Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 3 - 61

Freedom Dreaming
. . . freedom dreaming . . . involves visualizing a new world
that centers and celebrates the lived experiences of marginalized
populations. This demands a level of critical transformation
that requires dismantling and challenging old racist paradigms
in order to build toward a new reality.
Latinx culture is not monolithic, and liberation creates space for diverse realities
and experiences. This article utilizes the language of current structures of oppression,
such as racism, to better understand what is being deconstructed and what needs to be
built. I acknowledge the tensions that exist across and within racial categories. For example,
disagreement persists about the use of Latinx over Latina/o, Latine, or Hispanic.
I chose to employ the term Latinx as it is inclusive of those who identify as transgender,
non-binary, and gender non-conforming and encompasses those whom the U.S. government
classifies as Cuban, Mexican, Chicanx, Puerto Rican, Central or South American,
or someone from any other Spanish-speaking language or culture (United States
Census Bureau, 2022). As Tatum (2017) noted, racialized language and classifications
are imperfect because they are born from a social construction of race.
I present my own understanding and interpretation of the word home and do not
intend to speak on behalf of all Latinx experiences. Conceptual frameworks such as
the culture of wealth and familismo, understood as Latinx assets, allow for better comprehension
and amelioration of experiences that Latinx students encounter on college
and university campuses. Just as the Latinx culture is not monolithic, neither are
the individual experiences of Latinx students. Social constructions of race, language,
and racial classifications are experienced differently in terms of social location (Kirk &
Okazawa-Rey, 2013), which means that Latinx students who do not speak Spanish, who
are light-skinned or passing, or who identify as White Latinx or Afro-Latinx might experience
the intersections of race and other social identities differently. However, one
unifying experience of Latinx students may be the strengths and assets that Latinx individuals
and communities offer through their social capital-that is, their " networks
of people and community resources " (Yosso, 2005, p. 79)-that are part of a person's
overall cultural wealth, which incorporates contributions to the " aspirational, navigational,
social, linguistic, familial and resistant capital " (Yosso, 2005, p. 69) of education
(Auerbach, 2006; Azmitia et al., 1996; Ceballo, 2004; Delgado-Gaitán, 1994; Matos,
2019, 2021; Valdés, 1996).
While the concepts of home and family are complex for everyone, enrolling in and
attending a four-year college and living in a residence hall are especially significant in
terms of their ability to create a home away from home. That environment can have
significant implications for residential students at Predominantly White Institutions
(PWIs). Residence halls are ultimately spaces where students can decompress, develop
cross-racial friendships and community (Mark & Harris, 2012), engage in dialogues
about concepts that arise from their academic lives, and gain exposure to different
58 The Journal of College and University Student Housing

Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Journal of College & University Student Housing Volume 50, No. 3