The Complexity of the “x” in Latinx : How Latinx/a/o Students Relate to,Identify With,and Understand the Term Latinx

Abstract

Spanish

The usage of term Latinx has gained popularity in higher education settings. This study documents how 34 Latinx/a/o students relate to, identify with, and understand the term Latinx. Participants 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. Due to the variations in understandings of the term, the author contends that one should consider using the term Latin*.

Keywords

Latinx Latin American college students language gender

The term Latinx continues to evolve and challenge how academics and activists perceive social identity for people of Latin American origin and descent. Given that the term Latinx has gained popularity in most academic and activist spaces, the usage of the term has not explored the myriad complexities of how it has been constructed and reproduced within higher education spaces when referring to Latin Americans. Reflected in the literature review of this article, there are various forms of understanding and (mis)using of the term Latinx, and there has been no published research on how Latinx/a/o students use, identify with, and understand the term. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide an analysis of how the term Latinx has been used in the literature review and to investigate how Latinx/a/o college students in the United States relate to, identify with, and understand the term.

As it has evolved, the term Latinx has created (dis)comfort, ambiguity, and disingenuous arguments related to language, grammar, phonetics, religion, and identity politics (Salinas & Lozano, 2019). The term Latinx—rather than Latino, Latina, Latina/o, Latin@, Latin, or Latin American—allows people to ask questions about gender, language, and inclusion, and other changes among cultures (Milian, 2017; Torres, 2018). Despite receiving a considerable amount of attention in academic and activist spaces, there has been no consistency regarding when the term Latinx was first used. While writers have highlighted their own perspectives and recognition of the term Latinx, the literature on the term Latinx fails to provide an overview of how Latinx/a/o students make meaning of the continuous alteration of the term. Furthermore, between 2017 to 2019, more blogs and academic scholarship focused on how writers understand and promote the term Latinx, while others incorporated the term Latinx to be up-to-date on terminology and often without defining the term. In her work, Patel (2016) pointed out that “Attention to something does not automatically mean transformation” (p. 2), and the concept of change often misses the most robust critique. The term Latinx will continue to evolve and it may become more favorable among higher education and social activist spaces, but it will also have limited use. With an understanding that all forms of change occur frequently and are not consistent with social patterns, in this article the author provides an analysis through the literature review section of the ways in which some users of the term Latinx have (mis)used, (mis)interpreted, and have not fully examined the term.

Validating that Latinx/a/o students are holders of knowledge (Delgado Bernal, 2002) and are a bridge point between academics and their communities, one must also understand how they transfer the term Latinx back to their communities and home. Latinx/a/o students transfer their increased knowledge from academic spaces back to their homes, and their cultural knowledge back to educational settings. Consequently, one must consider how Latinx/a/o students’ social identities inform their understandings about the term Latinx and how they engage within their communities when using and explaining the term. Therefore, the research question guiding this paper is, “How do Latinx/a/o students relate to, identify with, and understand the term Latinx?”

In an attempt to better understand how Latinx/a/o students relate to, identify with, and understand the term Latinx, empirical data were collected via 34 interviews. The author used the terms Latinx, Latina, and Latino (Latinx/a/o) to recognize how participants of this study self-identified without attempting to erase their gender identities and their realities and to shape institutional understandings of intersectionality between gender, language, race/ethnicity, and nationality. In the next section, the author provides an analysis of the literature review of the term Latinx, followed by the conceptual framework and methods that guided this study. To conclude, he conceptualizes the term Latinx with voces perdidas and voces de poder (Salinas, 2017), and presents a term Latin* (pronounced Latin) as new perspective for future research consideration.

Literature Review

The following arguments on the usage of the term Latinx are presented next, all of which will be described in greater detail in this literature review section. First, the author brings into dialogue an overview of the origins of the term Latinx in the United States. Then, a common argument noted in the literature is that the term Latinx is connected to Indigenous languages; however, every time the term is Indigenized, it is also Mexicanized. Next, the most common argument noted throughout the literature for the (mis)usage of the term Latinx is grounded in its centricity of the Spanish language. Finally, the author presents some of the incongruences found in the literature regarding the term Latinx and its attempt to be inclusive.

Origins of the “x” in the Term Latinx

It is challenging to trace the lineage of the “x” in the term Latinx (Salinas & Lozano, 2019). Some people have embraced the “x” in the term Latinx as a trend in academic and activist spaces, while others go simply without acknowledging people’s lives, genders, histories, cultures, languages, and bodies (Rodríguez, 2017). In contrast, other people expressed that the “x” in the term Latinx has aimed to “[ungender] Spanish and the relationship among language, subjectivity, and inclusion” (Milian, 2017, p. 122). While there was no consistency when the term Latinx was first used, the examination of scholarship conveys that the “x” was first introduced in a Puerto Rican psychological periodical to challenge the gender binaries encoded in the Spanish language (Logue, 2015). In the published literature about the term Latinx, scholars have stated that the “x” was first used at the front of Chicano written in the form of “Xicano” as part of the civil rights movement for the empowerment of Mexican origin people in the United States (Guidotti-Hernández, 2017; Milian, 2017), while other scholars in the field of linguistic anthropology and archeology have made the argument that Chicano was changed to Xicano to emphasize how the letter X and the word origins are related to the Nahuatl language and to peoples of Mexican descent (Pharao Hansen & Tlapoyawa, 2018). The first noticeable usage of the term Latinx was at a university with the purpose to be more reflective of a gender-inclusive student organization (Armus, 2015). First, students at Columbia University changed their student group name from Chicano Caucus to Chicanx Caucus, followed by changing the name of the Latino Heritage Month to Latinx Hispanic Heritage Month (Armus, 2015).

