Progressive activists, well-intentioned as they might be, have managed to colonize Spanish and other Latin languages in the cause of gender-neutral language. This linguistic colonialism isn’t a winning strategy for change.
Latinx is a weak substitute for Latino/Latina or any number of other terms: Chicano/a, Hispanic, et el.
I fall into the “let people use their own labels” camp on this matter and similar issues. That doesn’t mean I get to use a label just because I want to do so, either. Communities set group standards for the labels, over time.
We have to be careful with the notion of “choose your own” when we have examples of people using labels that do not reflect honest, community-accepted usages.
The problem is that Latinx is being imposed, and that’s what troubles me. It’s outsiders, for the most part, demanding change.
Some of the activists aren’t content to push for Latinx in our English-dominated culture. Online, they are “demanding” (which is obviously absurd) Spanish-speaking governments in the Americas use Latinx as a label. Mexicano and Mexicana are not going to become Mexicanx or Latinx.
Many nouns end in “o” or “a” in Spanish, having a “gendered” form. Some nouns end in “a” regardless of gender, such as “papa” and “policía.” The “x” in Latinx doesn’t have an obvious pronunciation. Is it “inks” or “encks” said aloud? Spanish is a phonetic language, far more loyal to phonetics than English.
Unlike Black or Deaf or another community-based, self-selected label, the “Latinx” construct is something created for a community, not something that evolved organically from within. Pew Research found most Hispanics don’t use the term, but academics and journalists do.
NEW: 23% of U.S. Hispanics have heard of the gender-neutral pan-ethnic label, Latinx, but just 3% say they use it to describe themselves.
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) August 11, 2020
One of the best explanations of Latinx and why it is something imposed on Spanish happens to be a comic-style visual essay. Check on this wonderful piece on Vox:
The gender-neutral term that’s supposed to be for everyone, well, isn’t.
By Terry Blas Updated Oct 23, 2019, 7:15am EDT
As Blas observes, Latine seems natural to Spanish and works well. But, that’s not what largely English-speaking activists chose for the community. (Spanish verb conjugations include “e” as a regular ending.)
One of the progressive outlets I follow argues that since Spanish was imposed on the community, imposing a “solution” to the gendered language problem is obviously correct and morally justified.
The problem with that argument is it ignores the cultural pride and sensitivities involved. Raised in Central California, in a community that is 98 percent Spanish-speaking (not uncommon in rural farming areas), Spanish was part of the local identity. I now live in Texas, where Spanish is possibly more valued than in California. (And in New Mexico, it’s Spanish is a “semi-official” state language.)
Our local elementary schools offer Spanish, regardless of a student’s heritage, because it’s easier to learn languages young. Bilingual education has been included in education laws since 1973 in the Southwest.
Some additional information to consider:
What Does “Latinx” Mean, Exactly?
Everything you need to know about the gender-inclusive term.By Irina Gonzalez
Aug 11, 2020Who uses the term “Latinx”?
Whomever feels that the term accurately defines their background—though a bilingual December 2019 survey of 3,030 adults suggests that only a small portion of the U.S. population does. According to Pew Research, only 3 percent of surveyed adults who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino said they consider themselves Latinx. What’s more, almost three out of four of those same adults had never even heard of the term.The survey found it most commonly known among those born in the U.S., who were predominately either English-speaking or bilingual (29 percent of respondents in both groups), while only 7 percent of mainly Spanish-speaking respondents had heard of it.
Do English-speaking activists get to set the standards for Spanish-speaking communities? That’s a serious and complicated question of power. At the same time, if progressives argue we need to respect other cultures, when do we stop respecting a culture and demand that it change to our perceptions and values of right and wrong?
Latinx is a complicated word, and it raises uncomfortable questions of dictating standards.
Adding to the resistance among Spanish speakers, the “Latinx” label was associated with the LBGTQA+ movement, particularly in Florida. Applying the label more broadly is viewed as confusing.
…[The] history of using “x” is lengthier, says David Bowles, a writer, translator, and professor at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley in Edinburg, Texas, who is currently working on a book 0n the word Latinx. “Radical feminists in the 90s (and perhaps as early as the 70s) would sometimes on posters and in graffiti would literally “x” out the “o” at the end of words that were meant to include men, women, and non-binary folk all together.”
The word “Latinx” is ultimately a “non-gendered, non-binary, inclusive way of pushing back against the default masculine in Spanish,” says Bowles.
Again, labels should be a choice, to a large extent.
At the end of the day, using the term “Latinx” is a personal choice. “My feeling is that we should allow one another to use the labels each of us selects,” says Bowles. “I’m comfortable with Mexican-American, Chicano, and Latino. Others might have different preferences. It’s a personal choice. No one can tell you to use Latinx…but no one can tell you not to, either.”
Colonizing a language should bother progressives. Apparently, they haven’t noticed that they’re the ones imposing this change on Spanish.
Why people are split on using ‘Latinx’
By Harmeet Kaur, CNN
Updated 7:12 AM ET, Wed August 12, 2020Depending on which corners of the internet you inhabit, you might have come across the term “Latinx.”
“Latinx” has emerged as an inclusive term to refer to people of Latin American descent, encompassing those who don’t identify as male or female or who don’t want to be identified by their gender. It’s been used by journalists, politicians, corporations, colleges and universities. In 2018, it even made it to the dictionary.But among the people “Latinx” is intended to describe, few have heard of the term — let alone use it.
Mark Lopez, Pew’s director of migration studies, suggests Latinx isn’t the choice of the community. The community doesn’t see a need for yet another, new, externally imposed label.
“When you ask people whether or not ‘Latinx’ should even be used to describe the Hispanic population or if they had a choice, which they would pick, ‘Latinx’ is oftentimes third behind Hispanic and Latino,” [Mark Lopez, director of global migration and demography research at Pew Research Center] said. “So people may be aware of it, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into its use.”
What is Latinx is actually exclusive, not inclusive? That’s the argument of some in the Spanish-speaking community.
Gilbert Guerra and Gilbert Orbea were early opponents of the term, arguing against it in a widely-cited 2015 op-ed for Swarthmore College’s campus newspaper.
“Perhaps the most ironic failure of the term is that it actually excludes more groups than it includes,” wrote Guerra and Orbea. “By replacing o’s and a’s with x’s, the word “Latinx” is rendered laughably incomprehensible to any Spanish speaker without some fluency in English.”
Cristobal Salinas, a professor at Florida Atlantic University who has researched the use of the term “Latinx,” said the term is sometimes seen as US-centric — and just another way that the US is exerting its influence on Latin America.
Others, like archaeologist Kurly Tlapoyawa, argue that “Latinx” erases people of indigenous and African origin, writing in an essay for Medium that the “Latin” aspect is what’s more problematic.
In trying to virtual-signal by adopting Latinx, progressive leaders might be alienating a community inclined to support Democratic politicians in the United States. By trying to impose inclusiveness, progressive politicians might be disregarding a significant segment of the Spanish-speaking citizenry in the U.S.
Language matters. Attempts to “demand” that a group change its language are likely to result in a backlash.
Let each community decide on labels. Don’t decide for them.