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{{Short description|Gender-neutral term for Latin Americans}} | ||
{{about|the English-language term|gender-neutral terms in Spanish|Gender neutrality in Spanish}} | |||
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{{Hatnote|For similar terms, see ], ], and ]}} | ||
{{italic title}} | |||
⚫ | {{use mdy dates|date=March 2020}} | ||
'''''Latinx''''' is a ] ] |
'''''Latinx''''' is a ] in ] which is used to refer to people of ] cultural or ethnic identity in the ]. The ] {{nowrap|{{angbr|-x}}}} suffix replaces the {{nowrap|{{angbr|-o/-a}}}} ending of ] that are typical of ]. Its plural is '''''Latinxs''''' or '''''Latinxes'''''. Words used for similar purposes include '''''Latin@''''', ''''']''''', and the simple '''''Latin'''''. Related gender-neutral neologisms include '']'' or ''Chicanx''. | ||
The term was first seen online around 2004. It has |
The term was first seen online around 2004. It has since been used in ] by activists, students, and academics who seek to advocate for ] and ] individuals.<!--cited in body--> Reception of the term among ] has been overwhelmingly negative, and surveys have found that the vast majority prefer other terms such as '']'' and ''Latina/Latino'' to describe themselves with only 2–3% using ''Latinx''.<ref name="McGirt" /><ref name="Pew Research" /> A 2023 ] survey found that roughly half of U.S. Hispanics were not aware of the term ''Latinx''; of those aware of it, 75% said it should not be used, including 36% who found increased usage to be a bad thing.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-09-29 |title=Awareness of 'Latinx' increases among US Latinos, and 'Latine' emerges as an alternative |url=https://apnews.com/article/us-latino-opinions-survey-latinx-latine-3b787510bca7fbd679010af2493eaeed |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lopez |first=Luis Noe-Bustamante, Gracie Martinez and Mark Hugo |date=2024-09-12 |title=Latinx Awareness Has Doubled Among U.S. Hispanics Since 2019, but Only 4% Use It |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/latinx-awareness-has-doubled-among-u-s-hispanics-since-2019-but-only-4-percent-use-it/ |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}}</ref> | ||
Critics say the term does not follow traditional grammar, is difficult to pronounce, and is disrespectful toward conventional Spanish;<ref name="Ramirez" /> the ] style guide does not recognize the suffix -x.<ref name="Cataño">{{cite web |last=Cataño |first=Adriana |date=November 28, 2018 |title=The RAE Has Made Its Decision About Latinx and Latine in Its First Style Manual |url=https://remezcla.com/culture/rae-style-manual/ |website=Remezcla}}</ref> An alternative term '']'' was created by Spanish-speakers in Chile and Argentina and can be pronounced in Spanish.<ref>{{Cite web |date=26 September 2022 |title=Latine vs. Latinx: How And Why They're Used |url=https://www.dictionary.com/e/latine-vs-latinx/ |access-date=5 December 2024 |website=Dictionary.com |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
== Usage and pronunciation == | == Usage and pronunciation == | ||
⚫ | ''Latinx'' is a term for a ] used to describe individuals in the United States who have Latin American roots.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Santos |first=Carlos E. |date=2017 |title=The History, Struggles, and Potential of the Term Latinx |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322075861 |journal=Latina/o Psychology Today |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=7–14}}</ref><ref name="Reyes 2017">{{cite news |last=Reyes |first=Raul A. |date=November 6, 2017 |title=To be Latinx or not to be Latinx? For some Hispanics that is the question |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/be-latinx-or-not-be-latinx-some-hispanics-question-n817911 |access-date=July 14, 2020 |website=NBC News}}</ref> Other names for this ] include '']'', '']'', ''Latina'', '']'', and ''Latin@'' (combining the letters "a" and "o" into the character @).<ref name="Brammer" />{{sfn|Vargas|2018|loc=}} Another term is simply "Latin", which by itself is of a ], and can be stated in the plural as "Latins".{{cn|date=March 2023}} ''Latinx'' is used as an alternative to the ] inherent to formulations such as ''Latina/o'' and ''Latin@'',<ref name="Brammer" /><ref name="Gender Inclusivity" /><ref name="Simón">{{Cite web |last=Simón |first=Yara |url=http://remezcla.com/features/culture/latino-vs-hispanic-vs-latinx-how-these-words-originated/ |title=Hispanic vs. Latino vs. Latinx: A Brief History of How These Words Originated |date=September 14, 2018 |website=Remezcla |access-date=April 3, 2019}}</ref> and is used by and for anyone of Latin-American descent who ], or more broadly as a gender-neutral term for such.{{r|Dent|Gender Inclusivity}}<ref name="Reyes 2016">{{cite news |last=Reyes |first=Raul A. |title=Are you Latinx? As more use the term, it draws approval and criticism |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/are-you-latinx-usage-grows-word-draws-approval-criticism-n651396 |work=NBC News |date=September 29, 2016}}</ref> | ||
⚫ | Pronunciations of ''Latinx'' documented in dictionaries include {{IPAc-en|l|ə|ˈ|t|iː|n|ɛ|k|s|,_|l|æ|-|,_|l|ɑː|-|,_|-|n|ə|k|s|,_|ˈ|l|æ|t|ɪ|n|ɛ|k|s}} {{respell|lə|TEE|neks|,_|la(h)|-,_-|nəks|,_|LAT|in|eks}}.<ref name="mw-2019" /><ref name="Lexico">{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Latinx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229121745/https://www.lexico.com/definition/latinx |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 29, 2019 |title=Latinx |dictionary=] UK English Dictionary |publisher=]}}</ref><ref>{{cite Dictionary.com|Latinx|access-date=December 8, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite American Heritage Dictionary|Latinx |access-date=December 8, 2019}}</ref> Other variants ] as "Latins", "La-tinks", or "Latin-]" have been reported.<ref name="Stavans">{{Cite web |last=Stavans |first=Ilan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/es/2017/11/14/el-significado-del-latinx/ |title=El significado del 'latinx' |website=] |date=November 14, 2017 |language=es |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name="Trujillo-Pagán 2018">{{cite journal |last=Trujillo-Pagán |first=Nicole |title=Crossed out by LatinX: Gender neutrality and genderblind sexism |journal=Latino Studies |date=2018 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=396–406 |doi=10.1057/s41276-018-0138-7 |s2cid=149648482}}</ref> Editors at ] write that "more than likely, there was little consideration for how was supposed to be pronounced when it was created."<ref name="Gender Inclusivity">{{cite web |title='Latinx' And Gender Inclusivity How do you pronounce this more inclusive word? |author=<!--staff writers; no byline--> |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-history-latinx |date=2017 |website=Merriam Webster |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803003427/https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-history-latinx |archive-date=August 3, 2017 |quote=A similar use of 'x' is in Mx., a gender-neutral title of courtesy that is used in place of gendered titles, such as Mr. and Ms. It has been suggested that the use of 'x' in Mx. influenced Latinx.}}</ref> | ||
⚫ | ''Latinx'' is a term for a ] used to describe individuals in the United States who have Latin American roots.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Santos|first=Carlos E.|date=2017|title= |
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⚫ | Pronunciations of ''Latinx'' documented in dictionaries include {{IPAc-en|l|ə|ˈ|t|iː|n|ɛ|k|s|,_|l|æ|-|,_|l|ɑː|-|,_|-|n|ə|k|s|,_|ˈ|l|æ|t|ɪ|n|ɛ|k|s}} {{respell|lə|TEE|neks|,_|la(h)|-,_-|nəks|,_|LAT|in|eks}}.<ref |
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== History == | == History == | ||
=== Origins === | === Origins === | ||
The term ''Latinx'' |
The first records of the term ''Latinx'' appear in the 21st century,<ref name="Lexico" /> but there is no certainty as to its first occurrence.<ref name="Salinas 2020" /> According to ], it was first seen online in 2004,<ref name="Brammer" /><ref name="Gonzalez">{{Cite web |last=Gonzalez |first=Irina |date=June 19, 2019 |title=Why Did "Latinx" Get Popular—And What Does It Mean? |url=https://www.oprahmag.com/life/a28056593/latinx-meaning/ |access-date=July 14, 2020 |website=Oprah Magazine}}</ref><ref name="Guidebook">{{Cite web |last=Gamio Cuervo |first=Arlene B. |date=August 2016 |title=Latinx: A Brief Guidebook |url=https://www.academia.edu/29657615 |via=] |publisher=Princeton LGBT Center}}</ref> and first appeared in academic literature around 2013 "in a Puerto Rican psychological periodical to challenge the gender binaries encoded in the Spanish language."<ref name="Salinas 2020" /><ref> Josh Logue, December 8, 2015, Inside Higher Ed </ref> Contrarily, it has been claimed that usage of the term "started in online chat rooms and ]s in the 1990s" and that its first appearance in academic literature was in the Fall 2004 volume of the journal ''Feministas Unidas''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Milian |first=Claudia |date=October 4, 2017 |title=Extremely Latin, XOXO: Notes on LatinX |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0921374017727850 |journal=Cultural Dynamics |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=121–140 |doi=10.1177/0921374017727850|s2cid=148942940 }}</ref><ref>, Elizabeth Horan, Fall 2004, p. 25, Feministas | ||
Unidas</ref> In the rest of the United States, it was first used in activist and LGBT circles as a way to expand on earlier attempts at gender-inclusive forms of the grammatically masculine Latino, such as ''Latino/a'' and ''Latin@.''<ref name="Gonzalez" /> Between 2004 and 2014, ''Latinx'' did not attain broad usage or attention.<ref name="Brammer" /> | |||
Use of ''x'' to expand language can be traced to the word ''Chicano'', which had an ''x'' added to the front of the word, making it ''Xicano''. Scholars have identified this shift as part of the movement to empower people of Mexican origin in the U.S. and also as a means of emphasizing that the origins of the letter ''X'' and term ''Chicano'' are linked to the Indigenous ].<ref name="Salinas 2020" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rossini |first=Jon D |date=2018 |title=The Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas Graduate Class: Geography, Pedagogy, and Power |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/715912/pdf |journal=Theatre Journal |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=443–445 |doi=10.1353/tj.2018.0093 |s2cid=135220164 |