In 2014, in a special issue entitled, “Las Américas Quarterly,” Gómez-Barris and Fiol-Matta (2014) used the term Latinx to emphasize the possibilities of progress and its potential usage in Latin America and the United States. In 2017, the first special issue of “Theorizing LatinX” edited by Milian (2017) highlighted the political and cultural dissemination of the term Latinx. This special issue focused on the contributors’ in-depth reflections and intellectual thoughts on the usage of term Latinx. In the same year, Salinas and Lozano (2019) wrote the first article that tracked the usage of the term Latinx within higher education and student affairs academic journals, dissertations, and theses, and academic conferences. They found that the term Latinx was used often in titles of papers and presentations and as a demographic categorization, but the term was not defined by those who used it (Salinas & Lozano, 2019). In 2018, the editor of the journal Latino Studies stated that there are various iterations of terminology circulating—Latinx, Latino, Latina, Latina/o, Latin@, Latin, Latin American, and Hispanic—and encouraged writers to use any of the terms, to be consistent throughout their writing, and to provide a definition in a footnote for the readers that might not be familiar with the terminology used (Torres, 2018).

When Latinx Is Indigenized, It Is Also Mexicanized

Similar to Chicano spelled like Xicano/a or Xicanx, the “x” has been connected to Indigenous languages (Rodríguez, 2017; Vidal-Ortiz & Martínez, 2018). The “x” also confronts the namelessness violence of colonization, slavery, and systematic marginalization of Indigenous peoples throughout the American continent (Engel, 2017; Milian, 2017; Santos, 2017). Guidotti-Hernández (2017) noted that the “x” marks the Indigenous mythical homeland of Aztlán in the United States Southwest, including “claims to land during the Mexican period, even though those lands were occupied by native peoples before the Spanish arrived and established the colonial empire that would eventually produce the Mexican nation-state” (p. 142). Rossini (2018) asserted that using the term Latinx can be perceived as providing visibility to Indigenous communities. For example, Engel (2017) argued that the term Latinx is fundamentally connected to the Nahuatl language (mostly spoken by Nahua people who live in central México), and Salinas and Lozano (2019) maintained that it is rooted in the Zapotec languages (mostly spoken by Zapotec people who live in southwestern-central México). As various arguments have been made that the term is grounded in Indigenous languages, a critique of this connection between the term Latinx and Indigenous languages is that the term has been Mexicanized within Indigenous communities and languages. In addition, the connection of the term Latinx to Indigenous populations by scholars and students has been made without much evidence—in this sense it is an ideological term—since it emerged out of higher education, where Latinx/a/o identities among Latinx/a/o students and scholars often do not identify with a race (Garcia & Mayorga, 2018; Parker et al., 2015). In a search on major statistical databases in higher education such as National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), and the U.S. Census, it was difficult to identify what percentage of Latinx/a/o students identify as Indigenous.

Thompson (2013) revealed that “South America is one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world with 37 language families, 448 languages, of which over 70 are unclassified. Indigenous languages are used throughout the entire continent” (para. 1). Given that there are various languages spoken in countries across Latin America (Santos, 2017) and how scholars have associated the term Latinx to Indigenous communities and languages, there is no enough evidence to explain how the term Latinx is related to others Indigenous communities outside of México. For example, the Quechua language—primarily spoken in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Colombia—does not have the “x” in their alphabet. Therefore, it is important to consider how the term Latinx might be unpronounceable for some people of Latin American descent as the “x” does not exist in the Quechua language. While the term Latinx aims to be geographically inclusive of Latin American countries, it might not be gender or linguistically inclusive of all people of Latin American origin and descent.

Latinx Is Grounded in the Spanish Language, and It Works in English

The term Latinx has been used within the context of higher education and activist settings with the attempt to provide a new perspective that disrupts traditional binary notions of gender. Gender is “culturally constructed” and a socially created concept that consists of expectations, characteristics, and behaviors that members of a culture consider appropriate (Butler, 2008, p. 8). In the establishment of colonized North, Central, and South America, settler-colonialism led to the ontological erasure of gender identities beyond the binary of men/women. Historically transgender people have always existed. For example, in the Zapotec communities in México a third gender identity has been known as Muxes (see Cobelo, 2016; Stephen, 2002). Yet, mainstream discourse on gender identity has been limited to the binary, and most of society has adopted gender identity as a two-gender system (Salinas & Lozano, 2019; Stephen, 2002). In this sense, language can be viewed as a tool of colonialism that has erased other forms of culture existence. In the United States, arguments to promote the usage of the term Latinx have only been grounded in the binary notions of the colonial Spanish language (deOnís, 2017). In Spanish, all nouns have a gender wherein those ending in “o” tend to be masculine, and those ending in “a” tend to be feminine (Rodríguez, 2017; Salinas & Lozano, 2019; Vidal-Ortiz & Martínez, 2018). Contrarily, other “romance languages are gendered through standard language conventions, particularly nouns, articles, indirect objects, and groups of people” (deOnís, 2017, p. 81).

DeGuzmán (2017) stated “The ‘x’ works both in Spanish and English” (p. 218); however, scholars have not considered how the “x” works for people from Latin American countries that are not mostly Spanish- or English-speaking including Brazil (Portuguese), French Guiana (French), and Suriname (Dutch). While the term Latinx is geographically inclusive of these countries, it is not necessarily phonetically inclusive. Within this context, the usage of the “x” in the term Latinx is not phonetically inclusive of all Portuguese speakers, as the “x” can be pronounced in various ways and is the most challenging sound (Mestieri, 2016; Santos, 2017). The term Latinx, mostly referred to as Latino in literature, can be inclusive of all Latin American countries, as it refers to people from the Caribbean, México, and the countries that comprise Central and South America including the not Spanish speaking (Rodríguez, 2014; Salinas, 2015). Another U.S.-based term in the government and published literature, which is used to categorize subpopulations in order to count them, is Hispanic. The term Hispanic was first adapted by the U.S. government and was implemented in the U.S. Census in 1980 (Delgado-Romero et al., 2006). The U.S. Census Bureau (2012) indicated that Hispanic origin

can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person’s ancestors before their arrival in the United States. People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race. (para. 1)

The term Hispanic originates from the word Hispania, which later became España (Spain) (Salinas & Lozano, 2019). In contrast to the U.S. Census, scholars in education have made the argument that the term Hispanic blends language and national origin to represent people from primarily Spanish language speaking countries, including Spain, Cuba, Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru, México, Argentina, Dominican Republic, among other countries, but excludes Belize, Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname (De Luca & Escoto, 2012; Salinas & Lozano, 2019).

