Latino ethnic identity, using their gay identity rather than an acculturated identity.  Using Torre model as a reference I can frame both my interview questions and data interpretation based on what could cause a student to have both a high Latino identity and gay identity, and include examples of what in the college environment influences the level of students gay and Latino identity.  It should be noted I cannot just take Torre model and overlay the identities in which I am interested.  I should not do this because Torre model /ethnic identity.  In this study the two identities about which I am interested are in two different domainsethnic identity and their sexual orientation.  Because sexual orientation and ethnic identity are  23 two different types of identity in this study I employ a theoretical perspective that allows for a more fluid intersection of identities, as does Borderlands Theory. Another theory of Latino identity development which also operates from an orientation-base is Fredman and Gallegosodel of Latino Identity Development (2001, 2012).  The model provides six orientations that Latinos may take on depending on how a student identifies themselves, views other Latinos, views White individuals, and conceptualize race: Latino-Integrated, Latino-Identified, Subgroup-Identified, Latino as Other, Undifferentiated/Denial, and White-Identified.  .  For this study participants must self-identify as Latino and will most likely fall within the Latino-Integrated, Latino-Identified, and Subgroup-Identified orientations, as in each of these orientations individuals identify with at least a sub groups of Latinos, if not the Latino community broadly.  One of the updates made to the 2012 model from the 2001 model is that all of the orientations now explain strengths that lend themselves to helping individuals adapt to certain environments as well as limitations for each of the orientations.  In addition, Fredman and Gallegos noted the importance of looking at the intersections between Latino identity and other social identities.   Both Torre (1999) and Fredman and Gallegos (2001, 2012) fluid view of Latino identity are reasons I am choosing to incorporate Borderlands Theory (Anzaldúa, 1999) into this study.  This choice is because Borderlands Theory views identity in a more fluid rather than static state, and is based on the environmental context.  Borderlands Theory, layered with the other theoretical perspectives presented in Chapter 1, extends the use of fluid identity orientations to the intersection of gay and Latino identities.  The use of orientations as presented  24 by Torres (1999) and Fredman and Gallegos (2001) serves as a starting point to break down the barrier between the two identities and moves closer to a borderlands perspective.   Latino Summary    As shown, Latinos are the fastest growing population in the United States and, as such, this study seeks to explore the experiences of a subset of that Latino population in college.  In this chapter literature was presented that showed number of Latinos enrolling in higher education may not be as numerous as it could be because there are several barriers to their enrolling in four-year institutions of higher education, such as family, economics and lack of information on the college-going process.  Barriers are not just present at enrollment but also once students arrive on campus.  Latino students can face a chilly and unwelcoming campus climate.  This .  This literature provides a base understanding for some of the challenges and opportunities for growth participants in this study may face in college because of their Latino identity.   LGBT Students in Higher Education  For lesbian, gay, bisexual, (LGB), and queer youth, college can provide them the freedom to explore their sexual orientation.  In 2010, 65% of college first year students surveyed supported marriage equality, which is more than the 58% of adults aged 18 to 29 nationwide (Lipka, 2010).  In addition, LGBT students are more visible on college campuses and gaining acceptance in dominant spaces on campuses such as fraternities and sororities and student government (Rankin, Hesp, & Weber, 2013).  This increase in acceptance may point to a perceived welcoming environment for LGBT students on college campuses. Because of the growing the support for LGB students there is a growing body of research examining factors that influence heterosexual college students positive attitudes toward LGB  25 students (Holland, Matthews, & Schott, 2013; Woodford, Silverschanz, Swank, Scherrer, & Raiz, 2012).  Of note to this study is that religious background of students influences attitudes toward LGB students.  This influence is noteworthy as many Latino students come from Catholic backgrounds (Rodriquez, 2009).  Gay Latino students may experience a less welcoming environment among their Latino peers, despite the fact that both studies, Holland et al. (2013) and Woodford et al. (2012), found although some students did have negative attitudes toward LGB students the majority of students held positive attitudes.  Other factors that influenced students positive attitudes were: political beliefs, year in college, degree program, and racial/ ethnic background. Despite this perceived welcoming climate on college campuses, LGB youth often come to campus after experiencing overtly hostile environments, including widespread bullying and harassment in K-12 schools (Kosciw, Greytak, Bartkiewicz, Bosen, & Palmer, 2012).  Existing literature about LGB college students has focused on experiences with campus climate and incidents of harassment and discrimination (e.g., Rankin et al., 2010; Silverschanz, Cortina, Konik, & Magley, 2007).  Prior literature also examined identity development (Abes & Kasch, 2007; Renn & Bilodeau, 2005).  However, there is a dearth of research on the experiences of LGB students of color in higher education (Renn, 2010).   Previous literature indicates that LGBT college students face a hostile campus climate (Rankin, 2003, 2005; Rankin & Reason, 2005; Rankin et al., 2010).  Despite the hostile environment, scholars generally agree that there is too little information about LGBT people within higher education to know if the population is over- or under-represented as a result of these negative experiences (Renn, 2010).  Despite the hostile environment that LGBT collegians face, some students are persisting; yet, there is little empirical evidence about how or why  26 students persist.  Even with this lack of empirical evidence, there is agreement that the LGBT college-going population is quite diverse and there are many meaningful differences, but there Yurman, 2011). While Dugan and Yurman (2011) point to the commonalities among LGB students, Stevens (2004) sheds light on the specific experiences of gay men in college.  Stevens study was based on interviews with 11 self-identified gay men in college.  Of note is that out participants only one self-identified as Latino.  The result of Sidentification of a central category of finding empowerment that influences gay identity development.  Stevens identified five integrative categories that contributed to the central category of s finding empowerment: self-acceptance, disclosure to other, individual factors, environmental influences, and multiple identities exploration.  Of importance to my study is the multiple identities exploration category.  Students in Steven (2004) study had to first self-identify as gay before they began to explore the intersection of their sexual identity with other social identities.  other social identities was found to be a source of empowerment in Steven study.  Self-identification as gay as a pre-cursor to exploring the intersection of identities is one reason I recruited students in my study from among Latino male students who already self-identified as gay.   Finding empowerment proved to be more difficult for students of color (Stevens, 2004).  This difficulty was found to be because of racism in the gay community on campus and homophobia in communities of color.  In highlighting this finding, Stevens (2004) pointed to a seemingly dichotomous narrative about the experiences of gay students of color.  On one hand,  27 they experienced a harsh campus climate and find difficulty connecting to both communities of color and gay communities on campus, while on the other hand, they find empowerment in exploring the intersection of their gay and racial and ethnic identities.  This narrative repeated in literature on gay Latinos.   LGBT Identity Development Prominent theories related to LGBT identity development can provide insight into what is missing from the higher education literature relating to experiences of gay Latino college students.  Cass (1979, 1984a, 1984b) proposed a model of homosexual identity development.  Her model had six stages, through which individuals moved linearly.  Cas (1979) model begins with individuals having minimal awareness of a gay or lesbian identity and progresses to having their sexual identity integrated with other aspects of self.  The model is limited because it does not take into account the fluidity of sexuality and the influence the environment may have on sexual identity development.  Many researchers have also rejected Cas (1979, 1984) notion that an individual must pass through an activist stage to obtain identity synthesis.  This inclusion of activism is of particular note because in later studies many gay Latino college students did not mention LGBT activism as part of their identity development (Peña-Talamantes, 2011, 2013a, 2013b).  ugelli (1991, 1994;  span model of LGB development that accounted for the fact that identity may be experienced differently in different environments.  Rather than linear stages, the life span model presented seven identity processes.  These processes, while related, do not need to take place in any particular order and are: exiting, a heterosexual identity, developing a personal LGB identity status, developing an LGB social identity, claiming an  28 identity as an LGB offspring, developing an LGB intimacy status, and entering the LGB community.  Because of these nonlinear processes at times sexual orientation may be fluid, while at other times it may be solid.  One important note in the life span model is the impact the .   more complex understanding of gay identity development it may be limited in its applicability to a study of gay Latinos.  These limitations are because the processes presented in the model do not take into account the additional barriers gay Latinos may have in completing or engaging in the process because they are not just negotiating their sexual orientation but also their racial and ethnic identity.  For example, u.  Thiorientation.  For gay Latino students what happens when they find other students who are accepting of their sexual orientation but are not supportive of their racial and ethnic identity or vice versa?  This absence of race in the life span model makes it difficult to adapt to a study in which race and ethnicity is also taken in to account.    I assert that an additional limitation of both Cas (1979) u (1994, 1995) models is that they were created using a sample of primarily White men, which did not take into LGB identity development.  Still, in the colleg span model was used to create early ally and safe zone programs and also used to create some of the first climate studies on LGB college students (Evans et al., 2009). Despite the  Life Span model, two of the processes, claiming an identity as an LGB offspring and entering the LGB community, help to inform this  29 study.  These two processes assisted me in developing questions for my two interviews with each participant.  The first set explored relationships between participants and their parents, particularly around their experiences regarding their sexuality.  The second set of questions explored the ways in which participants interacted with and were engaged in the LGBT community on their respective campus. LGBT Summary LGBT college students face an unwelcoming campus environment and often are the victims of harassment.  Because of this harassment questions were asked to participants regarding how welcome they feel on their campus.  Current models of LGBT development are stage and life span models, primarily developed utilizing samples of predominantly White participants.  This is problematic and may not be the same for gay Latino men, but these models do provide a base understanding of the LGB experience and serve to inform questions asked during participant interviews.  Scholars and practitioners who reference these models should be cautioned that they may not fully explain the development for gay students of color.   Gay Latinos While there is a deficiency of research as pointed out by Evans and Wall (1999) and Renn (2010) on gay Latinos in higher education, other fields, such as literature and ethnic studies, have such research.  This section seeks to highlight some of the research on gay Latinos that is relevant to this study.  While most of this research is not new, it has generally focused on queer Latinas.  In contrast, much of the early literature on gay Latino men dealt with the spread of AIDS within the Latino community.   Through his history of queer theory and gay and lesbian studies, Hames-García (2011) noted that much of the literature on gay and lesbian studies and queer theory is based on a White  30 Euro-centric view of the world.  To counter this White framework, Hames-García declared the need to view gay and lesbian studies in a post-colonial framework and the need to build on already existing culturally relevant work.  Hames-Garcíainfluence why I am interested in the experiences of gay Latino men.  created based on the experiences primarily of White men.  These models exclude cultural factors that are integral to the experience of Latinos, such as the family.  Because of the limit of these models I am using Borderlands Theory that takes into account the multifaceted experiences of gay Latinos.  Borderlands operates from a place of liberation rather than a place of othering because this framework was developed by individuals within the gay Latino community itself. The inclusion of Borderlands Theory in this study is also supported by the work of Lugones (2011).  In response to Hames-García, Lugones (2011) called for an end to categorical logic.  She defined categorical logic as the examination of oppression in separate silos based on the targeted identity.  This categorical logic is similar to the ways in which social identities have been studied in isolation of each other and the experiences of students from marginalized identities have been studied from the vantage point of one identity.  Lugones saw categorical logic as problematic because it gives preference to one identity over another.  Categorical logic accounts for the fluidity of the saliency of identity, depending on environmental context, such as .  Categorical logic does not allow for the creation of new identities where boundaries/borders are blurred.  This intersection of identity is where Borderlands Theory is useful, because it blends old and new categories together, resulting in unique categories that may more meaningful to participants in this study.  31  Some claim it is not an ontological category or substantive identity, while others claim it is an anti-identity.  This plethoin this study.  I believe it conveys the identity in a clearer and more concise manner.   In expanding the understanding of Latino gay experiences, La Fountain-Stokes (2011) explored gay shame.  La Fountain-Stokes described how shame is used in the gay community in order to get individuals to conform to White, Euro-centric views of the gay experience.  Gay shame causes those who rebel against these traditional views to be ostracized and to be seen as outsiders.  On a college campus, gay shame may take the form of gay Latinos feeling unwelcome in spaces that are meant to support gay students, such as an LGBT resource center or gay student organizations.  An example of gay shame is a gay Latino student who joins the campus LGBT student organization and quickly realizes he must conform to group norms to feel accepted.  These norms can include attire, going to specific social events, and knowledge about pop culture. In contrast to gay shame, Rodriguez (2009, 2011) describe a brotherhood of men who share a common language, culture, religion, and Aztec heritage (p. 118).  Rodriguez mentioned how gay Chicanos (a political term for Mexican noted that the concept of brotherhood is usually used to describe a close connection among heterosexual men that traditionally excluded women and gay men.   Rodriguez (2009, 2011) explained that even if gay Chicanos are alienated by their families, they can create a new family in order to account for the strained relationship with their own.  These families can be made of other gay Chicanos who support each other and assist each other in navigating their strong ethnic identity with their sexuality.  In doing so, these men  32 operate in a borderland where they can exist as both.  Rodriguez introduced the concept that family need not only be blood relatives but expanded it to include the idea of family relationships gay Latinos build among men.  This need for relationships is one reason for a strong Latino presence within the gay community.  For gay Latino students, the college environment may provide a place to construct new family connections amongst peers.  question: Do gay Latino male college students seek out others like themselves to assist in navigating their multiple identities and balancing their home life with college life?   Latino identity, like gay identity, is not a hegemonic one; it is diverse and fluid, and while containing similarities is also full of vast differences (Torres, 2004).  Cantu (2000) argued that the generic categorization of Latinos is one of two fundamental problems with analyzing gay Latino men, the second of which is that Latino culture is often seen as static and fixed (Cantu, 2000).  A hegemonic view fails to see the ways in which Latino culture has changed over time.  An example of this view is that many scholars still view Latinos in the strictly gendered categories of machismo versus marinisma (i.e., masculine versus feminine).  The notion of machismo is based in historical context but fails to take into account how Latino masculinities have changed due to political, social, cultural, and economic factors (Cantu, 2000).  Peña-Talamantes (2010) later used the idea of machismo versus marinisma to describe how in Latino culture sexual orientation is not necessarily defined by thby roles one takes as either the active or passive partner in the relationship. Cantu (2000) used narratives to show that gay Latino men maintain their strong connection to their families even though family members may not be accepting of their sexual orientation.  A participant described his experience of being out to his family, noting he was able to talk openly to his sibling but not his parents about his sexual  33 orientation.  While his mother was aware of his identity as a gay man, she refused to discuss the subject because of her religious cultural upbringing.  The participant was able to come to terms with the belief that his mother would one day come to accept his sexual orientation.  Other participants noted having gay role models within their families, such as a gay uncle, who were viewed in a positive light.  This finding runs contrary to the idea that gay Latino men are ostracized by their families.  