Latinx

Latinx ( lə-TEE-neks) is a neologism used to refer to people with Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The term aims to be a gender-neutral alternative to Latino and Latina by replacing the masculine ⟨-o⟩ and feminine ⟨-a⟩ ending with the ⟨-x⟩ suffix. The plural for Latinx is Latinxs or Latinxes. 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. Related gender-neutral neologisms include Xicanx or Chicanx as a derivative of Chicano/Chicana. Latinx does not adhere to conventional grammatical gender rules in Spanish, is difficult to pronounce for Spanish speakers, and is criticized as showing disrespect towards the Spanish language as a whole. In Latin America, terms such as Latine and Latin@ have been used to indicate gender-neutrality; however, the Royal Spanish Academy style guide does not recognize gender-neutral language for the Spanish language as grammatically correct. In English, Latin without a suffix has been proposed as an alternative to Latinx. Popular usage of the term among Hispanic and Latino Americans has been generally limited. 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 to describe the Hispanic or Latino population, preferring instead the terms "Latino" and "Hispanic" by large margins. Reception to the term has been mixed to negative. Of U.S. Hispanic adults familiar with "Latinx", more respondents viewed increased use of the term to be a bad thing than a good thing, but a majority were indifferent or unsure. Some linguists and scholars have criticized use of the term as being an imposition of English norms on the Spanish language. Others have suggested that use of the term among politicians alienates potential Latino voters.

Usage and pronunciation Latinx as a group identity term denotes individuals in the United States who have Latin American roots. Other terms for this specific social category include Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Latine, and Latin@ (combining the letters "a" and "o" into the character @). Yet another term is simply "Latin", a gender-neutral alternative, and can be stated in the plural as Latin peoples. 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 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 [Latinx] was supposed to be pronounced when it was created."

Origins and public usage 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@. A similar use of 'x' in the term Mx. may have been an influence or model for the development of Latinx. 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). Between 2004 and 2014, Latinx did not attain broad usage or attention. Awareness of the term grew in the month following the Pulse nightclub shooting of June 2016; Google Trends shows that searches for this term rose greatly in this period. 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. Between 2019 and 2024, awareness for the term doubled among those who self-identified as U.S. Latinos or Hispanics.

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