In the Spanish and English languages, the pronunciation of the term Latinx has also been listed as a form of confusion in the literature. As Engel (2017) affirmed, the term Latinx can be pronounced phonetically in English as “Latin-X, La-teen-X, and La-tinks” and in Spanish as “Latin-equis or Latin-sh” (p. 198). Trujillo-Pagán (2018) discussed that the term Latinx is pronounced in Spanish as “La-ten-ex, La-teen-ex, La-tinks, or even Latin-equis” (p. 396). Guidotti-Hernández (2017) asserted that Latinx is pronounced in Spanish as “Lat-een-ecks” (p. 147), while Galvan (2017), asked “What does LatinKs mean?” (p. 187). Adding to the confusion of the term, some scholars have argued that the term “Latinx is virtually unpronounceable in Spanish” (Engel, 2017, p. 198). Pronunciation around the term Latinx has created tension around the usage of the letter “x.” The “x” has numerous meanings to people and has been presented in various ways. Milian (2017) described that one might capitalize the “X” at the end the term to demonstrate that the “capitalization of the ‘x’ might help ward off the pronunciation issue, though the ‘x’ writ large introduces other nuances pertaining to size, degree, exponentialism, and cultural associations, among other factors” (DeGuzmán, 2017, p. 217).

Latinx, an Attempt to be Inclusive

Another argument made by scholars is that the term Latinx is inclusive of all Latin American people. For example, the term Latinx is “inclusive of identities that go beyond the everyday gender and racial norms that are rapidly shifting and being redefined in today’s culture” (Ramirez & Blay, 2017, para. 8). Similarly, Salinas and Lozano (2019) defined “Latinx as an inclusive term that recognizes the intersectionality of sexuality, language, immigration, ethnicity, culture, and phenotype” (p. 310). Torres (2018) further stated that the term Latinx can be inclusive of all people of Latin American descent, and it “represents the variety of possible genders as well as those who may identify as non-gender binary or transgender” (p. 284). Most recently, Cardemil et al. (2019) introduced the new name of the Journal of Latinx Psychology (previously known as the Journal of Latino Psychology) with the intention to be more inclusive of gender. The “x” has been added in Latinx to gender neutralize, ungender Spanish language (Milian, 2017), and it “is an attempt to create more inclusive and accepting language particularly for transgender and queer folks” (deOnís, 2017, p. 81). Some scholars attempt to be inclusive of all Latin American people by using the term Latinx, yet various terms are often used interchangeably when attempting to define and explain the term Latinx. Some of those terms include: gender neutrality, gender inclusivity (deOnís, 2017), genderqueer, nonnormative gender (Blackwell et al., 2017), nonconforming gender (Salinas & Lozano, 2019), gender-nonspecific, and gender-free (Finkel, 2017), all of which can mean similar and different things to people. Even in journalism, it has been assumed that the term Latinx aims to be inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) people (Contreras, 2017). In this sense, arguments in support of the usage of the term Latinx as a form of being inclusive has created confusion between gender and sexual identity. Furthermore, Contreras (2017) argued that the term Latinx has been used in mainstream media to “neutralize gender as a form of inclusion and could result in ignoring the oppression around gender identity and sexuality” (p. 185), as there are transgender people who do identify with a gender (i.e., Latina transgender woman or Latino transgender man). Therefore, one must continue to question, “How is Latinx (mis)gendering people?”

Throughout the review of the literature, there are inconsistencies in how the term Latinx is meant to be inclusive. Usage of the term Latinx in scholarship seeks to be inclusive of all people from Latin American origin and descent, yet it is important to acknowledge that the term Latinx is also exclusive. Moreover, the review of the literature has failed to include Latinx/a/o students’ perspectives of the term Latinx. Therefore, the author makes the argument that it is critical to investigate how Latinx/a/o students relate to, identify with, and understand the term Latinx.

Conceptual Framework

In the author’s previous work entitled “Transforming academia and theorizing spaces for Latinx in higher education: voces perdidas and voces de poder” (Salinas, 2017), he used the term Latinx and did not define the term. At the time of writing the article (see Salinas, 2017), it was suggested by the guest editors that the term Latinx is used to promote the inclusion of gender nonbinary people with Latin American descent. Without providing a definition of the term Latinx in the article, the author now seeks to analyze the term Latinx in this study by using the concepts of voces perdidas and voces de poder. The metaphor of voces perdidas and voces de poder is defined as follows:

Voces perdidas characterizes the unheard and lost voices, the narratives that have been forgotten and rejected by a system that often only recognizes voces de poder, or powerful voices that overshadow those with little to no political, social, economic, and academic capital. Voces de poder dominate academia and silence non-English speakers, communities of color, and those who do not have access to higher education and scholarship. (Salinas, 2017, p. 747)

By using voces perdidas, it implies that people’s stories and lived experiences have not always been recognized by the law, education, and society. The literal English translation of voces perdidas is “lost voices.” Yet, culturally and contextually voces perdidas can also be interpreted as repressed voices. Furthermore, Salinas (2017) argued that “Voces perdidas are seeking to heal and be liberated from . . . oppression” (p. 247).

Voces (voices) represent one of the most important rights and democratic principles for people and it is also a process from which one can create and share knowledge (Salinas, 2017). The metaphor of voces does not have to be verbal nor audible. People can show their resistance, or voces, in various manners. For example, some students might not show up to educational programming, and others might develop new terms as a form of liberating practice. The construction of the term Latinx can be viewed as voces perdidas as some individuals’ genders have been made invisible and are not recognized in some linguistic practices. The usage of voces perdidas and voces de poder in this article also has limitations as they are only used in Spanish and translated to English. Because the term Latinx has gained visibility and is mostly professed in academic and activist spaces, the term can be perceived as voces de poder. To further conceptualized voces perdidas and voces de poder, one must also understand how the term Latinx has been used in the literature review and how Latinx/a/o students relate to, identify with, and understand the term.