Cantu used these stories to show the diversity and complexity of the experiences of gay Latino men.  the ways in which sexual identity is constructed in a migratory context, moving from place to place.  His study is relevant to gay Latino men in college because college is a migratory state for individuals between their previous home life and their professional career.   A more recent study by Perez-Jimenez, Cunningham, Serrano-García, and Ortiz-Torres (2007) also challenged static and fixed notions of male masculinity in the Latino community.  Perez-Jimenez et al. conducted a qualitative study with male students at the University of Puerto Piedras campus.  notions of sexuality and gender roles: mass media, family, friends, religion, and educational system (Perez-Jimenez et al., 2007).  Of interest to this study is what students said about the ways in which the educational system played a role in conveying values pertaining to the expression of sexuality.  Students discussed how in elementary and secondary schools the message was that there are things that one should not do in relation to their sexuality.  In the early K-12 system students noted they were influenced to pretend that expressions of sexuality did not exist.  In the college environment the students received different messages; topics were no longer taboo and students openly talked about and expressed their sexuality (Perez-Jimenez et al., 2007).  34 This recurring concept of gay Latino men trying to bridge two opposing worlds or identities is a borderland.  Anzaldúa (1999) discussed the concept of a borderland in her book  by the emotional residue of the unnatural boundary.  A borderland is in a consistent state of 99, p. 25).  While a borderland sounds like an isolating space, it is actually a place where individuals can find comfort in ambiguity and can create an identity that integrates all of their identities.  The references to these spaces of integration are why I contend Borderlands Theory is an appropriate theoretical perspective with which to examine the experiences of gay Latino male college students.  To truly view their experiences, one must see all the worlds in which these students exist, not just opposing worlds, but also an additional world that integrates all of their identities.  College is a world where all of these identities come together.  This study will examine the experiences of gay Latinos in college and the ways college create barriers to and support for gay Latino students. LGBT Students of Color in Higher Education There has been research lately exploring the experiences of LGBT students of color in higher education, particularly Black LGBT students (Means & Jaeger, 2013; Patton, 2011; Patton & Simmons, 2008).  Despite this research, there is still a lack of knowledge about LGBT people of color in higher education.  As explained earlier, Latino and LGBT identities have been researched separately in higher education, and it is important to explore how these two social identities intersect.  Misawa (2007) pointed out that there has been a lack of effort to create scholarly work and organizations that expanded LGBT studies and services in higher education beyond a White perspective.  This White gay perspective is problematic as it ignores people of color as allies and activists within the LGBT community in higher education.    35 In addition to being not included in the dominant narratives of LGBT experiences in higher education, LGBT students of color must also address assimilation in a similar way that La Fountain-Stokes (2011) discussed gay shame.  As a way to navigate the college environment, students of color often find themselves conforming to the dominant culture (Misawa, 2007).  Assimilation is problematic for gay Latino students because they may feel they have to assimilate to either gay or Latino culture more than one or the other (Misawa, 2007).  Assimilation is detrimental to gay Latino students because, as stated before, Latino culture has ingrained notions of masculinity to which their gay identity does not conform.  In the case of their gay identity, gay culture is dominated by a predominantly White narrative. Gay Latino Experiences in Higher Education Because prior research has explored the negative campus climate experienced by Latino college students and other students of color, it can be concluded that gay Latino college students have compounding negative experiences on college campuses.  While micro- and macro-aggressions against gay Latino college students might be focused on one of their social identities, these micro- and macro-aggressions multiply the negative experiences these students face in the campus environment.  In addition, the systems of support available to LGBT students, such as student groups and LGBT resource centers, may not be welcoming places for Latino students because their support systems are primarily constructed for White students.   A recent study by Movement Advancement Project et al. (2014) found that getting to college for gay Latino students is an enormous challenge, because gay youth of color are more likely to be homeless or alienated from their families because of their sexuality.  This lack of family support puts much of the financial burden of going to college on the individual student.   36 Most do not make it to college because they find themselves homeless or in family situations that get in the way of completing their college degree. Peña-Talamantes (2010, 2013, 2014) described the many pressures facing gay Latino college students, particularly those surrounding the importance of family in their lives.  While Peña-Talamantes work lays a foundation for a study of gay Latino men in college, more work still needs to be done to explore the role of the campus environment in terms of how gay Latino men students makes sense of their intersecting and layered identities.  Peña-Talamantesconducted a qualitative study of gay Latinos at two college campuses.  Peña-Talamantes (2010) found that students employed various strategies to mitigate determine ways to assert their manhood.  Peña-Talamantes explained that being gay in Latino culture is seen as being less of a man.  Two strategies used by the students in Peña-Talamantesstudy to assert their manhood were working toward a college degree and earning academic awards.   Earning a college degree was a signifier of manhood (Peña-Talamantes, 2010).  Earning a degree also allowed the students to make a name for themselves while at the same time earning respect from their families.  Some students said that earning a degree helped to alleviate some of the stigma associated with their being gay.  Graduation was not the only way these students asserted their masculinity; they also did so through academic achievements.  The students explained that wearing their various honor cords during graduation earned them respect from their families.  Earning thfor any respect they felt they lost from being gay.  One of the students said that it was important to not only meet the expectations of his family, but that he needed to exceed them (Peña- 37 Talamantes, 2010).  While being gay may have been viewed as a disgrace to their families, achieving academic distinction was a way for them to demonstrate their success to their families.   Peña-Talamantes (2013) further examined the conflict between family expectations and the college environment by exploring how students make sense of their home and campus environments, two places that have very different expectations and offer differing support for their various social identities.  He found that students created a figured world that acts as a buffer between the two environments.  The use of figured worlds allows a student to transition between the two worlds and also to form an identity that is a combination of all the identities that are supported in both environments. Peña-Talamante Figured Worlds Peña-Talamantes (2013) continued to explore how lesbian and gay Latino/a college students negotiate the hometown and college worlds.  with one another and require students in the study to seek out a new de-stigmatizing space for identity negotiation (p. 1).  Holland et al. (1998) defined a figured world as a:  socially and culturally constructed realm of interpretation in which particular characters and actors are recognized, significance is assigned to certain acts and particular outcomes are valued over others.  Each is a simplified world populated by a set of agents (in the world of romance: attractive women, boyfriends, lovers) who engage in a limited range of meaningful acts or change of state (flirting with, falling in love with, dumping, having sex with) as moved by a specific set of forces (attractiveness, love, lust).  (p. 52)  Peña-Talamante (2013) qualitative study revealed that the participants negotiated these two conflicting figured worlds of hometown and college through self-empowerment.  His finding of self-empowerment relates to the work of Stevens (2004), who also found that gay men in  38 college had experiences that culminate in the finding of self-empowerment.  Peña-Talamantes (2013) identified three components of self-empowerment.  The first is the sense of freedom, which students identified as escape but also as openness and relaxation.  The second is the sense of security, which students gained from three sources: the self, the people surrounding the participants, and the college environment (Peña-Talamantes, 2013).  The third and final h a defined peer support (Peña-Talamantes, 2013, p. 10).  Figured worlds can be seen as similar to Borderlands Theory as it is a socially-constructed space from which a student derives meaning.   Literature Review Summary  To understand the experiences of gay Latino students in higher education it is important to first understand the current research on each of these social identities individually.  The literature presented the need to understand more about various Latino student sup-populations as the Latino population is growing at an impressive rate and looking at Latinos as a monolithic population will silence the voice of Latino students with other salient social identities. There may be a growing body of research on LGBT college students, but there remains a lack of research on LGBT students of color.  Exploring the experiences of gay Latinos will not only help to fill this void in research but also determine the ways in which gay Latino students navigate campus climates that have been shown to be unwelcoming to them.    While higher education is just beginning to explore the experiences of gay Latinos, other scholarly areas, such as literature, have provided foundational insight into this population.  In order to understand this population in the context of higher education there must be grounding in theory.  This study is grounded in the Reconceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of  39 Identity, which not only posits that students have multiple social identities but also that these various social identities are influenced by context.  For gay Latino students, their gay and Latino identities may cause tension because of the various ways the identities development and interactions.  Borderlands Theory provides a way to explore the tension .  In addition, Borderlands Theory provides a lens for understanding that students may redefine or create new identities based upon the intersection between their gay and Latino identities.  Personal development does not take place in a vacuum, meaning the college environment is just one of a nested system of environmental levels that .    This study builds off current research on LGBT students of color broadly as well as more recent literature on LGBT students.  While current research on gay Latino students has looked at the intmanage either their gay or Latino identity individually.  Finally, much of the research has been conducted on one campus or with students primarily from one geographic area.  This study expands on the current research by exploring the experiences of gay Latino students from a variety of geographical areas.  40 CHAPTER 3 In this chapter, I provide an overview of the approach and design of my study.  Since this is a qualitative study, I start with a discussion of my positionality as a researcher, as my own multiple identities influence my study.  After discussing my positionality, I explain why I chose a qualitative approach for this study.  The majority of this section focuses on site and participant selection, data collection, and analysis.  I conclude this chapter with a discussion of the validity and limitations of this study.   Researcher Positionality  Going to college was an opportunity to explore both my racial identity and my sexual orientation.  I grew up in a predominantly White hometown with little connection to my Latino heritage.  In high school, I began to explore what it meant to be Latino beyond skin tone, while also questioning my sexual orientation.  Being from a small town, I decided that these were not aspects of myself I would be able to outwardly or fully express until I went to college. As I began my college career, I started to meet new people who expanded my thinking and perceptions of what it meant to be Latino and gay.  It was within this first year that I distinctly remember seeing gay people who looked like me.  One of those out gay Latinos was a resident assistant in residence life, Adam Jon. Even though I found people who shared my intersecting identities, I remember being faced with making choices about events and organizations to attend: Do I go to the Latino student group event or the LGBT student event?  I remember sitting in the Latino student event   Similar thoughts crossed my mind when I went to LGBT student events.  While my college  41 campus was diverse, I often looked around and noticed I was one of the only Latino students there.   College was the place where I was able to explore, and ultimately come to make sense of, what it meant to be both gay and Latino.  These two identities are intertwined and inseparable, yet because of the ways in which services and student groups were organized, I was forced to choose to explore only one or the other.  When I got to graduate school, I thought the days of choosing between my gay and Latino identities were over.  I was surprised to learn, however, that there was little to no research or studies that spoke to my experience as a gay Latino man in college.   As a researcher who sees myself as existing in the intersection of my gay and Latino identities, I see the intersection as central to who I am as a person.  Culturally, Latino identity is closely tied with religious and gender identity and dominant notions of what it means to be a man (Rodriguez, 2009).  Thus, I acknowledge that students may not see these identities as intersecting and may see their gay and Latino identities as separate from one another.  This may be a result of different contexts in which the meanings of gay and Latino identities are constructed and continue to be deconstructed and reconstructed.   Because of my identity as a gay Latino man I am both helped and hindered in this research project.  My identities provide me first with a network of gay Latinos who are both professionals and students at colleges and universities, which I can tap into to recruit participants.  Second, my gay and Latino identities allow me to gain trust and rapport with my research participants.  This trust and rapport is built by sharing my experiences and finding common ground in our mutual experiences.  My identities also affect my positionality in how I conduct and interpret the research.  Operating from a constructivist epistemology, I could not  42 separate myself from my beliefs or perspectives.  There were stories from participants that resonated with my own, while others were very different.  I took care not to project my experience onto my participants and hold my experiences as the paramount experiences for gay Latinos in college.  older then the students who are participants.  By being the fact that these students have come of age in a much different climate for gay individuals than I did.  A majority of students in their generation believe that same-sex couples should have the right to get married (Lipka, 2010) and are more accepting of gay individuals.  In addition, marriage equality was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court during my data collection.  These events may have resulted in students believing that the United States has entered a post-gay era where sexual orientation has no impact on ones experiences. Qualitative Approach This qualitative study was based on interviews from 10 self-identified gay Latino students.  A qualitative approach was most appropriate to answer the questions of this study (Maxwell, 2005; Merriam, 2009) as it allowed their experiences, how they construct their worlds, and what meaning they attribute to their (Merriam, 2009, p. 5).  Using a qualitative approach allowed me as researcher to focus on how students make meaning not only of their experiences but also of the intersection of their gay and Latino identities.  Qualitative research is often described as the intersection of personal narratives in a way of making meaning (Glesne, 2006).  Finally, a qualitative approach allowed me to explore the interplay between the college environment through Bronfenbrenner's (1977, 1993, 1997) Ecological model and Borderlands theory by allowing me to view how  43 students viewed and constructed the borderlands between their identities based on various environmental influences.  This qualitative approach is based on a constructivist epistemology.  the view that all knowledge, and therefore all meaningful reality as such, is contingent upon human practices, being constructed in and out of interaction between human beings and their world, and developed and transmitted within a socia(Crotty, 1998, p. 42).  The use of a constructivist epistemology is supported in this study through the use of interviews to understand how student make sense of the borderlands between their gay and Latino identities (Creswell, 2009).   In addition, a constructivist epistemology is also supported through the use of Abes, Jones, and McEwen's (2007) Reconcepulaized Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity and Bronfenbrenner (1977, 1993, 1997) as part of the theoretical framework.  1993, 1997) work is based on how individuals interact with their environment and how various environmental levels influence .  (Crotty, 1998, p. 42).  This focus on the impact of individuals interacting with the environment is illustrated by the RMMDI, which shows that saliency of social identities is impacted by environmental contexts.  The third component of the theoretical framework, Borderlands Theory, is not based on empirical research like the previous theories.  However, Borderlands Theory has been used by Muñoz (2008) as a theoretical framework in her constructivist-based study of persistence in undocumented Mexican-American women.  This theoretical framework helps me understand how I myself, and possibly students, make sense of the intersection of my gay and Latino identities.  Because of the  44 constructivist nature of this project it was important for me to not just impose a theoretical framework to understand students experience but rather use the framework as a theoretical lens to interpret my study. Because of the qualitative nature of the study, the method of data collection was semi-structured interviews.  