Use of ''x'' to expand language can be traced to the word ''Chicano'', which had an ''x'' added to the front of the word, making it ''Xicano''. Scholars have identified this shift as part of the movement to empower people of Mexican origin in the U.S. and also as a means of emphasizing that the origins of the letter ''X'' and term ''Chicano'' are linked to the Indigenous ].<ref name="Salinas 2020" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rossini |first=Jon D |date=2018 |title=The Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas Graduate Class: Geography, Pedagogy, and Power |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/715912/pdf |journal=Theatre Journal |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=443–445 |doi=10.1353/tj.2018.0093 |s2cid=135220164}}</ref> The ''x'' has also been added to the end of the term ''Chicano'', making it ''Chicanx''. An example of this occurred at ] where students changed their student group name from "Chicano Caucus" to "Chicanx Caucus" in December 2014. The following year, Columbia University changed the name of Latino Heritage Month to Latinx Hispanic Heritage Month.<ref name="Salinas 2020" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Armus |first=Teo |date=2015-10-07 |title=Student groups shift toward use of Latinx to include all gender identities - Columbia Daily Spectator |url=https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2015/10/07/latino-latinx/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018205138/https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2015/10/07/latino-latinx/ |archive-date=2015-10-18 |access-date=2024-08-04 |work=]}}</ref> Salinas and Lozano (2017) state that the term is influenced by ] that have a ] role, such as ], ] (see also: {{slink|Gender system#Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico}}).{{r|Salinas & Lozano}} The term often refers specifically to ] people or to young people. Brian Latimer, a producer at MSNBC who identifies as ], says that the application of the term "shows a generational divide in the Hispanic community".<ref name="Brammer" />{{rp|60}} In 2016, a student newspaper described the term as "sweeping across college campuses in the nation with the intent of creating inclusion while inadvertently pitting members of the Latino community into a cultural war".<ref name="Magtoto">{{cite news |last1=Magtoto |first1=Mica |date=March 9, 2016 |title=Latinx: A case for inclusion or segregation? |url=http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_3c9ca0ac-e3e6-11e5-a111-b716c6364db2.html |work=] |location=Ames, Iowa |access-date=August 6, 2019 |quote=The term Latinx has been sweeping across college campuses in the nation with the intent of creating inclusion while inadvertently pitting members of the Latino community into a cultural war. |archive-date=August 6, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806225334/http://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/article_3c9ca0ac-e3e6-11e5-a111-b716c6364db2.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> It received wider use after the 2016 ].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Paz |first=Christian |date=November 23, 2021 |title=Another Problem for Latinx |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/11/latinx-future-progressive-congress-latino/620764/ |access-date=December 9, 2021 |website=]}}</ref> | ||
=== Public awareness and use |
=== Public awareness and use=== | ||
{{Proseline|date=December 2023|reason=This is a ] list, in micro-paragraphs form instead of in *-list form, but should be rewritten as cohesive paragraphs. There is no need for a para. break at every year change.}} | |||
{{As of|2018}} the term ''Latinx'' was |
{{As of|2018}}, use of the term ''Latinx'' was limited nearly exclusively to the United States.<ref name=sep>{{harvnb|Vargas|2018}}. "Latinx is a term used exclusively within the United States, or nearly so, such that people from Latin America would not ordinarily think of themselves as Latinxs, unless or until they reside in the United States."</ref> Manuel Vargas writes that people from Latin America ordinarily would not think of themselves using the term unless they reside in the United States.<ref name="sep" /> The term was added to the ] English dictionary<ref name="mw-2019">{{Cite Merriam-Webster |Latinx |access-date=April 3, 2019}}</ref> in 2018, as it continued to grow in popularity in the United States,<ref name="Rodriguez, Adriana"/> and to the '']'' in 2019.<ref name="Dent">{{cite web |last=Dent |first=Jonathan |date=March 18, 2019 |title=New Words in the OED: March 2019 |url=https://public.oed.com/blog/new-words-in-the-oed-march-2019/ |work=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> | ||
Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera writes that in Puerto Rico, the "shift toward x in reference to people has already occurred" in limited academic settings and "for many faculty ]] ''hermanx'' and ''niñx'' and their equivalents have been the standard... for years. It is clear that the inclusive approach to nouns and adjectives is becoming more common, and while it may at some point become the prevailing tendency, presently there is no prescriptive control toward either syntax".{{ |
Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera writes that in Puerto Rico, the "shift toward x in reference to people has already occurred" in limited academic settings and "for many faculty ]] ''hermanx'' and ''niñx'' and their equivalents have been the standard ... for years. It is clear that the inclusive approach to nouns and adjectives is becoming more common, and while it may at some point become the prevailing tendency, presently there is no prescriptive control toward either syntax".<ref name="Herlihy-Mera">{{cite news |last=Herlihy-Mera |first=Jeffrey |date=May 1, 2018 |title=The Cross-Lingual Interse(x)tionality of 'Latinx' |url=https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2018/05/01/the-cross-lingual-intersextionality-of-latinx/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821200657/https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2018/05/01/the-cross-lingual-intersextionality-of-latinx/ |archive-date=August 21, 2019 |work=The Chronicle of Higher Education |url-access=limited}} Also available at .</ref> | ||
Many people became more aware of the term in the month following the ] of June 2016; Google Trends shows that searches for this term rose greatly in this period.<ref name="Brammer">{{cite magazine |first=John Paul |last=Brammer |title=Generation X: Digging Into the Messy History of 'Latinx' Helped Me Embrace My Complex Identity |magazine=] |date=May 2019 |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=59–61 |url=https://www.motherjones.com/media/2019/06/digging-into-the-messy-history-of-latinx-helped-me-embrace-my-complex-identity/}}</ref>{{rp|60}} A similar use of 'x' in the term '']'' may have been an influence or model for the development of ''Latinx''.<ref name="Gender Inclusivity"/> | Many people became more aware of the term in the month following the ] of June 2016; Google Trends shows that searches for this term rose greatly in this period.<ref name="Brammer">{{cite magazine |first=John Paul |last=Brammer |title=Generation X: Digging Into the Messy History of 'Latinx' Helped Me Embrace My Complex Identity |magazine=] |date=May 2019 |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=59–61 |url=https://www.motherjones.com/media/2019/06/digging-into-the-messy-history-of-latinx-helped-me-embrace-my-complex-identity/}}</ref>{{rp|60}} A similar use of 'x' in the term '']'' may have been an influence or model for the development of ''Latinx''.<ref name="Gender Inclusivity" /> | ||
At Princeton University the Latinx Perspective Organization was founded in 2016 to "unify Princeton's diverse Latinx community"<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pulatinx.wixsite.com/pulpo |title=Home |work=Princeton University Latinx Perspectives Organization |access-date= |
At ] the Latinx Perspective Organization was founded in 2016 to "unify Princeton's diverse Latinx community"<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://pulatinx.wixsite.com/pulpo |title=Home |work=Princeton University Latinx Perspectives Organization |access-date=April 23, 2017}}</ref> and several student-run organizations at other institutions have used the word in their title.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lsp.unc.edu/student-organizations/ |title=Student Organizations: UNC Latina/o Studies Program |website=lsp.unc.edu |access-date=April 23, 2017}} {{cite web |url=https://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/site/2105 |title=Iowa State University – Student Organizations |website=stuorg.iastate.edu |access-date=April 23, 2017}} {{cite web |url=https://new.oberlin.edu/office/multicultural-resource-center/student-resources/latinx-resources/latinx-student-organizations |title=Latinx Student Organizations: Multicultural Resource Center |publisher=] |website=new.oberlin.edu |access-date=April 23, 2017 |date=October 24, 2016}}</ref> | ||
The term appears in the titles of ]s in the context of ],<ref name="Pastrana">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wo_JDQAAQBAJ |title=An Examination of Latinx LGBT Populations Across the United States: Intersections of Race and Sexuality |last1=Pastrana |first1=Antonio Jr. (Jay) |last2=Battle |first2=Juan |last3=Harris |first3=Angelique |date=December 22, 2016 |series=Palgrave Pivot |publisher=] |isbn=9781137560742 |oclc=974040623 |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-56074-2}}</ref> rhetoric and ],<ref name="Ruíz">{{cite book |editor-last1=Ruiz |editor-first1=Iris D. |editor-last2=Sánchez |editor-first2=Raúl |date=October 15, 2016 |title=Decolonizing Rhetoric and Composition Studies: New Latinx Keywords for Theory and Pedagogy |location=New York |publisher=] |isbn= |
The term appears in the titles of ]s in the context of ],<ref name="Pastrana">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wo_JDQAAQBAJ |title=An Examination of Latinx LGBT Populations Across the United States: Intersections of Race and Sexuality |last1=Pastrana |first1=Antonio Jr. (Jay) |last2=Battle |first2=Juan |last3=Harris |first3=Angelique |date=December 22, 2016 |series=Palgrave Pivot |publisher=] |isbn=9781137560742 |oclc=974040623 |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-56074-2}}</ref> rhetoric and ],<ref name="Ruíz">{{cite book |editor-last1=Ruiz |editor-first1=Iris D. |editor-last2=Sánchez |editor-first2=Raúl |date=October 15, 2016 |title=Decolonizing Rhetoric and Composition Studies: New Latinx Keywords for Theory and Pedagogy |location=New York |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-137-52723-3 |oclc=934502504 |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-52724-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UyhEDQAAQBAJ}}</ref> and ].<ref name="Aldama">{{cite book |last=Aldama |first=Frederick Luis |date=2016 |title=Latinx Comic Book Storytelling: An Odyssey by Interview |location=San Diego, California |publisher=¡Hyperbole Books!, a ] imprint |isbn=9781938537929 |oclc=973339575}}</ref> | ||
On June 26, 2019, during the first ], the word was used by the presidential candidate ],<ref>{{Cite web|last=Weinberg|first=Abigail|date=June 26, 2019|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/the-first-question-of-the-democratic-debate-was-a-challenge-to-elizabeth-warren-she-didnt-back-down/|title=The First Question of the Democratic Debate was a Challenge to Elizabeth Warren. She Didn't Back Down|website=]|access-date= |
On June 26, 2019, during the first ], the word was used by the presidential candidate ], who is not Hispanic or Latina,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Weinberg |first=Abigail |date=June 26, 2019 |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/the-first-question-of-the-democratic-debate-was-a-challenge-to-elizabeth-warren-she-didnt-back-down/ |title=The First Question of the Democratic Debate was a Challenge to Elizabeth Warren. She Didn't Back Down |website=] |access-date=June 29, 2019}}</ref> which '']'' called "one of the highest profile uses of the term since its conception".<ref name="Rodriguez, Adriana">{{cite news |last=Rodriguez |first=Adrianna |date=June 29, 2019 |title='Latinx' explained: A history of the controversial word and how to pronounce it |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/29/latina-latino-latinx-hispanic-what-do-they-mean/1596501001/ |newspaper=] |access-date=July 1, 2019}}</ref> | ||
A 2019 poll (with a 5% margin of error) found that 2% of US residents of Latin American descent in the US use ''Latinx'', including 3% of |
A 2019 poll (with a 5% margin of error) found that 2% of US residents of Latin American descent in the US use ''Latinx'', including 3% of 18–34-year-olds; the rest preferred other terms. "No respondents over 50 selected the term", while overall "3% of women and 1% of men selected the term as their preferred ethnic identifier".<ref name="McGirt">{{cite news |last=McGirt |first=Ellen |date=November 5, 2019 |title=What's the Deal With 'Latinx'? |url=https://fortune.com/2019/11/05/whats-the-deal-with-latinx/ |work=Fortune |url-access=subscription |quote=Mario Carrasco, the co-founder and principal of ThinkNow Research says, 'Despite its usage by academics and cultural influencers, 98% of Latinos prefer other terms to describe their ethnicity. Only 2% of our respondents said the label accurately describes them, making it the least popular ethnic label among Latinos'.}}</ref><ref name="McWhorter">{{Cite web |title=Why Latinx Can't Catch On |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/why-latinx-cant-catch-on/603943/ |last=McWhorter |first=John |date=December 23, 2019 |website=The Atlantic |access-date=May 27, 2020}}</ref> | ||