Method

Denzin and Lincoln (2011) defined qualitative research as “a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. Qualitative research consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that make the world visible. These practices transform the world” (p. 3). Therefore, this qualitative research investigates how 34 Latinx/a/o students relate to, identify with, and understand the term Latinx. The ultimate purpose of qualitative research is to learn; and the researcher is the learner, repeatedly and consistently making decisions that affect the questions and the direction of the study (Rossman & Rallis, 2012).

Data Collection

To replicate the high visibility and popularity of the usage of the term Latinx on social media, participants were recruited for this study via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. A recruitment flyer was posted in all three social media platforms of the principal investigator (PI), with the goal that the PI’s network would “like,” share, and engage in the post. The post was shared by professional organizations, offices, and departments from various universities, scholars, and activists. Latina Rebels, an online empowerment social media platform for Latinas, shared the recruitment flyer on their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. After the recruitment flyer was shared by the PI and Latina Rebels, it received over 150,000 impressions from people in social media; in other words, the call for participants went viral. Therefore, the author used viral networking sampling (VNS) as a form of sharing a call for participants to participate in a study through social media. VNS is when the PI shares a call for participants and the call is re-shared by others, resulting in a sample outside the PI’s network. Connected via a third party this process creates the VNS that mitigates the degrees of separation. The advantage of VNS is that it reaches a network of people beyond the PI’s network, location, educational level, social, economic, and cultural capital.

The recruitment flyer stated the purpose of the study, criteria to participate in the study, and instructed prospective participants to e-mail the PI if interested in participating in the study. The author received over 90 emails from people with additional questions or interest to participate in the study. All participants received a response from the author, and if they were interested in participating in the study, they scheduled a time for a 60-min interview. To participate in the study, participants must have been 18 years old, be an undergraduate or graduate student, and self-identified as Latinx/a/o, and completed a consent form approved by the Institutional Review Board. Out of the 90 emails originally received from prospective participants in various institutions across the United States, only 34 students qualified and agreed to participate in this study.

Participants

In this study, three participants self-identified as Latina/x, 13 self-identified as Latinos, and 18 as Latinas (n = 34). With regard to gender, 20 participants self-identified as women, 13 self-identified as men, and one self-identified as Queer. In terms of sexual orientation, one Latina/x student self-identified as queer and two identified as heterosexual. Two Latinas self-identified as bisexual, one as pansexual, and one did not disclose her sexual orientation. Similar to Latinas, two Latinos self-identified as gay, one as pansexual, and one did not disclose his sexual orientation. In relationship to their student status and field of study, at the time the interviews took place, 24 of them were graduate students, earning degrees in higher education (13), sociology (3), ethnic studies (2), arts (2), English (1), computer sciences (1), and women studies (1). The other 10 of the participants were undergraduate students, majoring in business (2), arts (2), education (1), ethnic studies (1), psychology (1), social work (1), nursing (1), and anthropology (1). Participants were geographically located across the United States, but they all had a strong connection with their country of origin, including Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, México, Panama, Puerto Rico, Peru, and Venezuela. Pseudonyms were used in this study to protect the identity of all participants.

Data Analysis

All 34 Latinx/a/o student participants of this study were asked demographic questions about their class standing, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and country of origin. Then, the students participated in an approximately 60-min face-to-face or via a conference call interview and were asked questions regarding how they learned, related to, identified with, and understood the term Latinx. For example, questions included the following: Please describe when you first learned about the term Latinx. What does Latinx mean to you? How do you explain the term Latinx to your family, community, and peers? And, are there any spaces where you intentionally choose to use the term Latinx or not? All data were analyzed, and any self-identifications were removed and replaced with pseudonyms to protect the identities of all student participants. All interviews were transcribed verbatim. Once completed, transcripts were read and the data were organized into codes using “categorical aggregation to establish themes of patterns” and then themed to make meaning of the data (Saldaña, 2016, p. 190).

Findings

All data collected were used to analyze how participants relate to, identify with, and understand the term Latinx. The findings of this qualitative study are presented in three parts: first, a summary of how participants described learning about the term Latinx; second, how they understand and define the term Latinx; and last, how they use the term Latinx.

Learning About the Term Latinx

Twenty-one of the participants stated that they first saw the term Latinx via social media, and 13 of them first learned it in higher education settings (e.g., in class or from peers). In 2014, when the Chicano Caucus student organization at Columbia University changed their group name to Chicanx Caucus, some participants started to see that the term Latinx was used in social media. A majority of the participants who first learned the term Latinx via social media stated that they were confused. Amanda said that she was “really confused” and that she “didn’t know what it meant. It was used for the Latinx community, and I was like, what does that mean? So, I googled it and I didn’t understand it at the moment.” Yolanda described that the first time she saw the term Latinx on Facebook was unclear. She said,

I grew up in Los Angeles. So, I still have friends there and my friend went to a Latinx convention and I actually thought that the x stood for Los Angeles because of the LAX airport. The “x” is there. . . I just assumed the x stood for LA, because of LAX.

Similar to Amanda and Yolanda, most participants that first saw the term Latinx on social media—Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram—were confused. For some of the participants, it took them time to understand the term Latinx. They came to learn about the term Latinx from their peers in higher education settings. Edgar stated,

I really didn’t understand it at first. I saw a post of what it was and what it is essentially describing. It took me awhile before to understand it. . . I learned about the term Latinx from my girlfriend, she is a theater major, and her friend who is an English and sociology major.