Interviewing allowed me as the researcher and participants to co-construct meaning around our experiences as gay Latinos in higher education.  The semi-structured may add or replace pre-established ones (Glesne, 2011, p. 68). However the use of interviews is challenging as they could have led to a situation where myself and the participants were  These norms could have limited the depth experiences participants shared if they felt constricted to only answer questions posed to them by myself rather than engaging in conversations that allowed us to explore their experiences deeper. I tried to avoid this constriction by engaging participants in a dialogic spiral. A dialogic spiral people whereby the dialogic process of listening and speaking co-creates an area of trust between speakers. I used the dialogic spiral created in interviews to understand if and how students viewed the borderlands between their gay and Latino identities and how they make sense of this intersection.   Participants, Site Selection, and Recruitment I purposefully sampled to obtain 10 participants who are men who self-identify as gay and Latino and were enrolled in at least the second year of their college career at a 4-year college or university. Choosing student beyond their first year was done to get participants who had a chance to get involved and have interactions with campus resources and groups.  A sample of 10  45 ho have experienced the phenomenon being studied should be interviewed for one study.  The reason for choosing students in at least their second year of college is that these students had time to interact with the micro and mesosystems of the college environment.  model focuses on process, person, context, and time.  It was necessary to interview individuals who had existed in the environment for a while.   While I was specifically looking at college as the context for identity construction, college environments can vary greatly.  Therefore, the description of institutions was important in this study.  I made note of how the context of different institutions may affect how a participant makes meaning of their identity.  Participants attended institutions ranging from a large land-grant college in a rural town with a small Latino student population to a private research university located in an urban area in California. Any student who identified as gay, Latino, and male who was in the second year of their college career was eligible to participate.  I chose to use the term gay, a label for men who are attracted to and participate in sexual relations with men.  Similarly, I used Latino as a blanket term to describe individuals of Latin origin.  I acknowledge students may wish to choose other labels for their sexual orientation and racial identity, as they are the authors of their own experience.  The fluid naming of sexuality illuminates the difficulty of using categorical terms to d.  Because of the constructivist nature of this project it was important to note the varying terms students used to label their identities. I drew participants from the southwestern United States: California, New Mexico, and Texas.  The southwest served as an ideal geographical context for conducting this study for several reasons: (a) a large Latino population in this geographic area; (b) the southwest hosts a  46 variety of intuitional types ranging from large public research universities to small liberal arts colleges.   The sseven of the 10 participants attending Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs).  I assumed because an institution has a substantial population of Latino students it will have multicultural student services and student organizations for Latino students, such as a Latino Student Union or Latino-based fraternities and sororities.  The purpose of using a geographic area with a high Latino population was to avoid including participants who may perceive themselves as being the only gay Latino at their institution.  This geographic choice was also in place to better understand how Latino student culture, and by extension peer groups, influenced their gay identity in relation to Latino cultural norms. I recruited students through both email and social media.  Recruitment emails where sent to student affairs professionals in the desired geographic area and worked primarily with LGBT students or Latino students (see Appendix E).  These student affairs professionals forwarded emails out to students who met the demographic characteristics of participants I was seeking.  In addition, students who volunteered to be part of this study also forwarded recruitment emails to friends and classmates.  Finally, the recruitment email was posted in Facebook groups for gay Latino students in college.  In the recruitment email I directed students to a Qualtrics survey that explained the study and provided the participant agreement.  The survey collected the participants name, contact information, institution, major, and involvement on campus.  The name of the students and their institutions were de-identified in order to protect student confidentiality.  I then sent participants an email asking them to sign up for an interview and  47 provided them with a participant agreement (see Appendix F).  Each participant received $20 in Amazon gift cards as an incentive for participating in the study. Data Collection   Studying the experiences of gay Latino students and the intersection of their gay and Latino identities is not a clean and orderly process, and as such the methods for gathering data had to be adaptable in order to show the multiple perspectives and complexities that are present (McCall, 2005).  Because of these multiple perspectives of identity, interviews served as the means for the students to share their experiences with myself.  I conducted two interviews with each participant through video conferencing programs, such as Skype and Google Hangout, and digitally recorded them.  Using video conferencing allowed for inclusion of participants from a variety of geographic areas of the southwestern United States without the high cost of traveling to conduct interviews in person.  The use of video conferencing allowed for flexibility in the .  Because of connectivity issues when attempting to conduct interviews with two participants, two interviews were conducted over the phone and digitally recorded. To build trust, it was important to begin the first interview with each student by explaining who I am, including my identities and why I am interested in exploring how participants make sense of their gay Latino identity and their experience in college.  The first interview allowed me to explore why students were interested in participating in this research project.  Knowing what drew students to participate is important as their reasons for participating as well as the pre-interview questions provided a frame of reference for where they were entering the conversation (e.g., are they more interested in personal development through using the research as a space to process their identities or are they interested in creating change in the  48 campus environment to create more space or enhance the spaces that exist already?).  Building this trust allowed me and the students to co-construct how meaning is made of the borderlands that exist between ones gay and Latino identities.   There were five guiding questions for my interviews with the students that allowed me to focus on students experiences both inside and outside of higher education and how they make sense of the borderlands between this gay and Latino identity (see Appendix G for detailed protocol):  1. What is your experience as a gay Latino on campus? 2. What supports the intersection of your gay and Latino identities? 3. What are the spaces or things that prevent or inhibit your gay and Latino identities to exist synergistically?   4. How do you make sense of your gay Latino identity? 5. What would a supportive campus environment look like? The first interview also allowed for participants to share their experiences at college in general.  spaces their gay Latino identity becomes more or less salient.  To further understand environmental factors, I asked about the friends. The second interview allowed deeper understanding into how participants make sense of their experiences.  Questions for the second interviews were generated after reading transcripts delve into their experiences.  This second interview also allowed me as the researcher to have a more rich and complex understanding of a experiences.  49 The interviews provided a holistic look into the experiences of these students while also providing a space for them to reflect on how the construction of their identities and how their gay Latino identity is enacted on a college campus.  It became clear during the data collection process that some participants had reflected a lot on their experiences as a gay Latino student while others had not.  Because of the varying level of previous self-reflection, I had to ask two participants several follow up questions to gain a better understanding of their experiences, while others provided in depth and detailed responses to the initial questions. Reflection as Research By allowing interviews to serve as a reflective space and place for the sharing of knowledge, this research project provided a benefit to participants by serving as a Nepantla or third-space for them, in which they were able to contrast and reconstruct their own identities .  This was the first time some participants were asked about, and provided with a space to explore, their gay Latino identity.  All too often in their college careers, students must compartmentalize their identities and be in spaces that are primarily meant for just one of their identities, such as their campus multicultural center, LGBT student services, or identity-based student organizations (Renn, 2011).  While these spaces are important as they provide a counter-space to dominant systems of power on campus, they focus explore and live in the intersections of their identities in these spaces.  The research interviews acted as such a counter-space. Research as a Borderland This research project required me to negotiate and move among several identities at the same time, similar to what Green (2013) described.  While Green discussed moving between the  50 participant and the observer or researcher and how at times the lines between the two can be blurred and one can exist in both during the research process, I negotiated more than just two positions in this study.  I was not just examining and participating in identity exploration with the participants; I was also negotiating my role as a student affairs professional.  In my professional capacity I can see myself seeking to assist students in finding academic and social supports on their campuses and also assisting students in getting the most out of their college experience.  Each comes with different expectations regarding trust and relationships.  These identities are not easily compartmentalized and I was cognizant of how these varied positions I took during this study could limit or enhance my interactions with participants.   Participant Profiles Alex Alex is currently a graduate student at Southern Texas University (STU) in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  STU is an HSI that was created when two institutions in the southwest area of Texas merged.  He attended another public institution in south Texas for his undergraduate degree.  He started as a music major and then switched to communication.  Alex is from the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas.  As an undergraduate student Alex was actively involved in a Latino fraternity on campus.  In addition to his fraternity involvement Alex was also actively involved in the performing arts, acting in several plays while an undergraduate student.   Christian  Christian is a dance education major at a public research university in central Texas, Central Texas University (CTU).  CTU is a public doctoral HSI.  Christian comes from a predominantly Hispanic family.  He is currently in his third year of college and is from San  51 Antonio.  Besides his major he was not very involved during the first years of his college career.  , come home, and watch TV or do my homework, and then pretty much go to bed.  That was just my daily into joining one of the Latino fraternities on campus.  After better.  I started meeting tons of new people.  I actually started getting into the gay community  Eddie   Eddie is a senior studying history and political science at Texas Border University (TBU).  TBU is a mid-size regional institution that is also an HSI.  Eddie balances his classload with a full-time job.  In order to fulfill both work and academic commitments Eddie takes an extended lunch hour to attend classes.  Eddie is also active in a Latino fraternity on campus.  Prior to his full-time employment Eddie served as a student mentor assisting first year students with their academics.   Enrique Enrique recently graduated with a degree in sociology from Pacific Private University (PPU), a large private research university in the Los Angeles area of California.  Enrique is from the Inglewood area of Los Angeles.  Enrique still resides in Los Angeles.  While in school Enrique was activity involved in both LGBT and Latino student organizations in addition to the band and his fraternity.  In addition to his involvement on campus Enrique works as a student assistant in the LGBT resource center.    52 Juan Juan is currently in his last year at Texas Urban University (TUU)  in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas studying psychology.  TUU is a public research university and an HSI.  Juan transferred from a smaller institution in his hometown of Houston.  He decided to transfer to get more of a college experience.  He is currently involved in the LGBT student organization and works at both the multicultural center and at the student recreation center.  At the recreation center Juan works as an assistant at the climbing wall.  At the multicultural center Juan works as a program assistant organizing the departments programing around men and masculinities.  After graduation he plans to attend graduate school to study clinical counseling.   Marcos Marcos is an undergraduate student currently on leave from a California Public University (CPU) in southern California.  is also an HSI.  Marcos has previously taken leave from his institution in order to save up money to attend school.  Marcos is majoring in German Studies and hopes to go to film school or work in the film industry after graduation.  While in school Marcos participated in a study abroad in Germany and was involved in various student organizations.   Mike Mike is currently a second year student at a large public research intuition in rural Texas, Texas Agricultural University (TAU).  TAU is a PWI as well as a land-grant university.  Mike is also a first year resident assistant.  On campus he is involved with the student radio station and is currently working on writing a short story.  53 Omar  Omar is a second year student a private religiously affiliated institution, Texas Religious University (TRU) in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas.  TRU is a private research university and is also a Predominantly White Institution (PWI).  At school Omar is actively involved in in LGBT and Latino student organizations in addition to his fraternity program and a scholars program.  Currently he is planning on majoring in marketing and advertising and minoring in women and gender studies.  Omar lives on campus and works as a student assistant in the art department.  Omar is from the Dallas area. Oscar Oscar is a recent graduate from STU, the same school Alex attends.  Oscar has a degree in early childhood education.  Oscar was raised in Mexico and moved to the United States at the age of 14.  Prior to attending college Oscar was actively involved in Upward Bound and a college outreach program.  While in school Oscar assisted in planning and executing series that brought prominent individuals to campus.  In addition to his being involved in the speakers series Oscar was active in a Latino fraternity on campus.   T  research institution in New Mexico, Southwest University (SU), where he also received his undergraduate degree.  SU is a public doctoral research university and also holds a designation as an HSI.  T is originally from Mexico and attended a community college before transferring.  He was an undocumented student during his undergraduate career and recently received his visa to work in the United States.  T received a prestigious scholarship for undocumented students while  54 he was an undergraduate student.  While an undergraduate student he was involved in a Latino fraternity and served as an intern for El Centro de la Raza. Table 1 Participant Characteristics Participant Alias Institution Year in School Alex Southern Texas University Graduate Student Christian Central Texas University Third Year Eddie Texas Border University Fifth Year Enrique Pacific Private University Graduated Juan Texas Urban University Fourth Year Marcos California Public University On Leave Mike Texas Agricultural University Second Year Omar Texas Religious University Third Year Oscar Southern Texas University Graduated T Southwest University Graduated  Analysis Data gathered during the research project was analyzed in Dedoose qualitative data software.  Borderlands theory (Anzaldúa, 1999) and the Ecological Model of Human Development (Bronfenbrenner, 1993) served as analytical lenses to better understand the identities.  However, the way in which these two theories were used in conjunction with each other changed over the course of this study and will be discussed further in Chapter 4.  It was important to allow themes to emerge, as a qualitative approach allowed me to focus on the context and to interpret the data, rather than using a preconfigured theoretical perspective (Rossman & Rallis, 2003).  In order to fully understand the data gathered from participants, I uploaded transcribed interview transcripts to Dedoose.  Once uploaded, I read transcripts line by line to develop emergent themes that I used to develop codes. A code is a researcher generated construct to apply meaning to data, in this case interviews.  55 (Saldaña, 2015). Once I identified emergent themes I than coded all transcripts using these themes as well as any new themes or sub themes.  I then classified codes into broad main themes identified from the data. This process of reviewing each transcript twice is in line with Saldaña(2015) process of first and second cycle coding. First cycle coding allowed for the initial development of code where as in the second cycle of coding filter, highlight and focus the themes and codes that emerged from the interviews (p. 9).  A secondary goal of the coding process, besides developing themes and sub themes, was to examine the ways in which the broader main themes related to each other.  The goal in doing this research was to not generalize the experiences of gay Latinos in higher education, but rather to show the multitude of experiences of these students.  The use of coding allowed for understanding the ways in which these themes relate to each other.  As I framed this research through a constructivist lens it was important to note that my own personal experience tints the way in which I interpreted and coded the interviews and narrative responses. Borderlands Theory is based on new angles of vision that allow for the breaking down of binaries (Anzaldúa, 1999).  