Drawing from Carrillo’s research on the identities of academically successful Latino males, this talk will examine the role of “home” in providing cultural and strategic pathways for resisting subtractive schooling (Valenzuela, 1999) and informing various decisions related to finding a sense of belonging. Carrillo will cover the role of identity, agency, and the politics of place among Latino male college students and graduates in both urban contexts within the U.S. Southwest as well as those that experienced most of their schooling in rural communities in the New Latinx south. To conclude, he will make connections to how this work has informed and led to various research-practice and community initiatives that are part of the UNC Latin@ Education Research Hub, a center that Carrillo founded in 2016.