A 2020 ] survey found that only 23% of |
A 2020 ] survey found that only 23% of US adults who self-identified as Hispanic or Latino had heard of the term ''Latinx''. Of those, 65% said that the term ''Latinx'' should not be used to describe them, with most preferring terms such as ''Hispanic'' or ''Latino''.<ref name="Pew Research">{{cite web |last1=Noe-Bustamante |first1=Luis |last2=Mora |first2=Lauren |last3=Lopez |first3=Mark Hugo |date=August 11, 2020 |title=About One-in-Four U.S. Hispanics Have Heard of Latinx, but Just 3% Use It |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in-four-u-s-hispanics-have-heard-of-latinx-but-just-3-use-it/ |access-date=August 21, 2020 |publisher=Pew Research Center |website=Hispanic Trends |quote=However, for the population it is meant to describe, only 23% of U.S. adults who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino have heard of the term Latinx, and just 3% say they use it to describe themselves, according to a nationally representative, bilingual survey of U.S. Hispanic adults conducted in December 2019 by Pew Research Center.}}</ref> While the remaining 33% of US Hispanic adults who have heard the term ''Latinx'' said it could be used to describe the community, only 10% of that subgroup preferred it to the terms ''Hispanic'' or ''Latino''.<ref name="Pew Research" /> The preferred term both among Hispanics who have heard the term and among those who have not was ''Hispanic'', garnering 50% and 64% respectively.<ref name="Pew Research" /> ''Latino'' was second in preference with 31% and 29% respectively.<ref name="Pew Research" /> Only 3% self identified as ''Latinx'' in that survey.<ref name="Pew Research" /> | ||
A 2020 study based on interviews with 34 Latinx/a/o students from the US found that they "perceive higher education as a privileged space where they use the term ''Latinx''. Once they return to their communities, they do not use the term".<ref name="Salinas 2020">{{Cite journal |last=Salinas |first=Cristobal |date=2020 |title=The Complexity of the 'x' in Latinx : How Latinx/a/o Students Relate to, Identify With, and Understand the Term Latinx |journal=Journal of Hispanic Higher Education |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=149–168 |doi=10.1177/1538192719900382 |issn=1538-1927 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338551331|doi-access= |
A 2020 study based on interviews with 34 Latinx/a/o students from the US found that they "perceive higher education as a privileged space where they use the term ''Latinx''. Once they return to their communities, they do not use the term".<ref name="Salinas 2020">{{Cite journal |last=Salinas |first=Cristobal |date=2020 |title=The Complexity of the 'x' in Latinx : How Latinx/a/o Students Relate to, Identify With, and Understand the Term Latinx |journal=Journal of Hispanic Higher Education |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=149–168 |doi=10.1177/1538192719900382 |issn=1538-1927 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338551331 |doi-access=|s2cid=213350723 }}</ref> | ||
A 2021 ] poll asked Hispanic Americans about their preference among the terms "Hispanic," "Latino" and "Latinx". 57% said it did not matter, and 4% chose ''Latinx''. In a follow-up question where they were asked which term they lean toward, 5% chose ''Latinx''.<ref name="McCarthy Aug 2021">{{cite web |last1=McCarthy |first1=Justin |last2=DuPreé |first2=Whitney |title=No Preferred Racial Term Among Most Black, Hispanic Adults |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/353000/no-preferred-racial-term-among-black-hispanic-adults.aspx |publisher=Gallup |access-date=August 5, 2021 |date=August 4, 2021}}</ref> | |||
A 2021 poll by Democratic Hispanic outreach firm Bendixen & Amandi International found that only 2 percent of those polled refer to themselves as Latinx, while 68 percent call themselves "Hispanic" and 21 percent favored "Latino" or "Latina" to describe their ethnic background. In addition, 40 percent of those polled said Latinx bothers or offends them to some degree and 30 percent said they would be less likely to support a politician or organization that uses the term.<ref name="Caputo">{{Cite web |last1=Caputo |first1=Marc |last2=Rodriguez |first2=Sabrina |title=Democrats fall flat with 'Latinx' language |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/06/hispanic-voters-latinx-term-523776 |date=December 6, 2021 |website=Politico}}</ref><ref name="Bendixen">{{Cite web |date=November 21, 2021 |title=The use of 'LatinX' among Hispanic Voters: Bendixen & Amandi International |url=https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017d-81be-dee4-a5ff-efbe74ec0000 |website=Politico}}</ref> | |||
The ] decided to drop the term from its official communication in 2021.<ref name="Gamboa">{{Cite news |last=Gamboa |first=Suzanne |title=Latino civil rights organization drops 'Latinx' from official communication |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-civil-rights-organization-drops-latinx-official-communication-rcna8203 |date=December 9, 2021 |website=NBC News}}</ref> | |||
=== In literature and academia === | === In literature and academia === | ||
''Latinx'' has become commonly used by activists in higher education and the popular media who seek to advocate for individuals on ].<ref name="Salinas & Lozano">{{cite journal|last1=Salinas|first1=Cristobal|last2=Lozano|first2=Adele|date=2017|title=Mapping and recontextualizing the evolution of the term ''Latinx'': An environmental scanning in higher education|journal=Journal of Latinos and Education|volume=18|issue=4|pages=302–315|doi=10.1080/15348431.2017.1390464|s2cid=149435457}}</ref> Herlihy-Mera calls ''Latinx'' "a recognition of the exclusionary nature of our institutions, of the deficiencies in existent linguistic structures, and of language as an agent of social change", saying, "The gesture toward linguistic ] stems from a suffix endowed with a literal |
''Latinx'' has become commonly used by activists in higher education and the popular media who seek to advocate for individuals on ].<ref name="Salinas & Lozano">{{cite journal |last1=Salinas |first1=Cristobal |last2=Lozano |first2=Adele |date=2017 |title=Mapping and recontextualizing the evolution of the term ''Latinx'': An environmental scanning in higher education |journal=Journal of Latinos and Education |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=302–315 |doi=10.1080/15348431.2017.1390464 |s2cid=149435457}}</ref> Herlihy-Mera calls ''Latinx'' "a recognition of the exclusionary nature of our institutions, of the deficiencies in existent linguistic structures, and of language as an agent of social change", saying, "The gesture toward linguistic ] stems from a suffix endowed with a literal intersection—''x''."{{r|Herlihy-Mera}} Some commentators, such as Ed Morales, a lecturer at ] and author of the 2018 book ''Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture'', associate the term with the ideas of ], a ]. Morales writes that "refusal to conform to male/female gender binaries" parallels "the refusal to conform to a racial binary".<ref name="Brammer" />{{rp|61}} | ||
Scharrón-del Río and Aja (2015) have traced the use of ''Latinx'' by authors Beatriz Llenín Figueroa, Jaime Géliga Quiñones, Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, and Adriana Gallegos Dextre.<ref name="Scharrón-del Río">{{cite web |url=http://www.latinorebels.com/2015/12/05/the-case-for-latinx-why-intersectionality-is-not-a-choice/ |title=The Case ''for'' 'Latinx': Why Intersectionality Is Not a Choice |last1=Scharrón-del Río |first1=María R. |last2=Aja |first2=Alan A. |date=December 5, 2015 |website=Latino Rebels}}</ref> The term has also been discussed in scholarly research by cultural theorist ] on ]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ilan Stavans|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/contributor/ilan-stavans/|access-date=2020 |
Scharrón-del Río and Aja (2015) have traced the use of ''Latinx'' by authors Beatriz Llenín Figueroa, Jaime Géliga Quiñones, Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, and Adriana Gallegos Dextre.<ref name="Scharrón-del Río">{{cite web |url=http://www.latinorebels.com/2015/12/05/the-case-for-latinx-why-intersectionality-is-not-a-choice/ |title=The Case ''for'' 'Latinx': Why Intersectionality Is Not a Choice |last1=Scharrón-del Río |first1=María R. |last2=Aja |first2=Alan A. |date=December 5, 2015 |website=Latino Rebels}}</ref> The term has also been discussed in scholarly research by cultural theorist ] on ]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ilan Stavans |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/contributor/ilan-stavans/ |access-date=August 4, 2020 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books}}</ref> and by ] and Christopher Gonzalez on Latinx super heroes in mainstream comics and Latinx graphic novels such as ].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Aldama |first1=Frederick Luis |title=Latinx Superheroes in Mainstream Comics |last2=Jennings |first2=John |last3=Hernandez |first3=Javier |date=October 10, 2017 |isbn=9780816537082 |location=Tucson, Arizona |publisher=University of Arizona Press |oclc=983824443}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Aldama |first1=Frederick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6GN8DwAAQBAJ&q=frederick+luis+aldama+latinx+braschi&pg=PT97 |title=Latinx Studies: The Key Concepts |last2=González |first2=Christopher |date=December 7, 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351614351}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aldama |first=Frederick Luis |title=Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |date=2020 |isbn=9780822946182 |location=Pittsburgh |oclc=1143649021}}</ref> The term and concept of Latinx is also explored by Antonio Pastrana Jr., Juan Battle and Angelique Harris on LBGTQ+ issues.<ref name="Pastrana" /> Valdes also uses the term in research on black perspectives on Latinx.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HVgDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |title=Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg |last=Valdés |first=Vanessa K. |date=March 15, 2017 |location=Albany, New York |publisher=] |oclc=961828672 |isbn=9781438465159}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aaihs.org/thinking-about-an-x/ |last=Johnson |first=Jessica Marie |date=December 12, 2015 |title=Thinking About the 'X' |work=Black Perspectives |publisher=African American Intellectual History Society |access-date=April 23, 2017}}</ref> | ||
A 2020 analysis found "that ] professional organizations have by and large not adopted the term ''Latinx'', even by organizations with a Latinx/a/o centered mission", although some academic journals and dissertations about community colleges were using it.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Salinas|first1=Cristobal|last2=Doran|first2=Erin E.|last3=Swingle|first3=Ethan C.|date=2020|title=Community Colleges' Use of the Term 'Latinx'|journal=New Directions for Community Colleges|volume=2020|issue=190|pages=9–20|doi=10.1002/cc.20383|issn=0194-3081}}</ref> | A 2020 analysis found "that ] professional organizations have by and large not adopted the term ''Latinx'', even by {{sic}} organizations with a Latinx/a/o centered mission", although some academic journals and dissertations about community colleges were using it.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Salinas |first1=Cristobal |last2=Doran |first2=Erin E. |last3=Swingle |first3=Ethan C. |date=2020 |title=Community Colleges' Use of the Term 'Latinx' |journal=New Directions for Community Colleges |volume=2020 |issue=190 |pages=9–20 |doi=10.1002/cc.20383 |s2cid=225845183 |issn=0194-3081|url=https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/edu_pubs/179 }}</ref> | ||
The ], has established the Latinx Research Center, "a faculty-led research hub...that is home to cutting-edge research about the diverse Latinx community of the U.S."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lrc.berkeley.edu/|title=Latinx Research Center | An Interdisciplinary and transAmericas Research Hub}}</ref> | |||