In this study, I view these multiple interviews and ways of gathering data as the new angles and break down the binaries the borderlands of gay and Latino.  While gay and Latino are not binary in the same vein as male/female or straight/gay, they are often seen  to the Catholic religion and valuing traditional notions of manhood. These various borderlands emerged when reading through the transcripts. These borderlands shared by students influenced the codes I created while reading through the interviews. These codes once expanded and applied through the reading of all the interviews lead  56 to my initial findings. Below is table outlining the codes I created and broad themes I found while conducting this research and quote from a participant to illustrate. Table 2 Codes and Themes Code Theme Quote Growth in college College as a borderland t required me to be in an environment that I  Intersecting identities Borderlands at multiple environmental levels For me, being gay and religious is not a thing I would ever think of mixing together. Exploring identify through involvement Navigating borderlands I wanted to explore my identity because I didn't have the opportunity to do so in high school.  That was something I felt like were enough resources there to be able to kind of do that.  I was fortunate enough that PPU has a lotta organizations, and they have a pretty solid resource center  Trustworthiness In order to ensure trustworthiness in this study I utilized several different techniques.  I used two specific techniques in this study: the use of multiple sources of data and peer review (Merriam, 2009).  The multiple sources of data were the two interviews conducted with each participant.  By using two interviews I was able to ask questions that were based off responses and experiences provided in the first interview.  At the completion of the study each participant was given a summary of the findings and offered to debrief the findings. The opportunity to debrief the finding was done in order to allow participants an active part in shaping the outcome of this study and to give them agency in making sure I was not misrepresenting what they shared with me.  I was able to conduct follow up conversations to perform member checks with two of the participants.   I utilized peer debriefers to discuss my findings and provide feedback on my findings.  I discussed each finding as well as the supporting material from the interviews and then invited  57 my peer debriefers to ask questions and critique my thoughts.  Three of my peer debriefers are actively engaged in practice and research related to the experience of LGBT students in higher education.  My fourth peer debriefer is a gay Latino scholar who studies gay Latinos in the field of ethnic studies. The number of debriefers was selected in order to provide me with a number expertise and knowledge that pushed me to think deeper about the ways in which I was understanding the stories and experiences shared with me. Limitations This study, as in all research, has its limitations.  First, I recruited participants through reaching out to professionals who worked in multicultural affairs and LGBT centers on college campuses. By using these professionals to help recruit participants the students that agreed to be part of this study most likely already had some type of involvement in identity-based organizations and centers.   Because of this participants were probably more likely to speak about the influence of their involvement on their college experience. In addition two of the participants were in or had graduated from graduate school, which allowed for a different level of self-reflection on their college experiences than other participants who were currently enrolled in college.  This study could have benefited from having participants at the same academic level in order to compare students who have been in college the same time.  58 CHAPTER 4 Findings In the previous chapter I descripted methods and provided information on the 10 participants, all of whom are self-identified gay Latino men who attend or attended a four-year college or university in the southwestern region of the United States.  The initial research questions of this study sought to exidentities, however through the course of collecting data there was not just one borderland but rather multiple borderlands experienced by participants.  Because of these findings I organize this around the overarching theme that college is a borderland and contains borderlands in which gay Latinos negotiate among various identities, perspectives, and expectations.  In this chapter I will focus on the borderlands gay Latino students experience in college and the ways in which they navigate them.  I present these findings from participant interviews in two broad categories: (a) the various borderlands gay Latino men experience in college and (b) the ways in which they navigate these borderlands. The first theme I present relates to the borderlands gay Latino students experience in beyond, but rather a layering of several borderlands gay Latino students must navigate.  These various borderlands exist on and through the various environmental levels presented in Chapters 1 and 2.  For example, these borderlands are represented in the ways participants navigated the borders between what it means to be gay and Latino.  At the individual level participants internalize what this borderland means for their personal identity.  At meso and micro system levels they are also navigating the borderland between these identities through negotiating cultural and societal views they encounter while in college.  These borderlands are not just  59 psychological, as mentioned above, but also physical such as the physical location of their college and university in relation their family.  These borderlands are illustrated by my reconceptualized theoretical perspective that I describe more later in this chapter (see Appendix D) The second theme is the ways in which gay Latino students navigate these borderlands.  Colleges are full of spaces that are often not perceived as welcoming to both gay and/or Latino students.  The participants in this study however, utilize these spaces such as LGBT student organizations and Latino fraternities, to become places of self-acceptance that embrace their identities and find support systems through their involvement on campus. College as a Borderland College is a borderland, a , culture, and broader society.  In college, borders can be both physical and non-physical.  Examples of physical borders on a college campus are roads or rivers that divide one side of campus from another or serve as a dividing line distinguishing what students consider on-campus and off campus.  Non-physical borders can be visible or invisible.  An example of visible non-physical borders are parts of campus that are perceived by students to be for White affluent students, such as a certain group of residence halls or fraternity row.  A non-physical border may also exist internally within an individual identities. The Borderlands Between Gay and Latino Gay Latino students experience and navigate borderlands on multiple environmental levels as shown in Appendix D.  This section will delve deeper into exploring the ways in which gay Latino students make sense of the borderlands between their gay and Latino identities across  60 the multiple environmental levels.  Exploring how one borderland becomes multiple borderlands across various environmental levels illustrates how borderlands are not contained to just one environmental level and navigating them is not just an internal or external process for the participants. The various environmental levels participants encountered presented clear borders between supportive and challenging environments and messages regarding their gay and Latino identities.  Because of these borders participants explored the borderlands of their gay and Latino identity on various environmental levels.  This phenomenon is illustrated by Juan discussing his experience growing as a person at college through being in a new environment (mesosystem) and getting involved (microsystem) on campus: Then I changed over to herinto the person that I am today because it required me to be in an environment that I ways I did it was I was part of LGBT community program here on campus, and so I was part of that for two years, and I was also part of many different things at the time. Being in this new environment was a place of meaning making for students in this study.  These borderlands allowed students to come to their own understanding of what it meant to be both gay and Latino.  These borderlands had an influence on how students gay and Latino identities influenced their college experience.  As Enrique saidI wanted to explore my identity.  I wanted to be proud of who I was.  Any time conversations would come up within the Latino community and different organizations I would make it a point for people to know that.The way these participants described these borderlands between their gay and Latino identities is similar to how Anzaldúa describes borderlands:  61 that go beyond dichotomies of all kinds: beyond male/female; beyond reason/emotion; beyond gay/ straight; bey 2).  Anzaldúa described borderlands as a third space, another term she uses for this third . is liminal space where (Lunsford, 1998, p.  8). Nepantla is not only a place but also a process.  Keating (2006) called this chaotic, identity shattering process dis-identification and transformation (p. 9).  This dis-identification with existing social structures and beliefs allowed participants to transcend traditional boundaries to create their own identities.  This process is illustrated by Marcos and his choosing to use the term Jotothe other gay men in the fraternity.  Ijoto. Gay Latino Borderlands and Challenges at Different Environmental Levels Marco  of how a student navigates the borderland between his gay and Latino identities at the individual environmental level through the naming, or rather renaming, of his identity.  At the microsystem level students encounter peers (not necessarily their friends) and family with varying perspective on being gay and Latino.  These messages can range from welcoming and accepting to the inability to accept that one can be both gay and Latino.  At school the same student may encounter an environment that is more open and accepting of their gay identity.  At the mesosystem level students can encounter an environment that can be welcoming or unwelcoming to one or both of their identities as a gay Latino.  Examples of an unwelcoming environment could be lack of financial support for an LGBT or Latino student center.  Additionally, it could be a student and administrative culture  62 that promotes micro and macro aggressions against students of color and gay individuals.  Because of this unwelcoming environment and compartmentalized services students may choose to prioritize or choose their gay or Latino identity over the other.   At the exosystem level students experience state or local politics that are anti-immigrant or anti-gay that can translate into an environment within the state they live that sends a message that they are not welcome or are not valued.  Finally, at the macrosystem level gay Latino students face a Latino culture that is strongly tied to a Catholic faith that is not accepting or welcoming for gay individuals.  As Alex said: For me, being gay and religious is not a thing I would ever think of mixing together.  I was raised Catholic, but I didn't really follow it.  Just 'cause of my sexuality.  I felt that conflict, like I can't be religious and be gay, just 'cause of alljust other naysayers, things like that, pushed me away from religion.   In addition, at the exosystem level students can experience dissonance with cultural expectations around masculinity and what it means to be man.  Latino culture views men as strong hardworking providers for families and adheres to traditional gender roles (Rodríguez, 2009).  Juan describes this dissonance:  If you look at most Latino-traditional masculine.  They hold the value that men have to go to work.  Men have to act a certain way.  A man has to be a certain way, and it conflicts with a gay male.  Which is not as strict with the whole idea of masculinity. Navigating all of these various borderlands across the environmental levels places a lot of pressure on gay Latino students.  Despite the messages and influences working against them, participants learned to navigate these borderlands and succeeded in finding places to belong in  63 college.  As I describe in the next section, participants in this study developed grit or persistence due to what they have experienced because of being both gay and Latino.   Places of Support for Gay Latinos in the Borderlands This resilience/grit comes from students finding different places of support at the various ister involvement in LGBT organizations).  Enrique described how his involvement on campus made him feel he could be successful on campus, When speaking of my own personal experiences as a gay Latino at PPU I consider I had enough resources and enough of a support group to feel   At the microsystem level students have peers in the form of friends or fraternity brothers who served as sources of support and affirmation for their gay and Latino identities.  In addition, these peers served as guides in helping students navigate college.  T described how his fraternity involvement prevented him from having an my fraternity,  At the mesosystem level student organizations and campus offices support participants gay and Latino identities even some that support both.  While students may not choose to get involved or access the services offered by these offices, just their presence showed participants that universities are a welcoming place for gay Latino students.  An illustration of this visible not treated ds are attending  64 school in a time where there is greater visibility, and in some case support, for Latinos and gay individuals such as an increased focus by universities and the federal government on access and academic success of Latino students in college.  In addition, the recent Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality has served to shift the discourse around gay individuals.  Finally, at the macrosystem there is more vocal and visible support for gay individuals.   Environmental levels and grit.  However, the influence of these various environmental levels is not dichotomous as positive or negative.  Negative and positive influences/forces coexist and are happening at the same time.  The interactions between these various forces at all of these environmental levels illustrate the multiple borderlands that students experience.  There is not just one borderland that exists within the individual at the core environmental level as presented in the original theoretical perspective.  Rather, there are multiple borderlands existing at once as represented in the new theoretical perspective.  This study focused on the borderland between a stud other significant borderlands such as between college and home life.  These borderlands exist at each environmental level and students must learn to navigate all of them.  Navigating multiple levels and multiple borderlands at once allows students to learn to be comfortable with ambiguity and move between different levels and experiences.   Borderlands and Resilience Participants who experienced borderlands at various environmental levels between their gay and Latino identities acknowledged that navigating these borderlands resulted in some form of strength.  It is important to point out that this strength does not come easily. As Juan pointed out this strength comes from being a double minority:  65 I think there is a big intersection between the two.  I think one of the positiveone of the underlining themes is a sort of strength that needs to come out of it.  You are a minority in both commun extreme minority at that point.  It gets like think ideologies, but I think because of those conflicting ideologies, you get individuals that have a very unique perspective on how they look at things. This double minority status seems to create a resilience in students in this study.  This resilience may be similar to the idea of grit.  Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, and Kelly (2007) define grit perseverance and passion for long-term goals.  Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress (pp. 1087-1088). This grit or resilience was the result of navigating the borderlands through figuring out how their gay and Latino identities fit together, as well as navigating dominant spaces and the overall university environment, Juan said: I guess I started realizing it the second I came out to my family.  One, I kind of saw a clash betwr type of answer.  My life has been very  be   ideology. s that while gay Latino men in college may be thriving, that thriving is not automatic.  Rather I observed that gay Latino students face a lot of forces that  66 work against them.  This forces are not limited to, a university system that is difficult to navigate for students who are the first in their family to attend college, and an environment that is not welcoming for students of color or gay individuals.  Moving beyond the gay and Latino binary.  As participants in this study moved beyond the binary, described by Anzaldúa earlier in this chapter, I dre(1968) cognitive structuralist approach in which individuals move from dualistic, to multiplistic, and relativistic views of the world.  In the case of this study students moved from a place where they saw their gay and Latino identities as separate to seeing them as intersecting and integrated.  In revisiting Marco quote from earlier, his multiplistic view of his gay and Latino identities can be seen as always connected , being .onored until students come to the college environment and are exposed to multiple perspectives that allow them to finally engage in their multiplistic understandings. An example of this multiplistic view of moving between and among identities for Latinos in higher education is the work of Vasti Torres on the development of Latino college students.  viewing identity development as more fluid and borderland-like.  This more fluid view from  model of Laitno idenity development not following linear paths but rather different orientations that Latino students may move through fluidly depending on context.    From binary to borderlands.  Having a multiplistic view allows for comfort with ambiguity and moving to more integrated identities (Torres, 1999), which similar to how  67 Anzaldúa (1999) has described coming to understand the intersection and interactions between one's multiple identities: -253).  This process, which Anzaldúa represents both as occurring on the borderland, on the in-between, and in the act of making faces/souls, can enable transformation that, while often brutally painful, can allow for non-binary identity. (Lunsford, 1998, p. 2) This idea of not being able to fit identities into a box was echoed by Mike: I'm a male, but they're also certain circumstances that maybe other people don't have.  Trying to  In their own words students explained how they viewed that being both gay and Latino developed a strength and resilience, as Enrique sharedmore about realizing that being a gay Latino isn't a detriment.  I realized that there was power in that.  Enrique added: Our identities kinda shape our feature experiences, how we learn information, how we see certain things.  