Peer interaction was important for students to gain a better understanding of the term Latinx. Similar to Edgar, Trace learned about the term Latinx in a Facebook group for student affairs professionals but recognized that the term was mainly used by his peers who were in graduate school. Nick also stated that he learned about the term from his peers in 2018 during a meeting for the Latino Graduate Association. Nick said that he did not know what the term meant, “I wasn’t sure what the term was about. Maybe the X meant something for millennials or with generation X, generation Y.”

Two undergraduate students, Gerardo and Citlali, noted that they learned about the term Latinx in one of their Chicano studies courses when discussing the differences between Latino and Hispanic. Moreover, only three of the participants, PhD students, stated that they learned about the term Latinx in their classes from their professors. For example, Elvia stated that she learned about the term Latinx when asking the difference between “Latino or Latina, and Hispanic and we were in the process of discussing that distinction” and at that point the faculty introduced her to the term Latinx “to be more inclusive of genders that are not binary.” Cortez and Judith also learned about the term Latinx when speaking about their doctoral studies research interests. All participants from this study stated that their peers and some administrators used the term Latinx, yet their institutions and Chicano and Latino Studies programs have not institutionalized the term Latinx, and only some of the student organizations have changed their organizational names to reflect inclusivity for what the term Latinx aims to do.

Defining and Understandings of the Term Latinx

Participants of this study learned about the term Latinx in various ways, via social media or interactions with others. The findings of this study parallel what the literature highlighted. Participants of this study defined Latinx in two ways: a term for people who do not identify along the European settler-colonial gender binary, and inclusive for all people of Latin American origin and descent. Elizabeth indicated that for her, the term Latinx is “a way of making our [Spanish] language catch up with the people. . .” and it is “a way to put it into words and include people.” Marco said that the term Latinx to him “is an inclusive way of describing our community” because he finds it “very interesting when we think about the Spanish language. When we have a group of 10 women and one guy joins the group, then they became Latinos instead of Latinas.” Similarly, Edgar uses Latinx to substitute Latina and Latino, because in “Spanish language [. . .] there is no other word that I can think [of]” to challenge the gender binary.

While the term Latinx aims to be more comprehensive of people who do not identify with the gender binary, some of the participants defined the term as a form of inclusivity for all. Jaime came to understand the term Latinx “for anyone who identifies with the Latin background.” In addition, Jeannette stated that to her the term Latinx “encompasses Latinidad but also shows the ability to be inclusive.” Alike, Trace described that Latinx as:

It’s supposed to be an all-inclusive term for all individuals regardless of ethnicity. So, I’ve come to understand it as an all-inclusive term that would include potentially ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation. All that stuff that encompasses this idea of multiculturalism or diversity in its most traditional sense.

Cortez stated that the term Latinx is to be inclusive “of everyone” including “transgender folks,” “gender nonconforming,” and undocumented students like himself, he stated: “I’m undocumented, so there is a lot that has happened in my life. My goal is to document and make things visible. That is why it is so important to me to use Latinx. We need to be inclusive.” Yolanda had similar thoughts and stated, “The term Latinx means inclusivity for the LGBT community.” As Elizabeth, Marco, Edgar, Jaime, Jeannette, and Trace indicated, a majority of the participants have challenged the terms Latino and Latina and the assumptions of inclusion in order to adapt the term Latinx.

According to most participants of this study, the term Latinx aims to be inclusive of all people of Latin American origin and descent and it is a term with the intention to include people who do not identify as Latina or Latino. In contrast to the majority of the participants of the study, a participant, Keven, finds the term to be “a very impractical word. . . it is trying to be inclusive, but I think it has taken us a step in the wrong direction. I think just taking out the O makes more sense.” As he pointed out, the term Latinx cannot be inclusive of all, especially if the term is only supported in the English language. Jeannette stated that the term Latinx is a very “United States-centric term” that aims to eliminate the experiences of Latin American people because Latin American people are as American as people from the United States. Other participants also felt that the term Latinx is only used in the United States. Paty stated,

People who live in the U.S. use Latinx, just because it’s like Spanglish. So many people in the U.S. identify and inspired by that, but when you look back at our home country, people don’t know what it is. I think is has become this very U.S. thing.

Marco, Fey, and Paty, among other participants with strong roots to their countries of origin, stated that Latin American countries are more likely to use the terms “Latiné” and “Latinu” as a new way to eliminate the “x” from Latinx, and to reject another term imposed in Latin American people. Judith supported her friend outside the United States who uses the term Latiné instead of Latinx, she discussed: “I’ve also seen it with the ‘é.’ So, my best friend lives in México and she always says ‘Latiné.’” The participants had different ways of defining the term and using it, but Keven furthered stated that he struggled with the term Latinx specifically when ‘white people trying to use it.’ These findings illustrate that the definitions and understandings of the term Latinx vary from academic space to students’ home and vary based on level of education when students first learned about the term.

Transferring and Using the Term Latinx

Given that the participants of this study had various levels of understanding on the term Latinx, and knowing that Latinx/a/o students transfer knowledge to their communities, the author asked: “How do they transfer and explain the term Latinx to their family members and their communities?” Many participants stated that they had not introduced or defined the term Latinx at their homes, as their parents might not speak English, do not hold a formalized education, and some parents are still trying to make a differentiation between Latino and Hispanic.

As stated earlier, the development of the term Latinx has been grounded in arguments of Spanish language only. When the author asked participants of this study how they informed their parents about the new term Latinx, a majority of them stated that they had not discussed the term Latinx at home. Jaime shared,

It’s been a little difficult to translate that back home. At least in my home setting, because some of the things I’ve learned especially in regard to Latinx culture, or just anything in general, [Latinx] it doesn’t seem to translate. To give you a quick example, my mom to this day will still always say that she is Hispanic, and she will never identify as Latina/o.

Based on Jaime’s comments, the term Latinx had not been introduced at home. Similar to Jaime, many participants of this study stated that they had not introduced the term Latinx to their parents. Trace said that he does not attempt to introduce the term Latinx to his family, friends from high school, and other members from his community because they are still making sense if they are Latino or Hispanic. Trace called this process “the battle of the terms.”