===In politics=== | |||
Some Republicans argue that the word is a product of liberal "]ism", while some Democrats argue that it disfigures the Spanish language and is an act of cultural appropriation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Nir |first=Sarah Maslin |date=March 1, 2023 |title=Some Republicans Want to Ban 'Latinx.' These Latino Democrats Agree |work=] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/01/nyregion/latinx-connecticut-arkansas.html |access-date=March 3, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> | |||
⚫ | ] of '']'', discussing ]'s gains among Hispanic voters in the ], stated that for ], while other factors played a larger role, the term "is, if nothing else, a symptom of the problem, which is a tendency to privilege academic concepts and linguistic innovations in addressing social justice concerns." He says that "he message of the term{{nbsp}}... is that the entire grammatical system of the Spanish language is problematic, which in any other context progressives would recognize as an alienating and insensitive message." Democratic Senator ], who represented a ] in ] before 2025, advises Democrats not to use the term.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Yglesias |first1=Matthew |title=Trump's gains with Hispanic voters should prompt some progressive rethinking |url=https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2020/11/5/21548677/trump-hispanic-vote-latinx |access-date=November 5, 2020 |work=Vox |date=November 5, 2020}}</ref> Members of the ] are hesitant to use the term until after usage continues to evolve to make it more common, according to California representative ].<ref name=":0" /> | ||
In January 2023, Republican ] ] issued the ''Executive Order to Respect the Latino Community by Eliminating Culturally Insensitive words from Official Use in Government'', banning the use of ''Latinx'' in official Arkansas government communications.<ref>{{cite news|last=Bernal|first=Rafael|title=Sanders bans 'Latinx' on first day as Arkansas governor |url=https://thehill.com/latino/3810366-huckabee-sanders-bans-latinx-on-first-day-as-arkansas-governor/ |work=] |date=January 12, 2023}}</ref> | |||
In February 2023, a group of Hispanic ] lawmakers, including five Democrats, proposed a similar ban on formal state documents, calling the term offensive to Spanish speakers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Eaton-Robb |first=Patton |title=Democratic-backed Connecticut bill would ban 'Latinx' term |url=https://apnews.com/article/politics-connecticut-state-government-waterbury-arkansas-77817868efdbd4ee7651575acc665c6f |work=APNews.com |publisher=] |date=February 2, 2023}}</ref> State Representative Geraldo Reyes Jr., who introduced the measure, called the term "offensive and unnecessary".<ref name=":1" /> | |||
==Reception== | ==Reception== | ||
]. The sign reads, "women's, ], immigrant's, black, Latinx, Muslim, & disability rights are human rights".]] | ]. The sign reads, "women's, ], immigrant's {{sic}}, black, Latinx, Muslim, & disability rights are human rights".]] | ||
''Latinx'' has been the subject of controversy.{{r|Reyes 2017}} "]" has been used as a basis of both criticism and support and the term has been rejected by many members of the Hispanic and Latino or Latin communities.<ref name="BUToday">{{cite web |last=Yarin |first=Sophie |date=October 7, 2022 |title=If Hispanics Hate the Term 'Latinx', Why is it Still Used? |url=https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/why-is-latinx-still-used-if-hispanics-hate-the-term/ |access-date=October 4, 2023 |website=BU Today |publisher=Boston University}}</ref><ref name="I'm Latina">{{Cite web |date=December 14, 2021 |title=Opinion: I'm Latina. Here's why I won't use the term Latinx |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/many-latinos-say-latinx-offends-or-bothers-them-here-s-ncna1285916 |access-date=October 4, 2023 |website=NBC News}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.axios.com/2022/01/04/the-rise-and-fall-latinx-latino-hispanic|title=Latino groups want to do away with "Latinx"}}</ref><ref name="Axios 2022">{{Cite web |date=January 4, 2022 |title=Latino groups want to do away with 'Latinx' |url=https://www.axios.com/2022/01/04/the-rise-and-fall-latinx-latino-hispanic |work=Axios.com}}</ref><ref name="Gallup 2022">{{Cite web |last=Newport |first=Frank |date=January 7, 2022 |title=Controversy Over the Term 'Latinx': Public Opinion Context |url=https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/388532/controversy-term-latinx-public-opinion-context.aspx |work=News.Gallup.com |publisher=]}}</ref> | |||
''Latinx'' has been the subject of controversy.{{r|Reyes 2017}} ] has been used both as a basis of criticism, and of support. | |||
In 2018, the ] rejected the use of ''-x'' and ''-e'' as gender-neutral alternatives to the collective masculine ''-o'' ending, in a style manual published together with the ] (ASALE).<ref name="Rodriguez, Adriana" /><ref name="Cataño" /> Regarding this decision, Darío Villanueva, RAE's director said, |
In 2018, the ] rejected the use of ''-x'' and ''-e'' as gender-neutral alternatives to the collective masculine ''-o'' ending, in a style manual published together with the ] (ASALE).<ref name="Rodriguez, Adriana" /><ref name="Cataño" /> Regarding this decision, Darío Villanueva, RAE's director said, "The problem is we're confusing ] with machismo."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://remezcla.com/culture/rae-style-manual/?rfb&jwsource=cl |title=The RAE Has Made Its Decision About Latinx and Latine in Its First Style Manual|date=November 28, 2018 }}</ref> According to ''HuffPost'', some refuse to use the term on the grounds that ''Latinx'' is difficult to pronounce in the Spanish language.<ref name="Ramirez"/> | ||
Linguists Janet M. Fuller and Jennifer Leeman state that some people reject the use of ''Latinx'' to refer to people regardless of gender because they see it as a one-size-fits-all term that erases diversity, preferring to switch between ''-o/-a/-x'' when referring to specific individuals.<ref name="fullerleeman">{{cite book|last1=Fuller|first1=Janet M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jsHeDwAAQBAJ&q=Latinx|title=Speaking Spanish in the US: The Sociopolitics of Language|last2=Leeman|first2=Jennifer|date=2020|publisher=Multilingual Matters|isbn= |
Linguists Janet M. Fuller and Jennifer Leeman state that some people reject the use of ''Latinx'' to refer to people regardless of gender because they see it as a one-size-fits-all term that erases diversity, preferring to switch between ''-o/-a/-x'' when referring to specific individuals.<ref name="fullerleeman">{{cite book |last1=Fuller |first1=Janet M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jsHeDwAAQBAJ&q=Latinx |title=Speaking Spanish in the US: The Sociopolitics of Language |last2=Leeman |first2=Jennifer |date=2020 |publisher=Multilingual Matters |isbn=9781788928304 |chapter=Race, Racialization and Latinx Ethnoracial Identity |access-date=September 25, 2020}}</ref> Those who oppose the term in its entirety have argued that the ''-x'' is artificial, unpronounceable, an imposition of English norms on Spanish, or overly ]dish.<ref name="fullerleeman" /> | ||
Many non-binary Latinos whose first language is not English have also criticized the term on the basis that it caters more to Latin Americans who are fluent in English and can pronounce the ''-x'' ending easily while ignoring gender neutral alternatives already employed by Latin American activists, such as ''-e'' (]).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pellot |first=Emerald |date=October 25, 2019 |title=This Comic Proves That The Great Debate On The Word 'Latinx' Rages On |url=https://wearemitu.com/things-that-matter/heres-why-some-latinx-users-are-switching-to-latine-instead/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302153137/https://wearemitu.com/things-that-matter/heres-why-some-latinx-users-are-switching-to-latine-instead/ |archive-date=March 2, 2021 |access-date=January 12, 2023 |website=We Are Mitú}}</ref> | |||
Linguist ] argues that, in contrast to other neologisms such as '']'' |
Linguist ] argues that, in contrast to other neologisms such as '']'', ''Latinx'' has not become mainstream {{As of|2019|lc=yes}} because the problem of implied gender it aims to solve is more a concern of the ] than the "proverbial person on the street"<!--because it is a top-down imposition rather than arising from below (same idea, different words)-->.<ref name="McWhorter"/> | ||
⚫ | According to '']'', "Many opponents of the term have suggested that using an un-gendered noun like Latinx is disrespectful to the Spanish language and some have even called the term 'a blatant form of linguistic imperialism{{' "}}.<ref name="Ramirez">{{cite news |last1=Ramirez |first1=Tanisha Love |last2=Blay |first2=Zeba |date=July 5, 2016 |title=Why People Are Using The Term 'Latinx' |work=HuffPost |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-people-are-using-the-term-latinx_us_57753328e4b0cc0fa136a159 |access-date=November 15, 2017}}</ref> Defending usage of the term against critics arguing linguistic imperialism, Brooklyn College professors María R. Scharrón-del Río and Alan A. Aja argue that the Spanish language itself is a form of linguistic imperialism for ].<ref name="Scharrón-del Río"/><ref name="Ramirez" /> | ||
⚫ | ] of '']'', discussing ]'s gains among Hispanic voters in the ], stated that for ], while other factors played a larger role, the term "is, if nothing else, a symptom of the problem, which is a tendency to privilege academic concepts and linguistic innovations in addressing social justice concerns." He says that "he message of the term...is that the entire grammatical system of the Spanish language is problematic, which in any other context progressives would recognize as an alienating and insensitive message." Democratic |
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⚫ | Another argument against ''Latinx'' is that "it erases feminist movements in the 1970s" that fought for use of the word ''Latina'' to represent women, according to George Cadava, Director of the Latina and Latino Studies program at ].<ref name="Rodriguez, Adriana"/> | ||
⚫ | According to '']'', "Many opponents of the term have suggested that using an un-gendered noun like Latinx is disrespectful to the Spanish language and some have even called the term 'a blatant form of |
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⚫ | Writing for ''Latino Rebels,'' Hector Luis Alamo describes the term as a "bulldozing of Spanish".<ref name="Brammer" /> In a 2015 article published by the outlet as part of a debate on the term, Alamo wrote: "If we dump ''Latino'' for ''Latinx'' because it offends some people, then we should go on dumping words forever since there will always be some people who find some words offensive."<ref name="Alamo-2015">{{cite web |date=December 12, 2015 |last=Alamo |first=Hector Luis |title=The X-ing of Language: The Case Against 'Latinx' |url=http://www.latinorebels.com/2015/12/12/the-x-ing-of-language-the-case-against-latinix/ |work=Latino Rebels}}</ref> | ||
⚫ | Another argument against ''Latinx'' is that "it erases feminist movements in the 1970s" that fought for use of the word ''Latina'' to represent women, according to George Cadava, Director of the Latina and Latino Studies program at ].<ref name="Rodriguez, Adriana"/> |
