“I’ve Already Invested So Much Time, Effort, and Money Into This, So I Stay for Me”: A Case Study of Paulina A First-Generation Trans Latina Rural Community College Student

Authors

Ángel de Jesus Gonzalez, California State University, FresnoFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0001-6361-7399

Abstract

While research continues to emerge on queer and/or trans (QT) experiences in higher-education, a paucity remains on the nuanced realities of those who exist at the intersections of identities, institutional, and regional contexts. Guided by jotería identity-and-consciousness, this intrinsic case study focuses on Paulina, a first-generation trans Latina rural community college student via queer pláticas. She informs ways that trans Latina students in rural community colleges exists and resists hostile ecological educational environments and in doing so generate queer futurities of rurality. Paulina’s jota-historia disrupts notions of QTs communities presence in rural spaces, rural spaces as synonymous with white, and Latina/o as binary experiences.

Keywords: rural, queer, trans, queer pláticas, community college, jotería

Methodological Approach

Qualitative

DOI

https://doi.org/10.60808/2pyw-zs52

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Gonzalez, Á. d. (2026). “I’ve Already Invested So Much Time, Effort, and Money Into This, So I Stay for Me”: A Case Study of Paulina A First-Generation Trans Latina Rural Community College Student. Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.60808/2pyw-zs52

1