Citlali, Fey, and Lucia were the only three participants that self-identified as Latinx. However, when referring to themselves within their home and families, they were identified as Latinas. When the students are in higher education and spaces that tend to be more inclusive, they self-identified as Latinx, to allow all individuals to feel comfortable with regard to their identities. It was throughout her education that Citlali was able to learn how to self-identify in various spaces:

I consider myself Latinx or Latina. I prefer to use anything but Hispanic. . . Consciously I don’t use the word [Latinx] in political science classes because they don’t understand you at all. If you say you’re Latinx, they won’t know what you are talking about at all.

Similar to Citlaly, Lucia said,

I use queer woman because of the way I identify in certain spaces. For example, sometimes I use Latina and not Latinx. So, it depends on the spaces that I am at and identify. It also has to do a lot with my family, because they are like, “eres mujer” [you are a woman]. They do that labeling thing. I hate to categorize, but sometimes we have to use them to fit somewhere.

Something important to note is that Fey was the only participant who self-identified as genderqueer, while everyone else self-identified as men or women. Fey identified as a queer feminist or Latinx because “It’s daring to language. It’s rebel.” Fey did not fully disclose to their family and friends their Latinx identity because their family and friends might perceive Fey and other feminists as being “mad at the world and that they are cannibals.”

Based on the spaces they encountered, Citlali, Fey, and Lucia chose how they self-identify, while all other participants self-identified as Latino or Latina. When the author asked them how they used the term Latinx, all participants affirmed that they were Latino or Latina, but their community as a whole was Latinx. For example, Jaime affirmed, “I say I am Latino, but when I speak to a group with an audience or anyone in general, I always referred to them Latinx.” Marco also said, “I still do not use the term Latinx for myself, but I used it for the general community.” For Latino men, the term Latinx was not threating to their identity, while most of the Latina participants stated that they did use the term Latinx as they did not want to lose their identity as women of color, independency, and/or erase their accomplishments as Latinas. Jenifer said, “I am Latina, while the community as a whole is Latinx. I do not self-identify as a Latinx because yo soy mujer [I am a woman].”

Conceptualizing the Term Latinx With Voces Perdidas and Voces De Poder

The term Latinx cannot be understood with just one meaning. The critiques of other scholars and activists have erupted in various ways that regardless of how the term is analyzed and used, it can empower a group of people, but it can also oppress people. The term Latinx can be conceptualized as both voces perdidas and voces de poder. A majority of the participants from this study perceived the term to be used in inclusive spaces only. Cortez believed that the term Latinx is only used in “Elitist circles, like highly educated folks.” Similarly, Alondra expressed “that it is privileged to say the ‘x’ is gender inclusive. From my understanding it comes from these very privileged of academics, sometimes social justice people. A lot of the terminology that is being thrown around.” Lucia also reflected on this and stated, “higher education is obviously a privilege space, elite space, and sexiest space. . .” and those educational “spaces are known for being liberal, or more open-minded spaces. And it depends who you are with, and how those individuals identify. If they are in the margin of gender or not.” Similar to Cortez, Alondra, and Lucia, a majority of the participants perceived higher education as a privileged space where they only used the term Latinx to be inclusive. Once they returned to their communities, they did not use the term, as they did not want to be the voces de poder overshadowing the voces perdidas. Even Denise and Franco, both former student affairs practitioners, recognized that they used the term Latinx often without providing a definition. To this extent, the ways in which they used the term Latinx can be seen as an imposed agenda on students to adopt the term. Assigning new terminology without understanding the implications is another form of how voces de poder continue to exert dominance over voces perdidas. Some of the participants expressed they only use the term Latinx because they felt they were being policed by the university staff. Isaac stated that he adopted the term Latinx because the staff of the multicultural center told him to use it. Other participants stated that they only used the term Latinx in higher education settings, such as diversity, social justice, and multicultural centers.

Jeannette felt privileged to analyze the term Latinx, while recognizing that her family and community do not have opportunities to take courses on queer theory. Also, Jeannette stated that she used Latinx to refer to the general population, but she did not identify as Latinx because she was already privileged to have a gender with which she can identify. She felt that by using the term Latinx as her gender, she was taking it away from the self-identified Latinx community. The initial usage of the term Latinx can be viewed as form of voces perdidas that was developed as a form of liberatory practice or social movement based on an identity that aims to empower and recognize to become voces de poder. Self-identified Latinxs have not been included in language, education, research, and law. Therefore, the term Latinx can be understood as voces perdidas, and these voces, “when heard, have the power to create social transformation” (Salinas, 2017, p. 247).

The author clarifies that Latinx is a term that disrupts binary notions of gender and is a noun for individuals who do not identify with the men/women binary. Terms such as Latinx and others are attempts and opportunities not to ignore but amplify raced-gendered terminologies as a form of decolonizing an intersectional linguistic, racial, and gender reality. Moving forward, future research should explore the diffusion of and intersectionality of the term Latinx to understand the significance of the various ways that gender, sexuality, language, race, ethnicity, disabilities, culture, immigration, geography, and phenotype influences knowing in all realms of life, not just higher education. Due to the (mis)understandings and (mis)using of the term Latinx, the author contends that the academic community should consider the use of the term Latin* (pronounced Latin).

Latin* as a New Perspective

Strauss and Corbin (1998) maintained that “a researcher does not begin a project with a preconceived theory [term] in mind. . . Rather the researcher begins with an area of study and allows the theory [term] to emerge from the [analysis of the] data” (p. 12). The purpose of this study was to provide an analysis of how the term Latinx has been used in the literature review and to investigate how Latinx/a/o college students in the United States relate to, identify with, and understand the term. As demonstrated by the data, the majority of participants in this study did not identify with the term Latinx and others identified with a variety of terms such as Latiné, Latinu, Latino, and Latina. The author did not start the study with a preconceived term/label in mind, rather the author began the study on how the term Latinx has been used in the literature review and how Latinx/a/o college students use the term. In this study, patterns emerged from the data that suggested to the author the need for an alternative term that is encompassing the fluidity of social identities. Therefore, the author presents the term Latin* (pronounced Latin).