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⚫ | ] professor Nicole Trujillo-Pagán has argued that patriarchal bias is reproduced in ostensibly "gender neutral" language<ref name="Gastil">{{cite journal |last=Gastil |first=John |author-link=John Gastil |date=December 1990 |title=Generic pronouns and sexist language: The oxymoronic character of masculine generics |journal=] |volume=23 |issue=11–12 |pages=629–643 |doi=10.1007/BF00289252 |s2cid=33772213}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sniezek |first1=Janet A. |last2=Jazwinski |first2=Christine H. |date=October 1986 |title=Gender bias in English: In search of fair language |journal=] |volume=16 |number=7 |pages=642–662 |doi=10.1111/j.1559-1816.1986.tb01165.x}}</ref><ref name="Prewitt-Freilino">{{cite journal |last1=Prewitt-Freilino |first1=Jennifer L. |last2=Caswell |first2=T. Andrew |last3=Laakso |first3=Emmi K. |date=February 2012 |title=The gendering of language: A comparison of gender equality in countries with gendered, natural gender, and genderless languages |journal=] |volume=66 |issue=3–4 |pages=268–281 |doi=10.1007/s11199-011-0083-5 |s2cid=145066913}}</ref> and stated, "Less clear in the debate (as it has developed since then) is how the replacement silences and erases long-standing struggles to recognize the significance of gender difference and sexual violence."<ref>{{cite web |last=Trujillo-Pagán |first=Nicole |url=http://www.latinorebels.com/2018/02/27/no-shock-or-awe-about-acting-latinx/ |title=No Shock or Awe About 'Acting' Latinx |work=Latino Rebels |date=February 27, 2018 |access-date=July 29, 2018}}</ref> | ||
⚫ | Hector Luis Alamo describes the term as a "bulldozing of Spanish".<ref name="Brammer" /> In a 2015 article |
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A 2019 National Survey of Latinos found that only 3 percent of Hispanic-Latinos have ever used "Latinx" to describe themselves.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=Who identifies as "Latinx"? An examination of the determinants of the use of Latinx among Hispanic-Latinos in the United States |url=https://osf.io/m39v5/ |access-date=June 19, 2021 |website=osf.io}}</ref> The ] announced in 2021 that it would stop using the term in its official communications, calling it "very unliked" by nearly all Latinos.<ref name="Falcon 2021">{{cite news |last=Falcon |first=Russell |title='Latinx' dropped from LULAC official usage, deemed 'very unliked' by Latinos |url=https://www.kxan.com/news/latinx-dropped-from-lulac-official-usage-deemed-very-unliked-by-latinos/ |publisher=KXAN-TV |publication-place=Austin, Texas |access-date=July 4, 2022 |date=December 15, 2021}}</ref> A 2024 study found that use of the term ''Latinx'' by Democratic politicians alienates Latino voters from the party, and that Latino voters are less likely to support Democrats who use ''Latinx'' than those who use ''Latino'' in their otherwise identical messaging.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Roman |first1=Marcel |last2=Sahar d'Urso |first2=Amanda |date=1 November 2024 |title=Opinion: Democrats wrongly assume only Trump's words alienate Latinos |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/01/latinx-latinos-trump-democrats/ |newspaper=]}}</ref> | |||
⚫ | Nicole Trujillo-Pagán has argued that patriarchal bias is reproduced in ostensibly "gender neutral" language<ref name="Gastil">{{cite journal |last=Gastil |first=John | |
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== Similar terms == | == Similar terms == | ||
{{See also|Gender neutrality in Spanish}} | {{See also|Gender neutrality in Spanish}} | ||
Similar gender-neutral forms have also arisen. One such term is ''Latin@'',{{r|Vidal-Ortiz & Martínez|Scharrón-del Río}} which combines the written form of the {{nowrap|{{angbr|-a}}}} and {{nowrap|{{angbr|-o}}}} endings.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Demby |first1=Gene |title='Latin@' Offers A Gender-Neutral Choice; But How To Pronounce It? |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/01/07/168818064/latin-offers-a-gender-neutral-choice-but-how-to-pronounce-it | |
Similar gender-neutral forms have also arisen. One such term is ''Latin@'',{{r|Vidal-Ortiz & Martínez|Scharrón-del Río}} which combines the written form of the {{nowrap|{{angbr|-a}}}} and {{nowrap|{{angbr|-o}}}} endings.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Demby |first1=Gene |title='Latin@' Offers A Gender-Neutral Choice; But How To Pronounce It? |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/01/07/168818064/latin-offers-a-gender-neutral-choice-but-how-to-pronounce-it |access-date=September 24, 2020 |work=NPR.org}}</ref> Similar terms include '']''<ref name="Cashman">{{cite book |last=Cashman |first=Holly |title=Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual: Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415739092 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Muw9DwAAQBAJ&q=latinx+chicanx |quote=Similarly, Latinx, Chicanx along with many other terms, are all used to describe the ethnolinguistic community. |at=Introduction; Note 1}}</ref> and the variant spelling '']''.<ref name="Noriega 2017">{{cite web |title='We Are Still Here' is a Gorgeous Book Capturing the Queer-Inclusive Evolution of East LA's Chicanx Identity |last1=Noriega |first1=Christine |url=https://remezcla.com/features/culture/we-are-still-here-xicanx-book/ |date=February 16, 2017 |website=Remezcla |quote=he Xicanx identity a relatively new term some Mexican-Americans have claimed that stems from the grassroots and working-class roots of the 1960s Chicano movement, but also incorporates indigenous consciousness, feminism, and queer theory in its politics.}}</ref> | ||
''Latine'' (plural: ''Latines'') |
'']'' (plural: ''Latines'') as a gender-neutral term is less prevalent than ''Latinx'' within the U.S.,<ref name="Vidal-Ortiz & Martínez">{{cite journal |last1=Vidal-Ortiz |first1=Salvador |last2=Martínez |first2=Juliana |title=Latinx thoughts: Latinidad with an X |journal=Latino Studies |date=2018 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=384–395 |doi=10.1057/s41276-018-0137-8 |s2cid=149742570 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327404627 |via=ResearchGate |quote=Terms like Latin@, Latine, and LatinU have been deployed—with less traction—to mobilize Latina/o communities}}</ref> although the opposite is true throughout the Spanish-speaking world.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Franco |first=Marina |date=Apr 11, 2024 |title=Latine is the new Latinx |url=https://www.axios.com/2024/04/11/latino-latinx-latine-hispanic-term-explainer |website=]}}</ref> In the U.S., "Latine" arose out of ] speakers' use of the ending {{nowrap|{{angbr|-e}}}}; similar forms include ''amigue'' ('friend') and '']'' (]).<ref name="Papadopoulos">{{cite thesis |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6j73t666 |title=Morphological Gender Innovations in Spanish of Genderqueer Speakers |last=Papadopoulos |first=Benjamin |date=2019 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |page=3}}</ref> In Argentina, efforts to increase gender neutrality in Spanish have utilized both grammatical genders together, as well as {{nowrap|{{angbr|-@}}}} and {{nowrap|{{angbr|-x}}}} endings. According to ''The New York Times'', the {{nowrap|{{angbr|-e}}}} ending has been more widely adopted because it is easier to pronounce.<ref name="Politi">{{cite news |last=Politi |first=Daniel |date=April 15, 2020 |title=In Argentina, a Bid to Make Language Gender Neutral Gains Traction |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/world/americas/argentina-gender-language.html |url-access=limited |access-date=November 10, 2020 |work=]}}</ref> | ||
In ], the use of {{Lang|pt|Latino(a)}}, with ], is preferred over {{Lang|pt|Latino/a}}, with a ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rodrigues |first=Sérgio |date=April 29, 2015 |title=Escrevemos 'alunos(as)' ou 'alunos/as'? Parênteses ou barra?: Sobre Palavras |url=https://veja.abril.com.br/coluna/sobre-palavras/escrevemos-alunos-as-ou-alunos-as-parenteses-ou-barra/ |access-date=March 5, 2023 |website=] |language=pt-BR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Barra e parêntesis em alternância de género |url=https://ciberduvidas.iscte-iul.pt/consultorio/perguntas/barra-e-parentesis-em-alternancia-de-genero/22051 |access-date=March 5, 2023 |website=Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa |language=pt}}</ref> | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
{{wiktionary|Latinx}} | {{wiktionary|Latinx}} | ||
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==References== | ==References== | ||
* {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last1=Zalta |editor-first1=Edward N. |editor-link1=Edward N. Zalta |title=Latinx Philosophy |last=Vargas |first=Manuel |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/latinx/ |date=2018 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |edition=Winter 2018 |issn=1095-5054 |oclc=643092515 |access-date=<!--fixed archival url; no access-date--> |
* {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last1=Zalta |editor-first1=Edward N. |editor-link1=Edward N. Zalta |title=Latinx Philosophy |last=Vargas |first=Manuel |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/latinx/ |date=2018 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |edition=Winter 2018 |issn=1095-5054 |oclc=643092515 |access-date=<!--fixed archival url; no access-date-->}} <!-- cite as: {{Vargas|2018|loc=}} --> | ||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
* {{Cite web |last=Ayala |first=Laz |url=https://mailtribune.com/opinion/guest-opinions/dont-call-me-latinx-im-a-latin-american |title=Don't call me Latinx, I'm a Latin American |date=November 8, 2020 |website=] |location=Medford, Oregon}} | * {{Cite web |last=Ayala |first=Laz |url=https://mailtribune.com/opinion/guest-opinions/dont-call-me-latinx-im-a-latin-american |title=Don't call me Latinx, I'm a Latin American |date=November 8, 2020 |website=] |location=Medford, Oregon |access-date=November 9, 2020 |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108231908/https://mailtribune.com/opinion/guest-opinions/dont-call-me-latinx-im-a-latin-american |url-status=dead }} | ||
* {{Cite web |last=Berastaín |first=Pierre |date= |
* {{Cite web |last=Berastaín |first=Pierre |date=August 31, 2017 |title=Should organizations use Latin@ or Latinx? |url=https://enblog.nationallatinonetwork.org/should-organizations-use-latin-or-latinx/ |website=National Latin@ Network |publisher=Casa de Esperanza}} | ||
* {{Cite web |last=Fountain |first=Sasha M. |date= |
* {{Cite web |last=Fountain |first=Sasha M. |date=September 24, 2016 |title=What is Latinx and AfroLatinx? |url=https://medium.com/heymigente/what-is-latinx-and-afrolatinx-c05a63b5a3d4 |website=Medium}} | ||
*{{Cite news |last1=Guerra |first1=Gilbert |last2=Orbea |first2=Gilbert |date=2015 |
*{{Cite news |last1=Guerra |first1=Gilbert |last2=Orbea |first2=Gilbert |date=November 19, 2015 |title=The argument against the use of the term 'Latinx' |work=The Phoenix |url=https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2015/11/19/the-argument-against-the-use-of-the-term-latinx/ |access-date=July 1, 2019}} | ||
* {{Cite news |last=Meraji |first=Shereen Marisol |date= |
* {{Cite news |last=Meraji |first=Shereen Marisol |date=August 11, 2020 |title='Hispanic,' 'Latino,' or 'Latinx'? Survey Says... |work=Code Switch |publisher=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/08/11/901398248/hispanic-latino-or-latinx-survey-says}} | ||
* {{Cite book |last=Morales |first=Ed |title=Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture |publisher=Verso | |
* {{Cite book |last=Morales |first=Ed |title=Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture |publisher=Verso |date=2018 |isbn=9781784783198 |location=London}} | ||
* {{Cite web |last=Padilla |first=Yesenia |date= |
* {{Cite web |last=Padilla |first=Yesenia |date=April 16, 2016 |title=What does 'Latinx' mean? A look at the term that's challenging gender norms |url=https://www.complex.com/life/2016/04/latinx/ |website=Complex}} | ||
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Latest revision as of 02:12, 4 January 2025
Gender-neutral term for Latin Americans This article is about the English-language term. For gender-neutral terms in Spanish, see Gender neutrality in Spanish. For similar terms, see Latin (disambiguation), Latina (disambiguation), and Latino (disambiguation)
Latinx is a neologism in American English which is used to refer to people of Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The gender-neutral ⟨-x⟩ suffix replaces the ⟨-o/-a⟩ ending of Latino and Latina that are typical of grammatical gender in Spanish. Its plural is Latinxs or Latinxes. Words used for similar purposes include Latin@, Latine, and the simple Latin. Related gender-neutral neologisms include Xicanx or Chicanx.