Being able to kinda see the power in that I think for me was something that then was able to kinda gear me in a direction where I felt empowered for who I was.  I was even prouder to wave two different flags that I was able to wave because of those conversations and because of those people I had around me who told me that it's okay and it's totally cool.  That's something that I shou Tony shared that he experienced passive rejection: I'm from Mexico and I'm also from Chihuahua, where the biggest machos are supposed to come from.  You can read in people's voice the huge disappointment when I tell them  68 Yeah, I'm gay.  I don't think they mean it, but they still say it, Oh, I can't believe it, or But really, you are from XYZ.  I'm like What is that supposed to mean?  I'm less of a man even though I'm from Mexico or I'm less of a Mexican because I'm gay? Students found support for their struggle coming to terms with the incongruence they felt or saw between these two identities.  For some this came from their involvement in student organizations, as Enrique stated: As I moved out of the Latino floor, I felt like I needed to get more involved with the Latino community.  That was all I really had.  When I started working at the LGBT center, I felt like I was literally in the mix. Others came to better understand the intersection between their gay and Latino identities though academics and exploring concepts of identities and what it means to be gay and Latino in their coursework.  Alex shared, education, I found out just more resources of how to better come to terms with that sometimes   For Alex this came from being introduced to the works of Gloria Anzaldúa: I think it's a little bit really looking deep within myself.  Just recently, getting into grad school, I found out about Gloria Anzaldúa.  She's a lesbian writer.  She does a lot of work on Chicano queer theory, and she was from a town just north of mine, here in the Valley. This quote illustrates how curricular and co-curricular experiences expand students understanding of self.  It also highlights the importance of courses that explore diversity, equity, and inclusion, and introduce students to researchers and authors from marginalized groups who write about the experiences of marginalized groups.  69 Borders as constructed environments.  These borders are what Strange and Banning on the subjective views and experiences of participant observers, assuming that environments are  86).  The non-physical borders experienced by students in this study are constructed environments that are based on their experiences both in and outside of college. The Borderland Between Home and School Participants in this study attended a variety of institutional types  public, private, research, and masters comprehensive.  At college, participants often encountered a starkly different environment from the one they experienced at home.  Alex described the environment he encountered when he arrived at college, the  Some participants, including Juan, actively sought out a college environment that was different from the one they experienced growing up.  Juan transferred to his current institution because he felt the college environment at his first institution was no different from his high school.   The environment participants encountered in college quickly highlighted the distinct difference between college and their home community.  Omar, who attends Texas Religious University (TRU), had this to say about his institution: It is mostly white people here.  I kind of expected that, though.  They are mostly really really awesome people here.  70 Omar knew that going to TRU would be very different from what he experienced in high school.  area where TRU is located, or the fact that he attended a religiously-affiliated high school.  Despite this realistic view, Omar still had to navigate the borderland between the working class background of his home and the wealth and privilege he encountered at TRU.  In navigating the borderland between the perceptions and realities of their college environments, participants were able to find positive parts of the campus culture they perceived to be negative for gay Latino students to navigate at first.  Mike, who attends Texas Agricultural University, had a similar initial perspective on his college: My first opinion about Texas Ag University was that, oh, it's just a bunch of Republicans.  It's a bad place for someone like me.  Then when I came to visit, I saw a different side.  It wasn't just this kind of like flat mindset.  There's different people here.  There was differentthe culture was really nice. Both Omar and Mike had initial views of their campuses as being unwelcoming.  Once they got to school, their experiences were incongruent with some of their initial impressions.  Omar and Mike learned to navigate this diverse and complex environment and interact with people and programs that challenged, and eventually changed, their initial perceptions of campus.  In navigating the borderlands between their home environment and the environment they experienced in college, both Omar and Mike were able to find places of support and connections to campus. While in this borderland between home and college, participants began to explore their various social identities and understand the ways in which their experiences with multiple identifies differed from those of their peers with similar identities, both at home and at college.  71 Omar describes coming to the realization that his experience can be different from other gay Latinos,  Being a gay Latino is very hard to be able to identify with certain experiences.  A lot of gay, Latino friends do have the same experiences cuz they come from the same background, the samee a lot, and I really sense.   The borderland between family and school.  One of the most common borderlands experienced by students in this study was that between their family and college life.  As stated before, students in college are forced to deal with cultures and environments that are different from those they grew up in and experienced at home.  Navigating the borderlands between family and college provided participants with new perspectives.   Navigating this borderland between family and college highlighted the challenges for participants as they came to understand the intersection between their gay and Latino identities.  This was because of strong cultural norms and pressures around masculinity and what it means to be a man (Rodriguez, 2009).  Alex said,   One of these cultural pressures is strong family expectations to get married and have kids, and for several participants identifying as gay meant It was a lot ofI felt a lot of cultural pressure.  Realizing that you're gay, it felt like almost a disappointment of what the expectations of my mother was.  72 For participants, family had been their strongest source of support, both in terms of support while in college as well as general overall support.  For Christian, that support came even when his mother was facing challenges of her own:  I applied everywhere.  Everywhere outside of Texas.  Some places in Texas, but not a lot.  My mom actually was diagnosed with breast cancer just a few weeks ago after that, and  It was hard.  It was needed me.   This quote illustrates the reciprocal support systems between students and their families.  Because of reciprocal support systems, like the one illustrated above, family ties are not severed.  For the students in this study, family is always an important part of their life and source of support, even if family members do not understand what it fully meant for their student to be gay.  Enrique talked about his mother, sharingsometimes, and she'd be like what does LGBT mean? Just little things like that, kinda seeing her trying to understand and trying to know and being open about it I think for me opened up a  Siblings.  When discussing family relationships, relationships with parents were most often mentioned.  However, coming out also often resulted in the participants creating strong relationships with their siblings, such as Christian, Honestly, my sister.  My youngest sister.  I confided in her at a very young age when I  the first per 73 love you.  to my parents.  For some participants, their older siblings often helped create a more welcoming environment because they were more open to and exposed to gay individuals.  Juan stated: Luckily, my parents.  I have a sister, so the sister helped a lot because shesix years older than me, so she experienced a lot of these things before I have.  She became a big support system for me, somebody I looked up to, somebody I talked to, someone who I was able to talk to within the family and with outside the family because they taught us never to speak about certain events that happenedcertain major events.  For me, I was able to confide in her and to fully trust in her. Some students had an older sibling who identified as gay which made their coming out both easier and more difficult simultaneously.  Their parents had already worked through coming to terms with having a gay child, which put extra pressure on them to fulfill family expectations, but it was more difficult because those expectations changed when their family found out they were gay.   Supporting the family.  This college borderland served as place for students to access new economic opportunities.  Several studies (Carnevale, Jayasundera, & Cheah, 2012; Hout, gree provides greater economic earnings over  .  Students in this study believed that sentiment that a college degree would provide them more opportunities than their parents had.   Many, including Oscar, described going to college as an opportunity to have a better life than their parents, and this aspiration was often something their parents highly encouraged.   74 Oscar illustrates this phenomenon college and his own desire to get a degree: care if it's just one or two classes, I'm gonna try to help you as much as possible."  My whole dream is like I wanna go to a four-year university or go to a two year college and  Graduating college was important for all of the students in this study, which is similar to Pena-Talamantes (2011) research in which he found that graduating and succeeding academically was meant to compensate for what the students saw as their families disappointment in them being gay.  This strong desire to attend and graduate from college was encouraged by parents of the students in this study and was an intrinsic value of the participants.   With all of the studies citing low degree attainment for Latinos (Santiago, 2011) and especially Latino men (Vasquez, 2015), the participants in this study showed that they possess the desire for a college degree.  If degree attainment is to increase, schools need to look at polices and environments as the reason for lack of academic success for Latino students, rather than the students themselves.  The participants in this study provided a unique look at the academic aspiration of Latino students who also identified as gay.  Many of the students in this study discussed the desire to go away to college as an opportunity to get away from their family and explore their gay identity, whether implicitly stated or not.  Students in this study had motivation to attend and succeed in college not just for greater academic and professional opportunity but also what I would describe as social opportunities, such as the opportunity to get involved or gain knowledge of the LGBT community and explore relationships with other men.   75 From Borderland to Borderlands As described in Chapters 1, 2, and 3 a borderland is a third space of meaning-making where two or more worlds or worldviews come clashing together (Anzaldúa, 1987).  In this way borderland that is college, gay Latino students must learn to navigate a variety of other borderlands.  Borders define not just political boundaries but also groups from one another, and examples of borders for students in this study are those that separated them from their family and Latino culture and identity labels.   My view on the borderland or borderlands experienced by gay Latino students evolved through the course of this study.  To show my progression of thought I present my initial theoretical perspective followed by the new theoretical perspective.  I present this new theoretical perspective and then reintroduce it throughout the chapter with supporting evidence from student interviews.  This section will compare and contrast my initial and revised theoretical perspectives I used to understand the experiences of participants in this study. Initial Model: The Borderland In Chapter 1 I presented a theoretical model that shaped my design of this study.  That model (see Appendix CReconceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity (Abes, Jones, & McEwen, 2007)  initial thought was that the borderland between a student gay and Latino identities was the only borderland experienced by gay Latino men in college.  The embedding of these three theoretical perspectives within each other (Appendix C) resulted in unidirectional influence on students understanding of the borderland between their  76 gay and Latino identities.  This influence began at each of the environmental levels, which contained various factors that influenced how students viewed the relationship and intersection nd Latino identities became permeable as a result of these influences and resulted in a borderland.  This embedded model has since evolved into a model that has layered theoretical perspectives allowing perspectives to be integrated and allows for multi- rather than uni-directional influences amongst the various layers of the theoretical perspectives. Revised Model: The Borderlands The new model layers the theoretical perspectives on top of one another which shows how students experience multiple borderlands that permeate the various environmental levels, as I will show throughout this chapter using data from interviews.  This new model can be conceived as similar to a cross section of the planet earth (see Appendix D).  The earth has various environmental levels such as the crust, mantle, and core; similarly the students have different experiences at each of the environmental levels such as the micro, meso, and macrosystems that influence their experience.  At each of these various levels students can experience multiple borderlands such as the borderland between their home environment and college environment and the borderland between Latino and gay student populations on campus.  Students can experience a borderland such as the border between gay and Latino across multiple environmental levels at t. and also among various environmental levels.  At the microsystem students experience varying messages from their friends at school and their family about what it means to be both gay and Latino.  At the mesosytem level students navigate between student groups and campus  77 populations associated with their gay and Latino identities.  At the exosystem level students experience varying support and affirmation about their gay and Latino identities from their campus and home communities. As students do not have just one identity or a singular experience they do not experience only one borderland in college.  A borderlands perspective allowed me to show the various ways and interactions that I will present resulted in borderlands which students learned to navigate, leading to involvement and student engagement. Navigating the Borderlands Participants in this study negotiated the previously described borderlands they experienced in college in various ways.  In this section I present strategies participants used to navigate the borderlands they encountered at various environmental levels.  At times they used the same or similar strategies to negotiate borderlands at various environmental levels. Academics.  nderstanding of their gay and Latino identities came from interacting with other students, campus involvement, and also though experiences with course material and the academic environment.  Academics and the academic environment surfaced several times during the participant interviews.  Several students discussed how their academic coursework caused them to think more deeply about one or more other social identities.  This academic coursework allowed participants to begin to develop a more complex understanding of themselves and how the various borders between their gay and Latino identities bled together.  This identity exploration often came in the form of taking classes on Latino studies or being exposed to Latino scholars through their course readings.  As mentioned before, Alex began to understand and navigate the relationship between his gay and Latino identities after being  78 exposed to the work of Gloria Anzaldúa.  In addition to their coursework, students such as Omar found the academic environment outside the classroom one in which he felt welcomed and accepted.  Omar mentioned working at the art school at TRU and finding the environment to be very welcoming to him as a gay man; he mentioned seeing ally stickers on faculty members doors and to him that showed that the academic space was a place where he belonged. Latino studies courses.  Participants in the study mentioned experiences with academics, specifically Chicano and Latino studies courses, that gave them a deeper and more nuanced understanding of their Latino identity by introducing them to a broader scope of the Latino experience then they had been exposed to growing up.  Marcos shared,  was nice because the material was more attuned to our backgrounds than it would be just in a normal writing class or in a reading class for that matter.many participants began to construct their own notion of what it meant to be Latino.  Many mentioned being introduced to writers and scholars of Latino descent who actually wrote about experiences that resonated with them as a Latino.   Gaining a deeper understanding of one or more of their identities allowed participants to navigate the borderland between gay and Latino.  Academic experiences caused them to self-reflect on their notions of what it meant to be gay or Latino and what it meant to be both together.  This allowed participants such as Alex to see ways other individuals have integrated their gay and Latino identities. Involvement All of the students in this study mentioned to some degree the way their involvement outside of the classroom helped them in navigating their college environment.  For T this came from his involvement in his fraternity,   79 Learning from our older brothers, twould point us to the resources that we would need.  Or if somebody needed advocacy in terms of talking to a professor because they needed additional help in their class or whatever, they would know who to talk to and what people to call or the paperwork that it would take to get additional resources.   Learning to navigate campus came from meeting other students in student organizations, which helped mentor participants to be successful both academically and socially on campus.  This involvement ranged from identity-based groups such as Latino or LGBT student organizations, to the band, and even themed residence hall floors.   Several of the students discussed how their involvement exposed them to a variety of different people on campus.  Enrique illustrated this when talking about his involvement in the band,  In contrast, Christian described his life on campus before he started getting involvedt started out kind of awkward-ish.  