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Background: Little research on Latinx students studying abroad has explored the historic sensibilities they bring to their experiences abroad related to their bordered realities. Research Purpose and Question: This study explores the experiences of Latinx students in one Mexico study abroad class session through the lenses of border theory and Anzaldúan theory. The research question was: What are the experiences of Latinx students as they reflect on their unique participation in a heritage study abroad program, particularly their understanding of the metaphorical “in between” space at borders? Participants: The participants were nine Latinx students. Research Design: The study used a qualitative research design. Findings: Our data analysis revealed two primary findings. First, the students were heavily engaged in nepantla (living in the liminal in-between) as part of the study abroad process. Second, the students experienced connection as nepantleras. The students’ expressions of nepantla were experiences of self-awareness around their guilt and grief. Their nepantlera connection was with themselves; their language, culture, and identity; the group; and their families, in spirit and in the flesh. Conclusions and Recommendations: As the students allowed themselves to talk about, reflect on, and process their feelings, they were planting the seeds for transformation and healing. Because of their facultad (gift of awareness) as nepantleras (bridge builders), we observed the students create bridges not only for their conflicting feelings, but also for their families’ interactions and experiences, all of which were painful and challenging for them. Gaining experiences of connection and strengthening their connectionist facultad provided the students with the opportunity to internalize and embody community building while their facultad gave them an awareness to begin their personal transformations. We argue gaining the lived experience of building community through a connectionist facultad has the potential for the students in this program to create transformative spaces and experiences with their families and their local communities. For K–12 and U.S.-based higher education, our findings support the implementation of ethnic studies and critical multicultural curricula not only to attend to guilt that may be experienced by Latinx youth, but also as a remedy for the disconnect many feel toward their heritage. For directors and researchers of study abroad, we suggest examining both the demographics of the countries where students study and the demographics of the participants in the study abroad group to determine how this influences the students’ feelings and interactions and to guide program development.

DeKalb County has transformed significantly over the past 80 years. There have been flows of immigrants and transnationals into the area since the late 19th and early 20th centuries, making present-day DeKalb a very diverse community. The children of transnationals in the U.S. find themselves at once students and teachers of their cultures and languages. Whether we speak our family’s languages or not, many of us born to parents from another country desire a connection to our linguistic heritage so that we can journey towards comfort and a sense of belonging. Drawing from the revolutionary Latin American literary genre, Testimonios (Saavedra, 2011), we share our stories with the hopes of planting a seed for new directions. From a decolonizing, postcolonial framework, we suggest ways to support bilingual and transnational students and groups by connecting to their cultural and linguistic assets through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) and Funds of Knowledge (Ladson Billings, 2009; González et al., 2005). The article begins with our theoretical framework, followed by an overview of DeKalb County’s history and demographics. We continue with our testimonios and conclude with suggestions for connecting with bilingual students and communities.

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