The term was first seen online around 2004. It has since been used in social media by activists, students, and academics who seek to advocate for non-binary and genderqueer individuals. Reception of the term among Hispanic and Latino Americans has been overwhelmingly negative, and surveys have found that the vast majority prefer other terms such as Hispanic and Latina/Latino to describe themselves with only 2–3% using Latinx. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that roughly half of U.S. Hispanics were not aware of the term Latinx; of those aware of it, 75% said it should not be used, including 36% who found increased usage to be a bad thing.
Critics say the term does not follow traditional grammar, is difficult to pronounce, and is disrespectful toward conventional Spanish; the Royal Spanish Academy style guide does not recognize the suffix -x. An alternative term Latine was created by Spanish-speakers in Chile and Argentina and can be pronounced in Spanish.
Usage and pronunciation
Latinx is a term for a group identity used to describe individuals in the United States who have Latin American roots. Other names for this social category include Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Latine, and Latin@ (combining the letters "a" and "o" into the character @). Another term is simply "Latin", which by itself is of a neutral gender, and can be stated in the plural as "Latins". Latinx is used as an alternative to the gender binary inherent to formulations such as Latina/o and Latin@, and is used by and for anyone of Latin-American descent who does not identify as either male or female, or more broadly as a gender-neutral term for such.
Pronunciations of Latinx documented in dictionaries include /ləˈtiːnɛks, læ-, lɑː-, -nəks, ˈlætɪnɛks/ lə-TEE-neks, la(h)-, -nəks, LAT-in-eks. Other variants respelled ad hoc as "Latins", "La-tinks", or "Latin-equis" have been reported. Editors at Merriam-Webster write that "more than likely, there was little consideration for how was supposed to be pronounced when it was created."
History
Origins
The first records of the term Latinx appear in the 21st century, but there is no certainty as to its first occurrence. According to Google Trends, it was first seen online in 2004, and first appeared in academic literature around 2013 "in a Puerto Rican psychological periodical to challenge the gender binaries encoded in the Spanish language." Contrarily, it has been claimed that usage of the term "started in online chat rooms and listservs in the 1990s" and that its first appearance in academic literature was in the Fall 2004 volume of the journal Feministas Unidas. In the rest of the United States, it was first used in activist and LGBT circles as a way to expand on earlier attempts at gender-inclusive forms of the grammatically masculine Latino, such as Latino/a and Latin@. Between 2004 and 2014, Latinx did not attain broad usage or attention.
Use of x to expand language can be traced to the word Chicano, which had an x added to the front of the word, making it Xicano. Scholars have identified this shift as part of the movement to empower people of Mexican origin in the U.S. and also as a means of emphasizing that the origins of the letter X and term Chicano are linked to the Indigenous Nahuatl language. The x has also been added to the end of the term Chicano, making it Chicanx. An example of this occurred at Columbia University where students changed their student group name from "Chicano Caucus" to "Chicanx Caucus" in December 2014. The following year, Columbia University changed the name of Latino Heritage Month to Latinx Hispanic Heritage Month. Salinas and Lozano (2017) state that the term is influenced by Mexican indigenous communities that have a third gender role, such as Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca (see also: Gender system § Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico). The term often refers specifically to LGBT people or to young people. Brian Latimer, a producer at MSNBC who identifies as nonbinary, says that the application of the term "shows a generational divide in the Hispanic community". In 2016, a student newspaper described the term as "sweeping across college campuses in the nation with the intent of creating inclusion while inadvertently pitting members of the Latino community into a cultural war". It received wider use after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting.
Public awareness and use
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As of 2018, use of the term Latinx was limited nearly exclusively to the United States. Manuel Vargas writes that people from Latin America ordinarily would not think of themselves using the term unless they reside in the United States. The term was added to the Merriam-Webster English dictionary in 2018, as it continued to grow in popularity in the United States, and to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2019.
Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera writes that in Puerto Rico, the "shift toward x in reference to people has already occurred" in limited academic settings and "for many faculty hermanx and niñx and their equivalents have been the standard ... for years. It is clear that the inclusive approach to nouns and adjectives is becoming more common, and while it may at some point become the prevailing tendency, presently there is no prescriptive control toward either syntax".
Many people became more aware of the term in the month following the Orlando nightclub shooting of June 2016; Google Trends shows that searches for this term rose greatly in this period. A similar use of 'x' in the term Mx. may have been an influence or model for the development of Latinx.
At Princeton University the Latinx Perspective Organization was founded in 2016 to "unify Princeton's diverse Latinx community" and several student-run organizations at other institutions have used the word in their title.
The term appears in the titles of academic books in the context of LGBT studies, rhetoric and composition studies, and comics studies.
On June 26, 2019, during the first 2020 Democratic Party presidential debate, the word was used by the presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, who is not Hispanic or Latina, which USA Today called "one of the highest profile uses of the term since its conception".
A 2019 poll (with a 5% margin of error) found that 2% of US residents of Latin American descent in the US use Latinx, including 3% of 18–34-year-olds; the rest preferred other terms. "No respondents over 50 selected the term", while overall "3% of women and 1% of men selected the term as their preferred ethnic identifier".
A 2020 Pew Research Center survey found that only 23% of US adults who self-identified as Hispanic or Latino had heard of the term Latinx. Of those, 65% said that the term Latinx should not be used to describe them, with most preferring terms such as Hispanic or Latino. While the remaining 33% of US Hispanic adults who have heard the term Latinx said it could be used to describe the community, only 10% of that subgroup preferred it to the terms Hispanic or Latino. The preferred term both among Hispanics who have heard the term and among those who have not was Hispanic, garnering 50% and 64% respectively. Latino was second in preference with 31% and 29% respectively. Only 3% self identified as Latinx in that survey.
A 2020 study based on interviews with 34 Latinx/a/o students from the US found that they "perceive higher education as a privileged space where they use the term Latinx. Once they return to their communities, they do not use the term".
A 2021 Gallup poll asked Hispanic Americans about their preference among the terms "Hispanic," "Latino" and "Latinx". 57% said it did not matter, and 4% chose Latinx. In a follow-up question where they were asked which term they lean toward, 5% chose Latinx.
A 2021 poll by Democratic Hispanic outreach firm Bendixen & Amandi International found that only 2 percent of those polled refer to themselves as Latinx, while 68 percent call themselves "Hispanic" and 21 percent favored "Latino" or "Latina" to describe their ethnic background. In addition, 40 percent of those polled said Latinx bothers or offends them to some degree and 30 percent said they would be less likely to support a politician or organization that uses the term.
The League of United Latin American Citizens decided to drop the term from its official communication in 2021.
In literature and academia
Latinx has become commonly used by activists in higher education and the popular media who seek to advocate for individuals on the borderlines of gender identity. Herlihy-Mera calls Latinx "a recognition of the exclusionary nature of our institutions, of the deficiencies in existent linguistic structures, and of language as an agent of social change", saying, "The gesture toward linguistic intersectionality stems from a suffix endowed with a literal intersection—x." Some commentators, such as Ed Morales, a lecturer at Columbia University and author of the 2018 book Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture, associate the term with the ideas of Gloria Anzaldúa, a Chicana feminist. Morales writes that "refusal to conform to male/female gender binaries" parallels "the refusal to conform to a racial binary".
Scharrón-del Río and Aja (2015) have traced the use of Latinx by authors Beatriz Llenín Figueroa, Jaime Géliga Quiñones, Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, and Adriana Gallegos Dextre. The term has also been discussed in scholarly research by cultural theorist Ilan Stavans on Spanglish and by Frederick Luis Aldama and Christopher Gonzalez on Latinx super heroes in mainstream comics and Latinx graphic novels such as United States of Banana. The term and concept of Latinx is also explored by Antonio Pastrana Jr., Juan Battle and Angelique Harris on LBGTQ+ issues. Valdes also uses the term in research on black perspectives on Latinx.
A 2020 analysis found "that community college professional organizations have by and large not adopted the term Latinx, even by [sic] organizations with a Latinx/a/o centered mission", although some academic journals and dissertations about community colleges were using it.
