Students at the Latin American Student Organization (LASO) fall palooza.
As the younger generation of Latin Americans reworks gender binaries with the term ‘Latinx,’ the majority of the student population finds the term to be inclusive, while others find it offensive.
The debate over what title to use for the people of Latin America has been a long-standing conversation, but it remains relevant today. In the early 2000s, the term “Latinx” emerged as a non-gendered alternative to the terms “Latino” or “Latina”.
Fourth-year Eli Licona Pineda, president of the LatinX Student Union (LXSU), shared that the term “Latinx” is an inclusive alternative to its gendered counterparts. The LatinX Student Union capitalizes the letter ‘X’ in “LatinX” to emphasize that they represent all Latin American individuals.
“When I first heard about the term ‘Latinx,’ I didn’t really know what it was. I’ve heard of Latine and Latino, as well as Latina, my whole life. My perspective on it truly is that it’s just a way to make sure that anybody who identifies as Latino or Latina or Latine is able to fit into this kind of bubble that our culture has created for ourselves,” Pineda said. “Grammatically, everything we ever talk about, everything we ever do, has a pronoun of a male or a female, like object specific, but when it comes to people, we know that it’s not just two people.”
Many student organizations on campus use the terms “Latinx” or “Latine,”
inviting a diverse range of students to participate in their discussions and events.
Mandi Valle, second-year student and logistics chair for the LXSU and founder and co-president of Latinos for Action, Change and Empowerment (LACE), reports that the organization will soon change its name to a more inclusive alternative.
“With LACE, we initially did start with ‘Latinos for Action, Change and Empowerment,’ but this year, when we re-register our [organization], we are going to switch to ‘Latines’ because we just feel like it’s more inclusive. There’s such a variety of different people, races, different kinds of personalities and different experiences within the Latinx community that I don’t think it should be limited to a masculine pronoun.”
The oppositional standpoint
Culture thrives on tradition, but tradition adapts with the passage of time. Many younger Latin American individuals accept the term “Latinx,” whereas older generations tend to reject it.
Third-year and academic chair for the Latinx Honors Society (LHS), Fernando Puac Ramirez, believes the term is in the midst of adapting to tradition.
“It’s a very academic term. A lot of younger people prefer the term, but I know older people and people who are more traditional don’t like the term, since it’s, again, more academic and not representative of the community. The ‘X’ does not show up naturally in the Spanish language,” Ramirez said.
The usage of the letter ‘x’ in Latinx has brought negative attention to the word.
First-year transfer student and fundraising chair for LHS, Gerry Fernadez, approaches the question from a grammatical and linguistic viewpoint. He remarked that the word “Latino” in itself is grammatically used for all genders.
The term Latinx has gained popularity in the United States, but is not typically recognized in Latin American countries. Third-year student Luis Enrique Chavez has family members who disagree with the usage of the term, and ponders why that might be.
“Spanish-speaking countries don’t like the term. They think it’s gentrification, and they think it’s a way for places, mainly like the U.S., to slowly insert themselves or culture themselves. They think the U.S. always tries to solve problems that aren’t its own. That’s where a big stigma comes from,” Chavez said.
Valle, however, believes that tradition can adapt.
“Some people are more traditional, [saying] it doesn’t sound right in Spanish, but I feel like it could be adapted. It’s just a matter of trying hard enough to make people feel included. I’m Latina, and I have experience being a woman in Hispanic culture, and there’s definitely a lot of ‘machismo,’ which is a broad term [for toxic masculinity]. So I feel like it is not the best route to use an ‘o’ to define an entire [group of] people. I don’t feel included with that,” Valle said.
The introduction of ‘Latine’
Latine (la-TEE-nay) is a newer term that many Latin Americans have coined to avoid using the letter ‘x.’ While lesser known, its popularity is beginning to grow.
Third-year and LHS marketing chair Kassandra Mellado, however, prefers the term Latinx.
“I prefer Latinx over Latine because it’s a little easier to pronounce… and I think [Latinx] kind of rolls off the tongue a little easier,” Mellado said.
Some feel that the multitude of terms arising may be unnecessary. Third-year student, John Bonilla Cabrera, is a member of UNC Charlotte’s Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity Inc., shared that he doesn’t know why the term even surfaced in the community.
“I just want to know where they started to come up with these words and why. It’s just interesting; why start bringing [them] in now?” Cabrera said. “At the end of the day, I don’t really mind if someone calls me [Latine], I mean, I might not correct them, but [rather] say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m Latino.'”
What’s the difference between Hispanic and Latinx?
The term Hispanic is often associated with people from Latin America, but it has its roots in the word “Hispania,” meaning “Spain.” It is noteworthy to mention that not all regions of Latin America speak Spanish; thus, the term ‘Latin American’ is inclusive of all regions.
According to Britannica, in the United States, the terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” were adopted in an attempt to loosely group immigrants and their descendants who hail from this part of the world. Often used interchangeably, the terms can convey slightly different connotations. The categories refer only to a person’s origin and ancestry. A Latino/a/e or Hispanic person can be any race or color.
Third-year Dani Medellin-Serrano is the president of the LHS and aims to create an inclusive environment, hosting events that attract a diverse student body.
“Some people are Hispanic, but they’re not Latin. You’re Hispanic if you come from Spain, because you speak Spanish, but you’re not from the Latin area geographically. I think it definitely encompasses a good amount of us, but not everyone, because I do acknowledge that there are different dialects within a ton of different Latin countries that are spoken that aren’t Spanish,” Medellin-Serrano said.
Some students recognize that even in Spanish-speaking countries, not everyone identifies as “Hispanic.”
“Someone would probably reject being called ‘Hispanic’ because they don’t want that connection to Spain. They realize that a lot of it [comes with], let’s be blunt, atrocities and a lot of colonization. They want nothing to do with Spain, or they won’t want to consider themselves anywhere near Spain,” Chavez said.
The topic of discussion is ongoing within the Latin American community, and has no clear, conclusive answer yet for any specific individual; however, students seem to be embracing the term ‘Latinx.’