“Latinx” is a term that has been on the rise. As a community, we need to become familiar with what: LATINX (pronounced la-teen-x) truly means. The term “latinx” is a gender neutral word that takes the place of the feminine or masculine latinA/latinO. Due to this, it is often associated as being a word of rebellion or seeking to have a “linguistic revolution”, as Huff Post author, T. Ramirez explained in an article (2016). In my opinion, it helps to add to our cultural diversity, the latinx postcolonial revolution mindset, and certainly to the intersectionist and non-binary identity movements in recent times.
There are some people that do not agree with using the term. I have used both the “hispanic and latinx” terms, but am finding myself to identify with the word “latinx” more and more because of what it stands for. Both are often interchangeably used, however “hispanic” is a more limiting word and not gender inclusive. Besides having the root Latin gives us a gentle reminder of our Latin colonizational ancestry history (see previous blog: They Tried to bury us).
So, although not many people are currently identifying themselves as “latinx”, it is more important to understand why the X and term are being used at all. X is a gender neutral concept. Due to this concept I have began to incorporate it into other words that have gender in the words, such as the word “women”, I now try to use womxn. From what I have read it seems like other cultures (besides the latino/a’s) are also catching on to the power of the X in gender neutrality. Who knows, it might just become the linguistic standard in the future as the X holds loads of power.
TIME magazine is hip to the term, their correspondent, Katy Steinmetz wrote an article about what Latinx Means (2018) check it out!
I would like to conclude by honoring Black History Month and paying tribute to the original King of the X revolution (and one of my favorite Black History Month legends): the empowering Malcolm X. Thank you for allowing us to now have LATINX on the rise, SALUTE!
Reference used:
Ramirez, T. Blay, Z. (2016). Huffpost:Why People Are Using The Term ‘Latinx’. Retrieved from: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-people-are-using-the-term-latinx_us_57753328e4b0cc0fa136a159
Steinmetz, K. (2018). TIME: Why ‘Latinx’ Is Succeeding While Other Gender-Neutral Terms Fail to Catch On. Retrieved from: http://time.com/5191804/latinx-definition-meaning-latino-hispanic-gender-neutral/