The University of California, Berkeley, has established the Latinx Research Center, "a faculty-led research hub...that is home to cutting-edge research about the diverse Latinx community of the U.S."
In politics
Some Republicans argue that the word is a product of liberal "wokeism", while some Democrats argue that it disfigures the Spanish language and is an act of cultural appropriation.
Matthew Yglesias of Vox, discussing Donald Trump's gains among Hispanic voters in the 2020 United States presidential election, stated that for Democrats, while other factors played a larger role, the term "is, if nothing else, a symptom of the problem, which is a tendency to privilege academic concepts and linguistic innovations in addressing social justice concerns." He says that "he message of the term ... is that the entire grammatical system of the Spanish language is problematic, which in any other context progressives would recognize as an alienating and insensitive message." Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego, who represented a majority-Hispanic congressional district in Arizona before 2025, advises Democrats not to use the term. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are hesitant to use the term until after usage continues to evolve to make it more common, according to California representative Raul Ruiz.
In January 2023, Republican Governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued the Executive Order to Respect the Latino Community by Eliminating Culturally Insensitive words from Official Use in Government, banning the use of Latinx in official Arkansas government communications.
In February 2023, a group of Hispanic Connecticut lawmakers, including five Democrats, proposed a similar ban on formal state documents, calling the term offensive to Spanish speakers. State Representative Geraldo Reyes Jr., who introduced the measure, called the term "offensive and unnecessary".
Reception
Latinx has been the subject of controversy. "Linguistic imperialism" has been used as a basis of both criticism and support and the term has been rejected by many members of the Hispanic and Latino or Latin communities.
In 2018, the Royal Spanish Academy rejected the use of -x and -e as gender-neutral alternatives to the collective masculine -o ending, in a style manual published together with the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (ASALE). Regarding this decision, Darío Villanueva, RAE's director said, "The problem is we're confusing grammar with machismo." According to HuffPost, some refuse to use the term on the grounds that Latinx is difficult to pronounce in the Spanish language.
Linguists Janet M. Fuller and Jennifer Leeman state that some people reject the use of Latinx to refer to people regardless of gender because they see it as a one-size-fits-all term that erases diversity, preferring to switch between -o/-a/-x when referring to specific individuals. Those who oppose the term in its entirety have argued that the -x is artificial, unpronounceable, an imposition of English norms on Spanish, or overly faddish.
Many non-binary Latinos whose first language is not English have also criticized the term on the basis that it caters more to Latin Americans who are fluent in English and can pronounce the -x ending easily while ignoring gender neutral alternatives already employed by Latin American activists, such as -e (Latine).
Linguist John McWhorter argues that, in contrast to other neologisms such as African American, Latinx has not become mainstream as of 2019 because the problem of implied gender it aims to solve is more a concern of the intelligentsia than the "proverbial person on the street".
According to HuffPost, "Many opponents of the term have suggested that using an un-gendered noun like Latinx is disrespectful to the Spanish language and some have even called the term 'a blatant form of linguistic imperialism'". Defending usage of the term against critics arguing linguistic imperialism, Brooklyn College professors María R. Scharrón-del Río and Alan A. Aja argue that the Spanish language itself is a form of linguistic imperialism for Latin Americans.
Another argument against Latinx is that "it erases feminist movements in the 1970s" that fought for use of the word Latina to represent women, according to George Cadava, Director of the Latina and Latino Studies program at Northwestern University.
Writing for Latino Rebels, Hector Luis Alamo describes the term as a "bulldozing of Spanish". In a 2015 article published by the outlet as part of a debate on the term, Alamo wrote: "If we dump Latino for Latinx because it offends some people, then we should go on dumping words forever since there will always be some people who find some words offensive."
Wayne State University professor Nicole Trujillo-Pagán has argued that patriarchal bias is reproduced in ostensibly "gender neutral" language and stated, "Less clear in the debate (as it has developed since then) is how the replacement silences and erases long-standing struggles to recognize the significance of gender difference and sexual violence."
A 2019 National Survey of Latinos found that only 3 percent of Hispanic-Latinos have ever used "Latinx" to describe themselves. The League of United Latin American Citizens announced in 2021 that it would stop using the term in its official communications, calling it "very unliked" by nearly all Latinos. A 2024 study found that use of the term Latinx by Democratic politicians alienates Latino voters from the party, and that Latino voters are less likely to support Democrats who use Latinx than those who use Latino in their otherwise identical messaging.
Similar terms
See also: Gender neutrality in SpanishSimilar gender-neutral forms have also arisen. One such term is Latin@, which combines the written form of the ⟨-a⟩ and ⟨-o⟩ endings. Similar terms include Chicanx and the variant spelling Xicanx.
Latine (plural: Latines) as a gender-neutral term is less prevalent than Latinx within the U.S., although the opposite is true throughout the Spanish-speaking world. In the U.S., "Latine" arose out of genderqueer speakers' use of the ending ⟨-e⟩; similar forms include amigue ('friend') and elle (singular they). In Argentina, efforts to increase gender neutrality in Spanish have utilized both grammatical genders together, as well as ⟨-@⟩ and ⟨-x⟩ endings. According to The New York Times, the ⟨-e⟩ ending has been more widely adopted because it is easier to pronounce.
In Portuguese, the use of Latino(a), with parentheses, is preferred over Latino/a, with a slash.
See also
- Feminist language reform
- Gender neutrality in languages with grammatical gender
- Gender neutrality in English
- Grammatical gender in Spanish
- Gender neutrality in Portuguese
- Hispanic–Latino naming dispute
- Mx (title)
- Spanish orthography
- Womxn
- Womyn
Notes
- ^ McGirt, Ellen (November 5, 2019). "What's the Deal With 'Latinx'?". Fortune.
Mario Carrasco, the co-founder and principal of ThinkNow Research says, 'Despite its usage by academics and cultural influencers, 98% of Latinos prefer other terms to describe their ethnicity. Only 2% of our respondents said the label accurately describes them, making it the least popular ethnic label among Latinos'.
- ^ Noe-Bustamante, Luis; Mora, Lauren; Lopez, Mark Hugo (August 11, 2020). "About One-in-Four U.S. Hispanics Have Heard of Latinx, but Just 3% Use It". Hispanic Trends. Pew Research Center. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
However, for the population it is meant to describe, only 23% of U.S. adults who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino have heard of the term Latinx, and just 3% say they use it to describe themselves, according to a nationally representative, bilingual survey of U.S. Hispanic adults conducted in December 2019 by Pew Research Center.
- "Awareness of 'Latinx' increases among US Latinos, and 'Latine' emerges as an alternative". AP News. September 29, 2024. Retrieved October 2, 2024.
- Lopez, Luis Noe-Bustamante, Gracie Martinez and Mark Hugo (September 12, 2024). "Latinx Awareness Has Doubled Among U.S. Hispanics Since 2019, but Only 4% Use It". Pew Research Center. Retrieved October 2, 2024.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Ramirez, Tanisha Love; Blay, Zeba (July 5, 2016). "Why People Are Using The Term 'Latinx'". HuffPost. Retrieved November 15, 2017.
- ^ Cataño, Adriana (November 28, 2018). "The RAE Has Made Its Decision About Latinx and Latine in Its First Style Manual". Remezcla.
- "Latine vs. Latinx: How And Why They're Used". Dictionary.com. September 26, 2022. Retrieved December 5, 2024.
- Santos, Carlos E. (2017). "The History, Struggles, and Potential of the Term Latinx". Latina/o Psychology Today. 4 (2): 7–14.
- ^ Reyes, Raul A. (November 6, 2017). "To be Latinx or not to be Latinx? For some Hispanics that is the question". NBC News. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
- ^ Brammer, John Paul (May 2019). "Generation X: Digging Into the Messy History of 'Latinx' Helped Me Embrace My Complex Identity". Mother Jones. Vol. 44, no. 3. pp. 59–61.
- Vargas 2018, 1.1 Group Identity.
- ^ "'Latinx' And Gender Inclusivity How do you pronounce this more inclusive word?". Merriam Webster. 2017. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017.
A similar use of 'x' is in Mx., a gender-neutral title of courtesy that is used in place of gendered titles, such as Mr. and Ms. It has been suggested that the use of 'x' in Mx. influenced Latinx.
- Simón, Yara (September 14, 2018). "Hispanic vs. Latino vs. Latinx: A Brief History of How These Words Originated". Remezcla. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
- ^ Dent, Jonathan (March 18, 2019). "New Words in the OED: March 2019". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press.
- Reyes, Raul A. (September 29, 2016). "Are you Latinx? As more use the term, it draws approval and criticism". NBC News.
- ^ "Latinx". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
- ^ "Latinx". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on December 29, 2019.
- "Latinx". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
- "Latinx". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
- Stavans, Ilan (November 14, 2017). "El significado del 'latinx'". The New York Times (in Spanish).
- Trujillo-Pagán, Nicole (2018). "Crossed out by LatinX: Gender neutrality and genderblind sexism". Latino Studies. 16 (3): 396–406. doi:10.1057/s41276-018-0138-7. S2CID 149648482.
- ^ Salinas, Cristobal (2020). "The Complexity of the 'x' in Latinx : How Latinx/a/o Students Relate to, Identify With, and Understand the Term Latinx". Journal of Hispanic Higher Education. 19 (2): 149–168. doi:10.1177/1538192719900382. ISSN 1538-1927. S2CID 213350723.
- ^ Gonzalez, Irina (June 19, 2019). "Why Did "Latinx" Get Popular—And What Does It Mean?". Oprah Magazine. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
- Gamio Cuervo, Arlene B. (August 2016). "Latinx: A Brief Guidebook". Princeton LGBT Center – via Academia.edu.
- "Latina/o/x" Josh Logue, December 8, 2015, Inside Higher Ed
- Milian, Claudia (October 4, 2017). "Extremely Latin, XOXO: Notes on LatinX". Cultural Dynamics. 29 (3): 121–140. doi:10.1177/0921374017727850. S2CID 148942940.
- "Review of Susana Chávez-Silverman’s Killer Crónicas: Urbane Gardens of Earthly Delight", Elizabeth Horan, Fall 2004, p. 25, Feministas Unidas
- Rossini, Jon D (2018). "The Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas Graduate Class: Geography, Pedagogy, and Power". Theatre Journal. 70 (4): 443–445. doi:10.1353/tj.2018.0093. S2CID 135220164.
- Armus, Teo (October 7, 2015). "Student groups shift toward use of Latinx to include all gender identities - Columbia Daily Spectator". Columbia Daily Spectator. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved August 4, 2024.