I never really talked to anyone.  I would go to class, come home, and watch TV or do my homework, and then pretty much go to bed.  That was just my daily routine  For Marcos, who was coming back to college, becoming involved was important for him in order to be connected to individuals and his university outside of the classroom:  After I took the first year leave of absence I came back and I like to think that I came back as an adult.  I was like 20, 21.  I was trying to make new friends, actually get engaged with the campus as opposed to just going to class and leaving. LGBT and Latino student group involvement.  Several of the participants were involved with their campus LGBT or Latino student groups.  The participants discussed their  80 involvement not just as a way to connect to campus but also as a way to help current and future LGBT and/or Latino students.  Juan described his involvement with the LGBT student organization: I was involved heavily with the planning portion.  We planned a lot ofas a group, we all planned on the events that were gonna happen.  We had a lot of events that were social, so social hangouts, environmental.  We can create a safe space for individuals, and then we also provided a lot of educational programs, so we created safe zone training for allies, for people who wanted to become allies and know more about the community.   Involvement also provided some of the students an opportunity to explore their identity.  This happened for Enrique when he found himself as one of the only Latinos in a group, Latino for me it was interesting being able to kind of explore and sometimes be the sole representative of my community in some of these organizations.  He went on to explain how being involved at PPU helped him explore his identity because it was a different environment than the one he experienced at home: I wanted to explore my identity because I didn't have the opportunity to do so in high school.  That was something I felt like were enough resources there to be able to kind of do that.  I was fortunate enough that PPU has a lotta organizations, and they have a pretty solid resource center. Juan also explained how being involved with the LGBT student organization on his campus When I started off within the LGBT program continued:   81 within the lesbian community, the trans-community.  This was happening between intersex and I started learning more about that.  Then with my work right now with the masculinities I learned quite a good number of issues regarding people of color, regarding LGBT males, regarding transmales.  How that all comes into play, I learned a lot and I justice.  Just more empathy and more understanding. im to navigate the various borderlands he experienced in college: I seeked out various ways of getting in touch or being active.  One of the ways I did it was I was part of LGBT community program here on campus. While the college environment was new and different to Juan, his involvement with the LGBT community on his campus gave him a way to find a sense of belonging on campus.  This initiative to get involved by Juan shows self-participants seeking out involvement opportunities as a way to create a sense of belonging on campus which has been shown to be important to the success of students of color in college and also as a way to explore identity (Strayhorn, 2008).   All but one participant attended college with a large percentage of Latino students. In fact all but three universities attended by participants were classified as Hispanic Serving Institutions.  One could infer that having such a large Latino population would result in the LGBT community and LGBT student organizations being heavily Latino, which would make it easier for other Latinos, such as the student participants, to become involved. Several of the students such as  82 Enrique mentioned having a large number of Latino students involved in their campus LGBT group. Navigating involvement opportunities.  Some of the participants joined organizations on the encouragement of other students without doing much research on their own.  Students such as Enrique however, were very intentional about how they chose to get involved: When I started courses and everything and I got involved I did my research, I knew that I was just trying to slowly weave my way into the community.  I started with the uRAP [a weekly confidential discussion group from LGBT students] discussion groups that happened every week.  That was a great way to just meet other people.  Also the people that were involved were also involved with other organizations, were involved with the Student Assembly, were involved with the LGBT Resource Center. The way Enrique describes his involvement journey is similar to linear student development models.  His initial involvement was to meet other people but as time went on he began to take on more leadership opportunities and integrated himself more into both the LGBT student organizations and the LGBT resource center.  Several of the other students also described taking on leadership or other visible roles within the LGBT community.  It is similar to both ugeEnrique described his excitement in the opportunity he was afforded to interact with gay Latinos: There were other people who identified as Latino or as Chicanos or as Hispanic who also identified somewhere on the spectrum.  It was cool to be able to interact with them.  Then meeting people who weren't Latino, but also from the same class background and being able to communicate in that aspect.    83 It was because he found individuals similar to him that Enrique was able to navigate the various borderlands between his gay and Latino identities and even create opportunities to bridge these identities through educational programs. Gaining LGBT knowledge.  Involvement with LGBT student organizations or attending LGBT education programs helped participants gain knowledge about the LGBT community and their gay identity, as Christian said: transsexual, pansexual, metrosexuals.  Just so many different types of identities and stuff surreal, and I never realized it until actually going to get educated.   Many participants mentioned getting perspectives of the gay community before getting to college from their families.  For Alex, his mother often admonished him for doing things perceived as gay: am, but in a way I feel maybe she knew before I did.  . For some the perspective of family members was that being gay was unacceptable.  Alex shared how he could not be himself at home,  These perspectives usually derived from religious beliefs or cultural perceptions of masculinity, which LGBT individuals did not adhere to.  Through their involvement students met other gay Latinos and gained greater knowledge of the LGBT community beyond just understanding what gay or straight meant.  Omar dis  84 For a while, I had no idea what cis meant.  All these LGBT terms  were a thing until last year when it kind of started happening in conversation, and I had to na lead in the wrong direction. Through involvement in LGBT student organizations participants learned to navigate the borderlands between being gay and Latino.  In addition, participants learned how to navigate the borderlands between the various messages they were receiving about being gay from their families and college environments. Navigating the fraternal experience.  One involvement opportunity that came up regularly for several of the students in this study was their involvement in Latino fraternities.  An unexpected outcome of this study was that seven of the 10 participants are members of Latino fraternities.  This study provides a look into the experiences of gay members in Latino fraternities.  It also expands on the cannon of research on college fraternities and sororities.   Much of this research is focused on the hazing and other negative effects of fraternity and sorority membership.  There are even fewer studies that explore the experience of members of Latino fraternities (Guardia & Evans, 2008).  While the experiences of gay members of fraternities and sororities have been explored (Case, Hesp, & Eberly, 2005) much of that research has predominantly focused on the experience of White members of fraternities that have had historically White membership.  This study provides a look into an environment that literature would show as hostile to gay individuals due to hypermasculinity and a strong connection to Latino notions of masculinity (Rodriguez, 2009).    85 Fraternities are often seen as social support systems, which they were for many of the students in this study.  T described how his fraternity was both a social and academic support system: When I started going to Southwest University, I started getting involved right away with the fraternity brothers.  I started making new friends and a bunch of them at one time, which was a huge, different experience for me.  I learned so much about myself.  Also, I SU, in terms of bureaucracy and how to get funding, scholarships, networking.  Yeah, it helped me all around.   It is important also to mention that several students in this study reiterated what T said about their fraternity serving as their gateway to getting involved on campus in other organizations and programs.  This promotion of involvement outside the chapter runs counter to the argument that fraternities are insular organizations and that they perpetuate in-group behaviors and beliefs (Syrett, 2009).  More specifically fraternities are seen as places that insulate and magnify hypermasculine behavior and are not welcoming to individuals who do not conform to group norms, such as gay individuals (Syrett, 2009).   Many students feared they would not be accepted if their fraternity knew they were gay, however their various chapter reactions run counter to that and instead served as a support system. Omar said: I would say they were my support system in terms of that family connection.  We would encourage each other to study together and take breaks together, play together.  That kept us in balancdifferentto take care of our different needs.  I think that just helped a lot.  86 The fraternity as a support system manifested in different ways for the various students.  Omar said,   Omar described the fraternity as a safe place, not just where he felt accepted but a place where he knew there were other individuals who would advocate for him if there was ever a situation where he was targeted because of his sexual orientation.  Christian discussed how being in a Latino fraternity meant he was never alone, there for me when I need them that just gives me that security that I'm never going to fully ever   This quote illustrates how being a member of fraternity helps gay Latino belong because of their sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, or both. In addition to being a support system for many of the students, the fraternity provided a group of Latino men who accepted them and showed them that their being gay was ok and welcomed by members of the Latino community.  As Eddie said,  The fraternity helped participants form a close community among other Latino men.  The camaraderie of brothers is an illustration of what Richard T. Rodriguez referred to as carnales. While in his work Rodriguez (2009) described carnales or carnalismo as creating a family or brotherhood among gay Latino men.  Carnales is similar to the experience of participants in creating their famila of other Latino men that provide them a Latino space with their gay identity was accepted.  This creation of family is important as it serves as a counter if biological family has not been accepting of them being gay.  Since the students could find no or only partial acceptance from their family, they created their own family with their fraternity  87 members.  Alex described the welcoming environment he found within his fraternity and also the resistance he faced:  the biggest struggle sometimes, when dealing withat least in terms of my fraternity, some brothers just being close-minded to the sexual part of it and being Latino.  Cause automatically go into machismo, very dominant, very possessive.  When you think Latino, you think machismo, you think just very sexist in a way, very strong. While participants did find a place of support they also found perceived or actual resistance from some members regarding their sexual orientation.  So while many participants did find support and acceptance from their fraternity brothers it is important to note that the experience may not be universal and that gay members may not always be welcomed into Latino fraternities with open arms.  While that was the case for many of the members of this study, out that they are still portions of the fraternity members who are not ready to fully embrace and accept a gay member.   Conclusion  College is a complex environment where participants experienced a number of borderlands because of the various worlds and identities that came crashing together.  Participants in this study discussed the challenges of living in these borderlands.  Experiencing these borderlands also helped participants become involved and develop support systems within their colleges and universities and assisted in developing resilience.  88  There are many ways in which participants navigated the borderlands they experienced in college.  The primary way for navigating these borderlands was through involvement on campus.  Students gained knowledge of their gay and Latino identities through involvement in Latino- and LGBT-focused organizations.  Students also came to better understand their identities through academic course work.  In addition to identity-based organization involvement, seven participants were members of Latino fraternities and discussed how their membership led to various levels of self-acceptance as a gay Latino.    Participants in this study experienced multiple borderlands in college and these borderlands can transcend multiple environmental levels.  In order to navigate these various borderlands students used a variety of methods such as involvement on campus or engagement in academics.  Navigating these borderlands assisted participants in gaining skills or experiences that helped them in being successful in college and beyond.  Based on these findings, I revised the original model upon which I based this study to incorporate the concepts of multiple borderlands existing at and across multiple environmental levels (see Appendix D).  As stated earlier, just as student do not have just one social identity, they also do not experience just one borderland.  Through navigating multiple borderlands students learned more about their gay and Latino identities and found ways to connect with their colleges.     89 CHAPTER 5 Discussion and Recommendations In this chapter I will present implications and recommendations for future research and practice based on this study of the experiences of 10 gay Latino men who attend or attended college in the southwestern United States.  The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of gay Latino men and the barriers and opportunities they encounter in college.  Through the 20 interviews with participants two themes emerged: (a) gay Latino men experience various borderlands during their college career, and (b) students employ strategies to navigate these borderlands.  Examples of borderlands experiences are those between participants gay and Latino identities and between home and school.  Participants navigated these borderlands through involvement and academic engagement. After summarizing the study, I divide this chapter is divided into three areas: practice, research, and theory.  In the research section, I will argue the need to expand research in the following areas: Gay Latino college students, Latino students at Hispanic Serving Institutions, experience.  In the practice section I will explore ways for collaboration between cultural centers, multicultural affairs and LGBT centers, and organizations in support of gay Latino students and how to engage family members in creating support systems.  Finally, in the theory section I will explore ways Borderlands Theory can be used within higher education, as well as expand on layered theoretical perspectives.   The recommendation made in this chapter are based on the two research questions this study sought to answer:  90 1. How do gay Latino male students experience the borderland of their gay and Latino identities? 2. What barriers and supports do gay Latino students experience because of this borderland? To answer these questions each of the ten participants were interviewed twice to gain an understanding of their experiences in college. All of the interviews where coded for both emergent themes and experiences that pointed toward barriers or supports participants encountered in college.   This study showed that students encountered a number or borderlands throughout their college experience between identities, cultures and worlds. These borderlands at times were barriers for students as they found some difficult to navigate such as the borderlands between their home and college lives. In order to overcome these barriers student found several ways to navigate these borderlands through campus involvement and academics.  Practice Student affairs is often criticized for being siloed, because it is organizationally isolated from other parts of the university.  To compound this phenomenon, student affairs is sometimes internally siloed amongst its various functional areas such as Greek Life and Housing.  This study further illuminated the fact that students do not operate in silos.  Their identities are fluid and intertwined, and they do not seek out just one office, program, or organization for support.  They craft support systems by utilizing combinations of these services and groups.  As such, this section will give recommendations on how institutions can create programs and services to support student with multiple marginalized identities.  In addition to programs and services, I recommend creating spaces for students to self-organize and create their own spaces and support  91 systems.  Not all support systems discussed by participants were internal to the institutions.  One of the primary support systems discussed by participants was their families.  As such I will give recommendations for ways in which college and universities can engage parents to support gay Latino students.  Engaging families is a crucial recommendation, because all of the participants discussed the importance of their families in their life regardless of how accepting they were of their sexual orientation.    While institutions may compartmentalize support for various marginalized identities, such as Latino Cultural centers and LGBT centers, students do not see their identities as separate and are often looking for places where all their identities are welcomed and accepted, not just one.  This is not to say that students do not feel accepted in identity-specific spaces.  In fact, I found participants in this study were able to identify specific spaces that were welcoming to both their gay and Latino identities, and it is important to insure that this kind of acceptance happens at all institutions.  It is important to preface that this set of recommendations is not meant to undermine the importance of identity-based centers on a college campus or say they are no longer necessary.  In fact, the opposite is true as participants pointed to identity-based centers as examples of institutional support and acceptance regardless of their involvement in programs or services provided by these centers.  