As stated earlier, the term Latinx can be exclusive and there are various inconsistencies with the usage noted throughout the analysis of the literature. Thus, this study contributes a new perspective and an ideological case for the use of the term Latin*. Similar to Nicolazzo’s (2017) work in Trans* In College: Transgender students’ strategies for navigating campus life and the institutional politics of inclusion, the asterisk in Latin* could be used to “refer to the way computer search functions allow one to search for any words attached to the prefix” (p. 8). In other words, Latin* can consider Latinx, Latiné, Latinu, Latino, Latina, Latina/o, Latin@, Latin, or Latin American. Introducing the * (asterisk) in Latin* is intended to serve as a deliberate intervention—a pause for readers to consider the various ways in which people from Latin American origin and diaspora in the United States may identify. In addition, Latin* presents future opportunities for people of Latin American origin to communicate and to name their raced-gendered ethnic identities and experiences. The purpose of introducing Latin* is not to homogenize Latinidad into one culture but rather to seek new understandings of the identification of and by people of Latin American origin through a new term. On the same token, one cannot ignore the interconnectedness of the social (re)productions of race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity common across Latin American nationalities, products of settler-colonialism. The term Latin* challenges us to think more critically about intersecting identities and their social, psychological, and material impact on people of Latin American origin and descent.

Many terms have been created to homogenize Latinidad and in doing so these terms have inadvertently diluted the uniqueness of some social identifiers. Thus, the author proposes Latin* as an all-inclusive term that considers the fluidity of social identities. Latin* is not a gender identity in itself, but rather creates a space that encompasses gender fluidity and identity labels that already exist, as well as those that have yet to be included in the mainstream vocabulary. In parallel with the findings of this study, some participants with strong connections to their countries of origin stated that they are more likely to use terms like Latiné or Latinu as a form of resistance of the “x” in Latinx. The findings of this study validate that Latin* can go beyond a word; it can be used as a space holder for people to reclaim their identities in the complexity of layers of Latin American origin and descent.

Latin* invites people to self-identify any way they desire and serves as a placeholder for new emerging terms that gives voice to Latin American people. In lieu of the fact that culture, society, language, law, and policy have oppressed Latinx people, the author does not want to decenter the “x” from its original purpose, which was to acknowledge the experiences of gender-nonconforming people. The usage of Latinx as an all-encompassing term for Latinidad dilutes and recenters cisgender normativity. The “x” in Latinx is a gender identifier and should be used only for people who do not identify with the gender binary of men and women. Latin* is a response to the (mis)usage of the term Latinx as an all-encompassing proxy for Latinidad. Another take is that some people might not identify with the terms/labels Latinx or Latin*—just like any other identity term/label. Pan-ethnic terms can be perceived as a form of retroactively assigning an identity to people who might never want to adopt it in the first place. For example, some people of Latin American origin and descent choose to identify with their family’s country of origin over any pan-ethnic term or label. Similarly to choosing a pan-ethnic term, other people might choose to only identify with their regionally or socially constructed identities that do not group them under an ambiguous label (e.g., Muxes, for example, may choose to identify as Muxes and not with a colonially imposed label).

Conclusion

Most commonly, the term Latinx was first used in academic and activist spaces to pluralize Latin American communities into a gender-inclusive, pan-ethnic group. However, in that process, without an in-depth examination of its usage and its implications, the term has rather neutralized gender versus achieving its original goals of inclusivity. Due to the fast visibility and growing usage of the term Latinx, this term may be considered more of a fad that has created (dis)comfort among some Latin American people. It is essential to recognize that the term Latinx is not commonly used among people of Latin American origin and diaspora, and that the term Latinx is caught between gender, sexual identity, ethnicity, and Spanish and English languages. Therefore, the term Latinx has now become ambiguous and convoluted in academic and activist spaces, subsuming various forms of social identities.

The term Latinx as a form of identity is central to subjectivity—the reality and truth of the individual who identifies with the term. The term Latinx, just like any other label, can mean anything and nothing (DeGuzmán, 2017; Galvan, 2017). It is all connected with how the individual uses and understands the term. The more one studies the term Latinx, the more philosophical meaning and critical consciousness one might develop. The terms Latinx and Latin* must continue to be analyzed with humility and hope—although this may sting—it is necessary for healing to occur among Latin* individuals. Considering that language has history and history should not be deleted, we must remember that terms/labels exist for us, and we do not exist for them. People create terms/labels to express their own realities, and we should not let terms/labels create ours.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author Biography

Cristobal Salinas Jr. is an assistant professor in higher education program at Florida Atlantic University. His research explores the economic, social, and political context of educational opportunities for historically marginalized communities of people. In particular, he explores the three levels of oppression: institutional, cultural, and individual levels.

References

Armus

(2015, October 8). Student groups shift toward use of Latinx to include all gender identities. Columbia Daily Spectator. https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2015/10/07/latino-latinx/

Blackwell

Boj Lopez

Urrieta

Jr. (2017). Special issue: Critical Latinx indigeneities. Latino Studies, 15, 126–137.

Butler

(2008). Gender trouble. Routledge.

Cardemil

E. V.

Millán

Aranda

(2019). Introduction: A new, more inclusive name: The Journal of Latinx Psychology. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 7(1), 1–5.

Cobelo

(2016, May 30). Cooking with Muxes, Mexico’s third gender. Munchis. https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/cooking-with-muxes-mexicos-third-gender

Contreras

(2017). The X factor: The struggle to get Latinos in US news stories amid a Latinx push and a changing journalism landscape. Cultural Dynamic, 29(3), 177–185.