- ^ Salinas, Cristobal; Lozano, Adele (2017). "Mapping and recontextualizing the evolution of the term Latinx: An environmental scanning in higher education". Journal of Latinos and Education. 18 (4): 302–315. doi:10.1080/15348431.2017.1390464. S2CID 149435457.
- Magtoto, Mica (March 9, 2016). "Latinx: A case for inclusion or segregation?". Iowa State Daily. Ames, Iowa. Archived from the original on August 6, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2019.
The term Latinx has been sweeping across college campuses in the nation with the intent of creating inclusion while inadvertently pitting members of the Latino community into a cultural war.
- ^ Paz, Christian (November 23, 2021). "Another Problem for Latinx". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
- ^ Vargas 2018. "Latinx is a term used exclusively within the United States, or nearly so, such that people from Latin America would not ordinarily think of themselves as Latinxs, unless or until they reside in the United States."
- ^ Rodriguez, Adrianna (June 29, 2019). "'Latinx' explained: A history of the controversial word and how to pronounce it". USA Today. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
- ^ Herlihy-Mera, Jeffrey (May 1, 2018). "The Cross-Lingual Interse(x)tionality of 'Latinx'". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Also available at Academia.edu.
- "Home". Princeton University Latinx Perspectives Organization. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- "Student Organizations: UNC Latina/o Studies Program". lsp.unc.edu. Retrieved April 23, 2017. "Iowa State University – Student Organizations". stuorg.iastate.edu. Retrieved April 23, 2017. "Latinx Student Organizations: Multicultural Resource Center". new.oberlin.edu. Oberlin College. October 24, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- ^ Pastrana, Antonio Jr. (Jay); Battle, Juan; Harris, Angelique (December 22, 2016). An Examination of Latinx LGBT Populations Across the United States: Intersections of Race and Sexuality. Palgrave Pivot. Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-56074-2. ISBN 9781137560742. OCLC 974040623.
- Ruiz, Iris D.; Sánchez, Raúl, eds. (October 15, 2016). Decolonizing Rhetoric and Composition Studies: New Latinx Keywords for Theory and Pedagogy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-52724-0. ISBN 978-1-137-52723-3. OCLC 934502504.
- Aldama, Frederick Luis (2016). Latinx Comic Book Storytelling: An Odyssey by Interview. San Diego, California: ¡Hyperbole Books!, a San Diego State University Press imprint. ISBN 9781938537929. OCLC 973339575.
- Weinberg, Abigail (June 26, 2019). "The First Question of the Democratic Debate was a Challenge to Elizabeth Warren. She Didn't Back Down". Mother Jones. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
- ^ McWhorter, John (December 23, 2019). "Why Latinx Can't Catch On". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
- McCarthy, Justin; DuPreé, Whitney (August 4, 2021). "No Preferred Racial Term Among Most Black, Hispanic Adults". Gallup. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
- Caputo, Marc; Rodriguez, Sabrina (December 6, 2021). "Democrats fall flat with 'Latinx' language". Politico.
- "The use of 'LatinX' among Hispanic Voters: Bendixen & Amandi International". Politico. November 21, 2021.
- Gamboa, Suzanne (December 9, 2021). "Latino civil rights organization drops 'Latinx' from official communication". NBC News.
- ^ Scharrón-del Río, María R.; Aja, Alan A. (December 5, 2015). "The Case for 'Latinx': Why Intersectionality Is Not a Choice". Latino Rebels.
- "Ilan Stavans". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved August 4, 2020.
- Aldama, Frederick Luis; Jennings, John; Hernandez, Javier (October 10, 2017). Latinx Superheroes in Mainstream Comics. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 9780816537082. OCLC 983824443.
- Aldama, Frederick; González, Christopher (December 7, 2018). Latinx Studies: The Key Concepts. Routledge. ISBN 9781351614351.
- Aldama, Frederick Luis (2020). Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 9780822946182. OCLC 1143649021.
- Valdés, Vanessa K. (March 15, 2017). Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. ISBN 9781438465159. OCLC 961828672.
- Johnson, Jessica Marie (December 12, 2015). "Thinking About the 'X'". Black Perspectives. African American Intellectual History Society. Retrieved April 23, 2017.
- Salinas, Cristobal; Doran, Erin E.; Swingle, Ethan C. (2020). "Community Colleges' Use of the Term 'Latinx'". New Directions for Community Colleges. 2020 (190): 9–20. doi:10.1002/cc.20383. ISSN 0194-3081. S2CID 225845183.
- "Latinx Research Center | An Interdisciplinary and transAmericas Research Hub".
- ^ Nir, Sarah Maslin (March 1, 2023). "Some Republicans Want to Ban 'Latinx.' These Latino Democrats Agree". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
- Yglesias, Matthew (November 5, 2020). "Trump's gains with Hispanic voters should prompt some progressive rethinking". Vox. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
- Bernal, Rafael (January 12, 2023). "Sanders bans 'Latinx' on first day as Arkansas governor". The Hill.
- Eaton-Robb, Patton (February 2, 2023). "Democratic-backed Connecticut bill would ban 'Latinx' term". APNews.com. Associated Press.
- Yarin, Sophie (October 7, 2022). "If Hispanics Hate the Term 'Latinx', Why is it Still Used?". BU Today. Boston University. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
- "Opinion: I'm Latina. Here's why I won't use the term Latinx". NBC News. December 14, 2021. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
- "Latino groups want to do away with "Latinx"".
- "Latino groups want to do away with 'Latinx'". Axios.com. January 4, 2022.
- Newport, Frank (January 7, 2022). "Controversy Over the Term 'Latinx': Public Opinion Context". News.Gallup.com. Gallup, Inc.
- "The RAE Has Made Its Decision About Latinx and Latine in Its First Style Manual". November 28, 2018.
- ^ Fuller, Janet M.; Leeman, Jennifer (2020). "Race, Racialization and Latinx Ethnoracial Identity". Speaking Spanish in the US: The Sociopolitics of Language. Multilingual Matters. ISBN 9781788928304. Retrieved September 25, 2020.
- Pellot, Emerald (October 25, 2019). "This Comic Proves That The Great Debate On The Word 'Latinx' Rages On". We Are Mitú. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
- Alamo, Hector Luis (December 12, 2015). "The X-ing of Language: The Case Against 'Latinx'". Latino Rebels.
- Gastil, John (December 1990). "Generic pronouns and sexist language: The oxymoronic character of masculine generics". Sex Roles. 23 (11–12): 629–643. doi:10.1007/BF00289252. S2CID 33772213.
- Sniezek, Janet A.; Jazwinski, Christine H. (October 1986). "Gender bias in English: In search of fair language". Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 16 (7): 642–662. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1986.tb01165.x.
- Prewitt-Freilino, Jennifer L.; Caswell, T. Andrew; Laakso, Emmi K. (February 2012). "The gendering of language: A comparison of gender equality in countries with gendered, natural gender, and genderless languages". Sex Roles. 66 (3–4): 268–281. doi:10.1007/s11199-011-0083-5. S2CID 145066913.
- Trujillo-Pagán, Nicole (February 27, 2018). "No Shock or Awe About 'Acting' Latinx". Latino Rebels. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
- "Who identifies as "Latinx"? An examination of the determinants of the use of Latinx among Hispanic-Latinos in the United States". osf.io. 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2021.
- Falcon, Russell (December 15, 2021). "'Latinx' dropped from LULAC official usage, deemed 'very unliked' by Latinos". Austin, Texas: KXAN-TV. Retrieved July 4, 2022.
- Roman, Marcel; Sahar d'Urso, Amanda (November 1, 2024). "Opinion: Democrats wrongly assume only Trump's words alienate Latinos". The Washington Post.
- ^ Vidal-Ortiz, Salvador; Martínez, Juliana (2018). "Latinx thoughts: Latinidad with an X". Latino Studies. 16 (3): 384–395. doi:10.1057/s41276-018-0137-8. S2CID 149742570 – via ResearchGate.
Terms like Latin@, Latine, and LatinU have been deployed—with less traction—to mobilize Latina/o communities
- Demby, Gene. "'Latin@' Offers A Gender-Neutral Choice; But How To Pronounce It?". NPR.org. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- Cashman, Holly (2018). Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual: Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities. Routledge. Introduction; Note 1. ISBN 9780415739092.
Similarly, Latinx, Chicanx along with many other terms, are all used to describe the ethnolinguistic community.
- Noriega, Christine (February 16, 2017). "'We Are Still Here' is a Gorgeous Book Capturing the Queer-Inclusive Evolution of East LA's Chicanx Identity". Remezcla.
he Xicanx identity a relatively new term some Mexican-Americans have claimed that stems from the grassroots and working-class roots of the 1960s Chicano movement, but also incorporates indigenous consciousness, feminism, and queer theory in its politics.
- Franco, Marina (April 11, 2024). "Latine is the new Latinx". Axios.
- Papadopoulos, Benjamin (2019). Morphological Gender Innovations in Spanish of Genderqueer Speakers (Thesis). University of California, Berkeley. p. 3.
- Politi, Daniel (April 15, 2020). "In Argentina, a Bid to Make Language Gender Neutral Gains Traction". The New York Times. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- Rodrigues, Sérgio (April 29, 2015). "Escrevemos 'alunos(as)' ou 'alunos/as'? Parênteses ou barra?: Sobre Palavras". VEJA (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved March 5, 2023.
- "Barra e parêntesis em alternância de género". Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese). Retrieved March 5, 2023.
References
- Vargas, Manuel (2018). "Latinx Philosophy". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2018 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. ISSN 1095-5054. OCLC 643092515.
Further reading
- Ayala, Laz (November 8, 2020). "Don't call me Latinx, I'm a Latin American". Mail Tribune. Medford, Oregon. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 9, 2020.
- Berastaín, Pierre (August 31, 2017). "Should organizations use Latin@ or Latinx?". National Latin@ Network. Casa de Esperanza.
- Fountain, Sasha M. (September 24, 2016). "What is Latinx and AfroLatinx?". Medium.
- Guerra, Gilbert; Orbea, Gilbert (November 19, 2015). "The argument against the use of the term 'Latinx'". The Phoenix. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
- Meraji, Shereen Marisol (August 11, 2020). "'Hispanic,' 'Latino,' or 'Latinx'? Survey Says..." Code Switch. NPR.
- Morales, Ed (2018). Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture. London: Verso. ISBN 9781784783198.
- Padilla, Yesenia (April 16, 2016). "What does 'Latinx' mean? A look at the term that's challenging gender norms". Complex.
- 2000s neologisms
- 2004 neologisms
- American political neologisms
- Hispanic and Latino
- Gender-neutral language
- Nonstandard spelling
- Spanish grammar
- Spanish language in the United States
- Linguistic controversies
- LGBTQ Hispanic and Latino American culture
- LGBTQ-related controversies in the United States
- English exonyms
- Racism in the United States