Identity-based centers can show they are a welcoming and accepting place by promoting events or creating affiliated organizations for students with multiple and intersecting marginalized identities.  Participants in this study often spoke of how affirmed they felt when they knew of or attended an event that was cosponsored by the two identity-based centers with which they most closely identified.  Examples were social events, speakers, or other educational programs focused on gay Latinos.  Some of the students, such as Enrique and Juan, discussed  92 helping develop joint programs themselves.  Strong collaborations between identity-based organizations, programs, and offices allowed participants to move amongst them depending on their involvement needs. Enrique discussed being involved with the Latino interest residential floor because he wanted a sense of community, but he also sought out involvement in the Queer and Allied Student Union in order to gain a different experience.  From that involvement he was able to take on leadership roles and ended up getting a job at the LGBT center.  Enrique used his positon as a leader within the LGBT community to advocate for new program between the LGBT and Latino student groups on campus.  He said that he knew not all of the gay Latino students on campus would come to the event.  What was more important to this student was that the visibility of these events would allow students who are struggling with the intersection of these identities to see that there are other gay Latinos on campus-based centers and groups do not always have to be the one leading the charge to create programs.  Students themselves can be the ones to create new programs and events, however they will need the support of student affairs staff in showing that collaborative events are welcome.   These types of collaborative events are important as it helps to combat what I term as compartmentalization happened when participants felt that one or more of the identity groups or centers were so narrowly focused that there was no space for them within either of the groups or programs.  This identity compartmentalization was described by Marcos in his discussion of the Latino student group on his campus that basically told students they were not brown enough to be members.  This identity compartmentalization can be alleviated or avoided if student groups can be welcoming to a broad spectrum of ways students enact their social identities rather than a narrowly focused one.    93  Identity-based organizations, programs, and offices serve as strong support systems for gay Latino students on campus.  Their continued or new collaboration helps ensure students can find places where they can explore their identities, feel connected, and find assistance with learning how to navigate the campus environment.  Student affairs practitioners who work in identity-based centers should be both intentional and visible with their collaborative efforts to support gay Latino students.  Even when students do not utilize these programs, seeing publicity fliers and receiving invitations on social media sends strong message that it is ok to be both gay and Latino and that gay Latinos are welcome on campus Family Connection  It became clear during this study that family was central to gay Latino student experiences both before they got to college as well as while they were attending.  Families helped shape participants definitions of what it means to be a man, and also sent very strong messages about the acceptability of being gay.  Even though students went away to college, the institution they attended was often in close proximity to their family so they still maintained a strong connection to their families while  Because of these family connections, this section will present recommendations for colleges and universities to engage the families of gay Latino students in order to help families better understand ways they can support their student.   Parent and family engagement is a growing area in student affairs. Colleges and universities are creating parent organizations as well as offices that serve as landing pads for parents. This may be a result of the trend of the over-be engaged in every part of their stude college career. The current design for parent engagement may not be suitable for families of gay Latino students, but this is not because  94 expectations for their children  but they may not know how to engage with the university or support their student with the demands of college.  Colleges and universities can be more intentional about engaging the families of Latino students in a number of ways.  They can provide informational in-person sessions at orientation to help inform families of the resources available to their students.  Like programming on campus for students, parents need to feel welcome in order to connect with the university to help support their student.  For this reason programs must be available in both English and Spanish, as English may not be the primary language spoken at home.  In addition, colleges and universities could send home similar information in both print and electronic material in case internet access is not available.   Beside the broad outreach and engagement of Latino students families, identity centers could do targeted outreach to families of gay Latino students to help families understand what their student is going through.  This can be challenging if those working at the center do not understand the cultural nuances which dictate how LGBT individuals are regarded in the Latino community.  Additionally, language barriers may complicate this communication making both the parents and those reaching out feel frustrated and misunderstood.  This is where a collaborative partnership between LGBT and Latino centers would be helpful.  An LGBT center could provide the content knowledge for supporting their gay student while the Latino center could help make sure the information is culturally relevant and available in the appropriate language.  Another valuable collaboration between the two centers would be to identify a Latino  95 staff member parents could contact if they had questions or wanted more information, as the messaging to families would be most effective coming from another Latino.  In addition to generating this content on their own, those working in identity-based centers could create a peer-to-peer parent program which would allow parents of gay Latino students to connect with one another.  This peer connection would allow the families of gay Latino students to educate each other on how they navigated their student being gay and how they have supported their student.  The goal is to give families multiple places for them to learn more about what their student is experiencing.  For many of these Latino families this may be the first time they have been confronted with someone close to them being gay, so having support from peers would be valuable.   Families are important parts of a  and I recommend that student affairs professionals capitalize upon this close connection to assist gay Latino students in the process of exploring the intersection of their gay and Latino identities.  Parent and family engagement is still an emerging area of student affairs.  Because of this, like the ones attended by participants in this study, can serve as models for Latino parent engagement for other institutions. Research This study grew out of not seeing my experiences or identities reflected in higher education research.  Through this study I sought to help grow the almost nonexistent literature about gay Latino college students.  As this was one of the first studies of its kind there was little research to build on.  As the Latino college population grows so must the research pertaining to this population.  While current research trajectories focus on access and persistence for Latino students, existing research does not attend to the diversity within Latino college student  96 experiences.  Gay Latino students are an important population to study as they help researchers understand students who have multiple marginalized identities. LGBT Latinos This study was focused on the experience of gay Latino men, which is just one piece of the LGBT spectrum.  Future directions for research should explore the experiences of lesbian Latinas and the ways gender adds another layer of complexity to the experiences of LGBT Latino students.  In addition, the emerging work exploring trans students college experiences can be expanded to explore the ways in which race also plays a role in their college experience.   Finally, one additional future direction for research is the experience of undocuqueer students (Muñoz, 2015).  One student in this study, T, mentioned several similarities between his experiences as a gay man and as someone who is undocumented.  He mentioned in his interview that he came out twice - once as gay and once again as an undocumented individual.  Undocuqueer student experiences are already starting to gain some traction with work of researchers such as Susana Muñoz (2015) whose research looks at the coming out process for undocumented students.  She uses the coming out process for gay individuals as a way to understand how and why undocumented students choose to disclose their undocumented status.  This line of inquiry is important because many leaders in the current undocumented student movement also identify as members of the LGBT community (Muñoz).  This leadership from LGBT individuals within the undocumented student movement (which is mainly comprised of Latino students) stands in stark contrast to the broader Latino community which is not always seen as welcoming to LGBT individuals.  Future research could explore the intersection between students undocumented and gay identities.  97 Further studies of the experiences of gay Latinos in college expands knowledge of LGBT students in higher education.  Studying LGBT individuals from other racial and ethnic groups can help give more breadth to understanding how LGBT students experience college and how to support them, as many theories and services are based on serving the needs of primarily White gay cisgender men.  This focus on white gay men is evidenced in Chapter 2 in the discussion of primarily gay White men.  In this study some students including Enrique and Juan engaged in  process of Entering a lesbian/gay/bisexual community, while others such as Eddie and Oscar did not.  Future studies may seek to validate or invalidate current models of LGBT development for Latino individuals or individuals from other diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.  New models that result from future research may be able to explain the way in which students navigate multiple marginalized identities in the college environment better. Identities and Learning Outcomes This study was focused on participants experiences in college and how they navigated the borderlands they experienced in college.  Future studies could layer intersectionality with the theories used in this study to examine the ways that multiple overlapping systems of power and oppression affect college outcomes.  This study asked participants about their success and challenges in college.  Participants like Juan cited his campus involvement as a success for him.  The exploratory nature this study serves as groundwork for future scholarship.   To expand this research I would like to explore if there are links between navigating borderlands and college and university outcomes.  Higher education institutions are developing learning outcomes which shows a growing concern beyond traditional measures of retention and graduation.  However very few studies examine the ways in which social identities influence  98 student learning outcomes.  This study showed the ways students social identities influenced what they chose to be involved with.  Future studies using intersectionality could help illuminate the ways systems of power within the university and more broadly affect outcomes and the ways in colleges and universities can work to dismantle these systems.  Using a layered approach like the one presented in the theoretical perspective in Chapter 4 can serve as a basis for exploring how systems of power and privilege manifest and the various environmental levels influence a  Latinos at Hispanic Serving Institutions  This study included some unexpected demographics in addition to the uniform participant sample characteristics of self-identifying as gay, Latino, and attending college in the southwestern United States.  One of these demographics that applied to seven of the participants was that they attended a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).  An HSI must have a Hispanic enrollment of at least 25 % of the total undergraduate full-time enrollment (United States Department of Education, 2011).  As the number of HSIs grows, there is a need to study the experiences of Latino students at these institutions.   Future studies of student experiences within the HSI context can hopefully shed light on the effect of attending an institution with students from similar racial and ethnic backgrounds on Latino students experiences in college.  Some cogent inquires include: Does having a higher Latino student population result in a greater sense of belonging for Latino students? Does this higher population result in more university-created systems of support? In addition, how does this increase in population affect services and groups that support the LGBT population on campus as LGBT student services are often seen as primarily focused on serving the needs of White gay men students.    99 This study showed that many of the participants found LGBT student services and LGBT student organizations to be welcoming and supportive for them as Latino students.  However, it was outside of the scope of this study to examine why LGBT student spaces were so affirming.  Remaining questions include: Was this a result of having such a large Latino student population?  Were these spaces inherently Latino or was it the result of intentional efforts by staff and students to ensure students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds felt accepted?  While this research was carried out at four-year institutions, there are a large number of two-year HSIs (Hispanic Association, n.d.).  The two-year context is often overlooked in higher education research, making it necessary for future research on gay Latinos to be carried out in this setting.  Research conducted at two-year institutions could vary greatly from this study and many of the support systems that participants in this study listed are available or only available at a small number of two-year institutions.  Examples of these support systems are LGBT resource centers and social fraternities.  In addition, students attending a two-year college may live at home (McGlynn, 2004).  Living at home may heighten the strong familial relationships of Latino students, as discussed in Chapter 4.  As the Latino populations grows so will the number of HSIs.  As HSIs are growing, research on the experiences of Latino students who attend HSIs could provide valuable insight for current and emerging HSIs.  Growing the literature on Latino student experiences at HSIs can help to provide more information on increasing the college attainment pipeline for Latino students.  100 Latino Fraternal Experience   Just as there has been growth in the number of HSIs in the United States so has the number of Latino-based fraternities have grown as well (Muñoz & Guardia 2009).  Latino fraternities primarily started in the late 1970s by Latino students who wanted to create spaces for Latino empowerment.  Participation in Latino fraternities has grown since their founding and now are present most college campuses (Muñoz & Guardia 2009).  However, research on the Latino fraternal experience is sparse.  Much of the current research on fraternities and sororities primarily focuses on positive and negative outcomes associated with fraternity membership within historically white organizations (Biddix et al., 2014; Pike, 2000, 2003; Sher, Bartholow, & Nanda, 2001).  Studies that use multiple campuses or national data often treat fraternity membership as homogenous, and rarely examine the experiences of members of Latino fraternities to examine differences and similarities between Latino and other types of fraternities (Biddix et al., 2014).  There are a growing number of studies on the Latino fraternal experience such as Guardia sorority involvement on Latino students transition to and success in college.  These studies have explored ethnic identity development of Latino members of Latino fraternities and the effect of membership on Latino student transition and success.  Along with these studies, this dissertation study identified Latino fraternities as a strong support system for Latino students.  Future research should analyze ways in which Latino fraternities serve as support systems for their members.  As evidenced in this study, many of the fraternity members, such as T, discussed the ways in which their fraternity membership influenced their success in college.  In addition, future  101 research should examine in what ways Latino fraternities may negatively influence their members in order to provide suggestions for improving the Latino fraternal experience.  Alex briefly mentioned his negative experiences with his fraternity.  This study only scratched the surface of the experience of gay members in Latino fraternities.  Because this study was composed of participants who are all men, future studies should explore the experiences of lesbian members of Latina sororities to see if experiences are similar or different, gender identity, but Latino culture has strong constructs of what it means to be a man or woman (Rodríguez, 2009), therefore more work should be done to explore the ways non-binary students navigate the Latino fraternal experience.  A Latino fraternity provides a unique environment in which cultural norms and expectations around gender are compounded by the fact that fraternities and sororities are single-gender organizations.  This study provided a fairly positive fraternities are affirming spaces all the time. The Role of the Environment  There have been studies of students attending college in a variety of geographical settings such as rural or urban environments.  The geographic setting of this study included an entire region of the country containing several states.  I believe there is value in exploring the ways in which the geopolitical climate as well as population influenced All of the institutions in this study were located in states with high Latino populations.  These states had a variety of geopolitical climates ranging from the liberal bastion of California that has had long-standing support for LGBT individuals, to the conservative stronghold of Texas where  102 protections for LGBT individuals are being rolled back.  This study showed how regional population and geopolitical climate   All of the participants discussed coming from a Latino community close to their college or university.  Once they went to college most of the participants also found a large Latino population at their institution.  There were similarities and differences among the two communities.  Future research should do a comparison between home community and school community to examine ways in which students navigate the borderlands between their home and campus communities.  