My name is Dustin Martinez, and I am a 3rd year PhD candidate in the Department of Communication. My research focuses on rhetorical criticism of power through queer decoloniality, which is a way of saying I tend to question and critique the ways in which discourse constitutes forms of oppression for marginalized communities. For example, one of my papers focused on the queer possibility of gender through muxenity, while another one revealed how Jose Muñoz’s understanding of brownness and disidentification opens up a world of possibility for queer Chicanx people when we interact with corridos. I have been part of the LALSC center through the LALSC graduate cluster. Both have been great resources for building community, while cultivating a place to engage with research beyond the US. The LALSC center and graduate cluster have been influential in my life, as I have been able to interact with people from all across campus, while also finding a place that feels like home for me-a first-generation, queer, Latinx graduate student. Every time we meet as a graduate cluster, I feel a sense of wonderment as a rejuvenating energy percolates in the room as we come together to share ideas, think of ways to engage with Latinx communities, and support one another as not only students, but as humans. Overall, the LALSC center has been such a wonderful place to grow and experience a sense of belonging among a vast campus.