Gabriel Portilla is a fourth-year Sociology major. Having grown up in Guatemala and spent much of their adolescence in Los Angeles, they have been heavily influenced by their bicultural and multilingual upbringing. Their current research project thus focuses on how Spanish language proficiency affects feelings of inclusion, exclusion, and self-identification among Latinx identifying people and their respective social networks. Linguistic ability is a great builder of social identity, and thus its effects are profound, especially when considering the Latinx community’s profound connection with the Spanish language in the United States. This work is deeply inspired through Gabriel’s own lived experience, and informs their own understanding of their own community. Outside of the classroom, Gabriel works as a Peer Counselor for College Academic Counseling and does sexual health outreach as a part of Sexperts. Beyond graduation, they hope to attend graduate school for urban planning.