The terminology used for the Latin茅/Latinx community has been a conversation in the U.S., and in the Americas in general, since about the 1970s. If that seems pretty new, that鈥檚 because grouping this pan-ethnic identity is fairly new.聽
The U.S. government coined the term 鈥淗ispanic鈥� in the 1970s, after primarily Mexican-American organizations in the Southwest U.S. and Puerto Rican organizations in the Southeast U.S. lobbied the federal government to collect data on the population. Before this, this ethnicity was considered 鈥渨hite鈥� on official documents, which did not reflect many people's experiences in the community. The organizations argued that their children were experiencing segregation, higher rates of poverty, higher joblessness, and discrimination in hiring - none of which were reflected within laws protecting civil rights because the population was considered 鈥渨hite.鈥� Organizers recognized that having a larger label, like Black or African American among those with African diasporan ancestry, would help them argue for civil protection. was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1976, mandating the collection of data about U.S. residents with Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central American, and South American ancestry. Hispanic was first used in a full census in 1980. From there, Hispanic shows up as a category on other official documents.
By the 1990s, there was resistance to Hispanic - due to its connection to Spain and colonialism. By 1997, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget added the term Latino to government publications. Hispanic and Latino would be used interchangeably by the government. Latino first appeared on a census in 2000, alongside Hispanic. However, 鈥淎m茅rica Latina鈥� dates back to 1856, when it was used by Chilean writer Francisco Bilbao and Colombia鈥檚 Jos茅 Mar铆a Torres Caicedo.
In the late 1990s, Latin@ was used instead of Latino by some groups online to be more inclusive. It didn鈥檛 catch on, partially because the @ was not pronounceable in Spanish nor English.聽
Latinx started as an online term, starting in the early 2000s. This was among primarily Chicana/x online groups, where many members also identified themselves as queer and/or feminist. Though the exact origin is unclear, its goal was to be more inclusive of those who may not want to be referred to with gendered terms like Latina or Latino. From there, it spread to university campuses - likely by internet-savvy students. This then led to Latinx as an academic term.
Latinx saw its first surge of mainstream usage after the Pulse nightclub shooting in June 2016. The month after the tragedy, the term saw a spike in Google searches. In November 2015, a widely shared by student authors Gilbert Guerra and Gilbert Orbea, described Latinx as linguistic imperialism.聽
It has since been argued, however, that Latinx is in the spirit of noted activists and scholars like Gloria Anzald煤a - who herself embraced the Nahuatl word neplanta and the term mestizaje. Gloria Anzald煤a is one figure who was important within the Chicano/a/x movement and community, which is one part of where the 鈥渪鈥� in Latinx came from. Chicano is a pronunciation of Mexicano where the word is spoken with a Nahuatl accent. It was originally a derogatory term for Mexican people with Indigenous ancestry. This was reclaimed to reassert and embrace that indigenous ancestry. Xicano/a/x is an alternate spelling that fully embraces the Nahuatl sound. This is intended as an act of defiance against Spanish colonization, and the 鈥渪鈥� suffix was first used with Xicanx and Chicanx, before being used with Latinx. Ana Castillo is often credited with inspiring Chicanx, with her term Xicanisma. This does, however, still situate Latinx as a primarily Mexican term.聽
The 鈥渪鈥� is also reminiscent of the protest act of crossing out the 鈥渙.鈥� You can see what this looked like below - but graffiti was common during Xicanisma and feminist movements in predominantly Latinx neighborhoods around the 1980s. This was intended to decenter men within Latinx movements and to bring attention to the harm done to Latinas by erasing their presence in the language. Though it wasn鈥檛 yet considering nonbinary Latinx people, nor intended to create a new word, it did inspire the later creation of Latinx.聽
The 鈥渪鈥� is also reminiscent of the civil rights movement in the U.S. - like with Malcolm X - and the feminist movement in the U.S. - as seen in terms like womxn. Latinx people were important in both of these movements in the U.S.聽
There is also an argument that not all Latinx/Latin茅 people speak Spanish, and that assumption also causes harm. Many speak English, Indigenous languages, Portuguese, or other languages.
The argument against Latinx has often been related to the inaccessibility of the term for people who only speak Spanish - where 鈥渪鈥� is difficult to pronounce - and the inaccessibility of academic terminology for the majority of people overall. The term also carries a U.S.-centric history and mode of thinking, which is sometimes a strength of the word - like in illustrating just how much of U.S. history was shaped and made by Latinx people - and is sometimes a limitation - since most of the community is not living nor ever will live in the U.S.
Latin茅 gained traction within LGBTQ+ and feminist communities in Latin America around the early 2010s, becoming common among Spanish-speakers in the U.S. as well, though much later. This is because the 鈥樏┾�� suffix is pronounceable in Spanish and is already a gender-neutral suffix in the language.聽
Both Latin茅 and Latinx are terms from Spanish-speaking-heritage LGBTQ+ communities. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, and sometimes they are positioned as very different. There is no one right answer or history, since both terms are a reflection of ongoing discourse among LGBTQ+ people with this heritage and history.聽
Languages are by nature mutable and complicated, as are identities themselves. The continual conversation of what terms we use as a community and where these terms come from, what ancestry they highlight, and who prefers them, will likely continue. In the meantime, we want to honor the communities that created these terms and recognize the continuing importance of this now over-half-a-century conversation.聽
Regardless of what term you use for yourself, you are part of this conversation, and we want to welcome you to celebrate our many complicated terms and histories together.聽
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