This study primarily examined different beliefs and perspectives on LGBT individuals of these two communities.  Future studies could expand examining ways different cultural practices of the two communities are navigated by students and if the difference in cultural beliefs and practices influences a students college experience.   Future studies could explore ways in which institutions have successfully partnered and engaged with Latino communities not only to help ease transitions to college, but also how they ease students transitions back in to their families while enrolled and after they graduate.  Oscar and Alex both talked about the new experiences they had in college, especially around exploring their gay identity and how that made it difficult at times to interact with their families and their home environment.  There are several studies that explore Latino students transition to college (Hernandez, 2002; Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Lopez; 2005; Nuñez, 2009), but what happens when a Latino returns home after college?  Participants in this study were mostly currently enrolled in college, had new experiences, and were exposed to new ideas.  Many participants then return to their former environments after experiencing the borderlands between home and college, while living at or near college.  The movement of participants between home and college lead me to  103 wonder, how do students negotiate those experiences in college when they move back to their home community?  Theory   Theories used in isolation limit my ability as a researcher to gain a full understanding of the topic and question I am studying.  Using just one theory only provides a limited view with which to study a topic.  With each new theory used in research I add another perspective with which to view my research.  For this study multiple theories were needed to explore the complesection will explore the use of theories beginning with those which originate in other disciplines, specifically Borderlands Theory within higher education.   Borderlands Theory  This study utilized Borderlands Theory to examine the ways in which students made sense of the intersection of their gay and Latino identities.  Borderlands Theory is not a developmental theory but rather provides researchers an epistemological perspective for understanding the intersection of identities and the ways in which students makes sense of those intersections.  Abes (2009) described using a Borderlands Theory to approach student development theory similar to how I explored the way in which students navigate intersecting identities: exploring how students experience each identity separately and also together.  Future research that seeks to explore the experiences of students with intersecting identities or the intersection of various worlds could benefit from the use of Borderlands Theory.  Examples include exploring the experiences of other gay students of color who are trying to navigate their gay and racial/ethnic identity and international students who are trying to navigate their home culture and the cultures they experience on college campus in the United States.  104  Borderlands Theory also provided me the opportunity to explore the ways in which two different worlds come together.  For students in this study those worlds were often their gay and Latino identities and their home and college life.  Students like Marcos mentioned how they could not separate their gay and Latino identities.  This project serves as groundwork for incorporating a borderlands perspective in conducting research with students with multiple and intersecting identities.  Borderlands Theory could easily be adopted to explore the experiences of other gay students of color, as gay individuals from other racial/ethnic groups may also be trying to understand how their various identities intersect and relate to one another.  In addition, this study used borderlands to examine how students navigate family and home culture and expectations while experiencing a different environment in college.   Borderlands Theory is based on the experiences of Gloria Anzaldúa (1999) growing up along the U.S.-Mexico border.  Within this study three of the participants lived and attended school in what would be considered a geographical borderland.  More research is needed to explore the ways in which living and attending college in the borderland influences experience.  Living on the border provided these participants a unique cultural and geographic context that few students get to experience.   Layering Theory This study builds of the work Abes (2009) and her idea of theoretical borderlands.  This study does not mesh theories in the same way Abes describes in her article, but rather layers them.  In layering theories this study shows how Borderlands Theory can be used in conjunction with other theories to explore students experiences as a theoretical perspective.  I layer Borderlands Theory with an Ecological perspective and in doing so superimpose different lenses on top of each other to explain how an individual experiences the world.  This influence of  105 various environmental levels is illustrated by the ways in in which students such as Enrique described exploring the borderlands of their gay and Latino identities on several different environmental levels.  Enrique described how his view of his identity changed and how the change influenced what he was involved in and the way he experienced his home versus college environments.  There is much opportunity for future research to incorporate borderlands, whether they be physical, metaphysical or theoretical.  Examples of topics that could benefit from using a layered approach are academic  These borderlands do not exist in a vacuum; they happen within a specific place and time.  ) Ecological Model with Borderlands Theory.  experience in the borderlands within the environmental contexts on campus and home communities as well as in a specific state: California, New Mexico and Texas.  The layering of Borderlands Theory and an Ecological perspective assisted me in understanding that just one  Using just an Ecological perspective would have shown me various pieces of environmental levels that influenced the participants experiences in college, but would not have examined how those various pieces, such as campus involvement, campus, and home experiences interact with one another to shape student experiences.  In contrast, just using Borderlands Theory would have provided an in-depth look at how students understood and enacted the intersection of their gay and Latino identities, but I would not have seen how that borderland shaped participants experiences or what additional borderlands they experienced.  Instead this study showed how an Ecological perspective and Borderlands Theory are  106 complimentary theories that can be used in conjunction with one another to explore the experiences of LGBT student of color and possibly other students with multiple identities.  In addition, Ecological theory can be layered with Latino identity development theory such as Fredman and Galleos (2012) to explore what environmental factors cause a student to associate with one orientation rather than another.  In this study, the various environmental levels influenced the participants to varying degrees.  If the various environmental levels such as the family, students on the participants campus, and the current political and cultural climate were not examined, there may have been important parts of the participant experience left out of this study.  Future qualitative studies that seek to understand the relationship between the various environmental levels and that touch on each environmental level.  Meaningful incorporation of BronfenbrennerEcological Model into future research will help to coenvironmental influences.  By connecting environmental influences to experiences, future -Environment-Outcome Model and add complexity to each piece: the student (input), the various environmental levels (environment), and the resulting student experience in college (outcome). In addition to helping understand the complex experiences of gay Latino men in higher education, layering theories gave me a partial map to ground my understanding of a topic for which there exists a dearth of research.  Because of the limited availability of research on my topic, using a layered approach to theories and my theoretical framework assisted me in expanding my questions and study beyond looking at identity development.  Because of this I was able to view the ways in which students constructed their college experience and how the  107 various factors in the college environment influenced their experience.  Layering Borderlands and Ecology theories expanded each beyond what they are capable of explaining by themselves. The Role of Time Researchers who focus on college students often represent the setting in which I am studying students as a monolithic one, and this should be avoided.  Through the use of Bronfenbrenner Ecological Model (1977) researchers can think about the various levels of the  I paid especially close attention to was the Chronosystem, the current time in which the student is living and experiencing college.  While I as a researcher identify as both gay and Latino, the participants in this study are attending or attended college in a different political and social climate then I did.  In this way while the participants and I may have experienced similar micro and mesosytems in college, when I move out to the Chronosystem, we attended college at different points in history.  Though we may have attended college relatively near each other, there may have been, as discussed, different political and cultural events that have taken place. Conclusion  This study explored the experiences of gay Latino men in college.  The findings from this study illuminate not just the borderlands faced by the 10 participants but also the ways in which they navigated these borderlands.  Despite the challenges faced by participants most described their experiences in college as positive ones.  Despite the perceived negative environment for gay Latino students, participants in this study where thriving.    This thriving came from navigating multiple borderlands during their college experience.  Trying to negotiate two or more identities or worlds is not an easy thing, but learning to navigate  108 these borderlands through various involvement and engagement opportunities allowed participants to connect to various parts of the university and provided them with the academic and social capital to succeed in college.    In order to assist other gay Latino students in college institutions should seek to create or streamline identity-based services and programs so that they are flexible and accepting to students with multiple salient social identities.  In addition, institutions should engage parents and families to help students in exploring and understanding the intersections between their gay and Latino identities.  Whether or not gay Latino students use institutional supports, just having these programs sends a strong message that gay Latino students are welcome on campus and they can be successful.    Gay Latino students should not be asked to choose one identity over another or one environment over another, they should be able to choose both/and.  This study lays the groundwork for further exploration about how gay Latinos navigate the borderlands between different identities and worlds.  The borderlands experienced by gay Latino students are ever-changing and they do not need to parse themselves out between their various identities and worlds, rather they can be whole in all those spaces. 109  APPENDICES 110 Appendix A  Reconceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity (RMMDI) Figure 1 Reconceptualized Model of Multiple Dimensions of Identity     Abes, E. S., Jones, S. R., & McEwen, M. K. (2007). Reconceptualizing the model of multiple dimensions of identity: The role of meaning-making capacity in the construction of multiple identities. Journal of College Student Development, 48(1), 1-22.      111 Appendix B  Ecological Theory Figure 2     Bronfenbrenner, U. (1993). The ecology of cognitive development: Research models fugitive findings. In R. H. Wozniak & K. W. Fischer (Eds.), Development in context: Acting and thinking in specific environments (pp. 3-44). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.  112  Appendix C  Embedded Theoretical Framework Figure 3 Embedded Theoretical Framework     113 Appendix D  Reconceptualized Theoretical Model Figure 4 Reconceptualized Theoretical Model    114 Appendix E  Recruitment Email Dear Student,  You are invited to participate in a study exploring the experiences of gay Latino male undergraduates in higher education, in California. This study will also explore the ways institutions create barriers to and support for gay Latino students. Participation in the study will consist of a writing a short narrative response to a prompt and completing two 60 minute interviews.  If chosen for to participate you will receive $20 in Amazon gift cards (in increments of $10 after completing each interview).  This research is being conducted by Trace Camacho a doctoral candidate at Michigan State University under the supervision of Dr. Kristin Renn as part of his dissertation research.  This research has been approved by Michigan (Application i046005).  To participate in this study please use the following link to provide contact and demographic information: https://msucoe.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_d4Ksn3textpBRPv  If you have any concerns questions regarding this study you may contact the researcher: Trace Camacho at : camacho3@msu.edu  Thank you for your time.  115 Appendix F  Participant Consent Form for Study The Experiences of Gay Latino Male College Students Dear Participant: The purpose of this study is to study the experiences of Gay Latino College Students. Your participation will help better inform practice to support gay Latino students in higher education. This is an invitation to participate in two 60-minute interviews and narrative response. Data analysis will follow standard qualitative procedures and will be conducted by Trace Camacho under the supervision of Dr. Kristin Renn. Participants will be assigned pseudonyms prior to analysis, and all identifying information will be removed from transcripts prior to analysis.  Your participation is completely voluntary and you may withdraw at any time, with no penalty for doing so. However, if you are under the age of 18, you cannot participate in this study. You can choose not to participate at all, or not answer some or all of the questions. There are no foreseeable risks associated with participation in this study. The interviews will be audio recorded. If this is an issue, you can choose to not participate in the interview. If you agree that I may do so, you can request at any time that I turn off the recorder. Digital recordings will be kept in a secure location until three years after this study is completed, at which time they will be erased. The information form, on which you indicate your name, contact information, and chosen pseudonym, will be maintained by the researchers in a secure location, until three years after the end of the study, when it will be destroyed. The information form will be kept in a separate secure location than that of the digital recording.  Your identity will remain confidential in all transcribing, analyzing, and reporting of data. Because this study involves face-to-face interviews, I cannot provide anonymity to participants. However, your confidentiality will be protected to the maximum extent allowable by law. I will use a pseudonym of your choice in transcribing, analyzing, and reporting data.  It is possible that you may become uncomfortable discussing your experiences. I remind you that you may, at any time and without penalty, elect not to answer a question or terminate the interview.  Please indicate on the information form if you would like me to provide you with a copy of the findings of the study, a bibliography of resources for further reading on the topic, or both. If you have any concerns or questions regarding your rights as a study participant, or are dissatisfied at any time with any aspect of this study, you may contact the researcher: Trace Camacho, 517-599-7263, camacho3@msu.edu, or my faculty member Dr. Kristin Renn, Professor of higher, Adult, & Lifelong Education, 425 Erickson Hall, Michigan State University, by phone: 157-3535979, or email: renn@msu.edu. If you have questions or concerns about your role and rights as a research participant, would like to obtain information or offer input, or would like to register a complaint about this study, you may contact, anonymously if you wish, the Michigan State University's Human Research Protection Program at 517-355-2180, Fax 517-432-4503, or e-mail irb@msu.edu or regular mail  116 at: Human Research Protection Program, Michigan States University, 408 West Circle Drive Room 207 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824. A compensation if chosen participate in this study participants will receive $20 in Amazon gift cards, in increments of $10 after completing each interview.  By continuing with this research interview is your voluntary consent to participate.  117 Appendix G  Interview Protocol Interviewer READ THIS: Thank you for agreeing to participate in this study and making time at the conference to meet with me.  I am Trace Camacho and I am a second year doctoral student in the Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education program at MSU.  Before we begin, I want to be sure that you understand your rights as a participant in this study.  Here is a copy of the information form for the study.  Please read it and let me know if you have any questions before we begin.   I asked you for your preferred pseudonym when you signed up for the interview.  You said [pseudonym here].  I want you to know that if you use other real names of people or places or your institution during the interview I will also change these when we transcribe the interview, and I will only report the data in ways that cannot be linked back to you or your institution.  TURN ON THE RECORDER.    Interview questions: 1. Tell me about yourself? 2. Tell me about your experiences in college? 3. Tell me about your experience as a Latino on campus? 4. Tell me about your experience as a gay man on campus? 5. In what ways to you see relationships across these identities? a. Follow up-How did you come to make sense of the intersection of your gay and Latino identities? 6. What challenges have you faced as a gay Latino Man? a. How have you overcome these challenges? b. Where do you find support in overcoming these challenges? 7. Are there spaces (physical spaces, groups of people organizations, programs) on campus where your gay identity is more salient?  Your Latino identity? 8. Are there spaces (physical spaces, groups of people organizations, programs) on campus where you feel your gay and Latino identities are accepted? 9. Do you express your gay or Latino identity differently when you are at college versus when you go home? 10. Tell me about your relationship with faculty? a. Family b. Friends c. Other Students 11. What would college be like for you if were a heterosexual Latino? a. A White gay man? b. A White heterosexual man? 12. 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