DeGuzmán

(2017). Latinx: ¡Estamos aquí!, or being “Latinx” at UNC-Chapel Hill. Cultural Dynamic, 29(3), 214–230.

Delgado Bernal

. (2002). Critical race theory, Latino critical theory, and critical raced-gendered epistemologies: Recognizing students of color as holders and creators of knowledge. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 105–126.

Delgado-Romero

E. A.

Manlove

A. N.

Manlove

J. D.

Hernandez

C. A.

(2006). Controversial issues in the recruitment and retention of Latino/a faculty. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 6, 34–51.

10.

De Luca

S. M.

Escoto

E. R

. (2012). The recruitment and support of Latino faculty for tenure and promotion. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 11(1), 29–40.

11.

Denzin

N. K.

Lincoln

Y. S.

(2011). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In Denzin

N. K.

Lincoln

Y. S.

(Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (4th ed., pp. 1–43). SAGE.

12.

deOnís. (2017). What’s in an “x”? An exchange about the politics of “Latinx.” Chiricú Journal, 1(32), 78–91.

13.

Engel

(2017). On naming ourselves, or: When I was a spic. Cultural Dynamic, 29(3), 193–201.

14.

Finkel

(2017, September 11). In the art world, “Latinx” marks a gender-free spot. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/11/arts/design/pacific-standard-time-getty-latino.html

15.

Galvan

(2017). EE/UU: Exquisite expression/unsettling utterance. Cultural Dynamic, 29(3), 186–192.

16.

Garcia

N. M.

Mayorga

O. J.

(2018). The threat of unexamined secondary data: A critical race transformative convergent mixed methods. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(2), 231–252.

17.

Gómez-Barris

Fiol-Matta

(2014). Las Américas quarterly [special issue]. American Quarterly, 66(3), 493–504.

18.

Guidotti-Hernández

N. M.

(2017). Affective communities and millennial desires: Latinx, or why my computer won’t recognize Latina/o. Cultural Dynamic, 29(3), 141–159.

19.

Logue

(2015, December 8). Latina/o/x. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/08/students-adopt-gender-nonspecific-term-latinx-be-more-inclusive

20.

Mestieri

(2016, July). 7 Portuguese words you’ll struggle to pronounce (if you’re not Brazilian). Babbel Magazine. https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/portuguese-language-pronunciation-difficult-sounds-to-pronounce/

21.

Milian

(2017). Extremely Latin, XOXO: Notes on Latinx. Cultural Dynamic, 29(3), 121–140.

22.

Nicolazzo

(2017). Trans* in college: Transgender students’ strategies for navigating campus life and the institutional politics of inclusion. Stylus.

23.

Patel

. (2016). Decolonizing educational research: From ownership to answerability. Routledge.

24.

Parker

Menasce Horowitz

Morin

Lopez

M. H.

(2015). Chapter 7: The many dimensions of Hispanic racial identity. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/06/11/chapter-7-the-many-dimensions-of-hispanic-racial-identity/

25.

Pharao Hansen

Tlapoyawa

(2018). Aztlán and Mexican transnationalism: Language, nation and history. In Brunn

(Ed.) Handbook of the changing world language map (pp. 667–684). Springer.

26.

Ramirez

T. L.

Blay

(2017, October). Why people are using the term ‘Latinx’: Do you identify as “Latinx”? Huffpost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-people-are-using-the-term-latinx_n_57753328e4b0cc0fa136a159?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIETMj9TX7zbXRNnUBKqbDGvFkYuHHmDmnCYORF7kIHMpFcFne5Rt1J5fQBTj-Ea6UkkV0gTJPo8pZixGaFrP5ZT-vaQG15fuc445nPPX7v2ZpReA195QEVE4_vDDr3xNFVOch9Rq528EoSMh8amyZ5iX2qYTo3K37yfiTm83oKn

27.

Rodríguez

J. M.

(2014). “Latino, Latina, Latin@.” In Burgett

Hendler

(Eds.), Keywords for American cultural studies (pp. 146–149). New York University Press.

28.

Rodríguez

R. T.

(2017). X marks the spot. Cultural Dynamic, 29(3), 202–213.

29.

Rossini

J. D.

(2018). The Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas graduate class: Geography, pedagogy, and power. Theater Journal, 70(4), 443–445.

30.

Rossman

G. B.

Rallis

S. F.

(2012). Learning in the field: An introduction to qualitative research. SAGE.

31.

Saldaña

(2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. SAGE.

32.

Salinas

(2015). Understanding and meeting the needs of Latina/o students in higher education. In Sasso

Devitis

(Eds.), Today’s college students (pp. 21–37). Peter Lang.

33.

Salinas

(2017). Transforming academia and theorizing spaces for Latinx in higher education: Voces Perdidas, Voces De Poder. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30(8), 746–758.

34.

Salinas

Lozano

A. S.

(2019). Mapping and recontextualizing the evolution of the term Latinx: An environmental scanning in higher education. Journal of Latino and Education, 18(4), 302–315.

35.

Santos

C. E.

(2017). The history, struggles, and potential of the term Latinx. Latina/o Psychology Today, 4(2), 7–13.

36.

Stephen

(2002). Sexual and gender in Zapotec Oaxaca. Latin American Perspectives, 29(2), 41–49.

37.

Strauss

Corbin

(1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing ground theory. SAGE.

38.

Thompson

(2013, April). Indigenous languages of South America. About World Languages. https://www.mustgo.com/worldlanguages/indigenous-languages-of-south-america/

39.

Torres

(2018). Latinx? Latino Studies, 16(3), 283–285.

40.

Trujillo-Pagán

(2018). Crossed out by LatinX: Gender neutrality and genderblind sexism. Latino Studies, 16(3), 396–406.

41.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2012). November 28). Hispanic Origin Main. https://web.archive.org/web/20160119231531/http://www.census.gov/population/hispanic/

42.

Vidal-Ortiz

Martínez

(2018). Latinx thoughts: Latinidad with an X. Latino Studies, 16(3), 384–395.