Andres Acosta hasn't seen his Colombian great aunt in three years.
So when she posted a graphic on Facebook that explainedthe term Latinx,a gender-neutral term for those ofHispanic or Latin American descent,it was a small but meaningful way to affirm the LGBTQ community.
His community.
That small letter "x" was a symbol of allyship.Even though the pandemic has kept them apart, it was a sign she cares.
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"If she’s willing to adopt something new, as someone old in age, then what’s stopping the rest of us from giving it a chance?” said Acosta, an Orlando, Florida, resident.
The idea of Latinxidentity has infiltratedpolitical and culturaldiscussions, reports the Tallahassee Democrat.
Hmm:'Latinx' is mostly unknown term — even among US Latinos
But outside the theatreof politics, Latinx isn't so cut-and-dry.
For some Spanish-speaking people who are nonbinary or transgender, the term (pronounced: "Latin-ex")creates space in a historically gendered language. For others, it represents a reworking of the language by non-Hispanic people in and around academia.
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Most fall somewhere in the middle on Latinx, if they've even heard of it.
A bilingualsurvey published in 2020 by the Pew Research Center showed only 23% of adults who identify as Hispanic or of Latin American descent had heard the word.Pew found just 3% of respondentsused it to describe themselves.
"The term was coined by people in the social justice movement who are at the intersection of Latin American and queer," said Acosta,community relations manager for Contigo Fund, a nonprofit thatprovides funds to LGBTQ organizations in Central Florida.
“It’s not something that we’re saying everybody has to use,” he said.“It’s a way for us to make our own language and the way we refer to ourselves that’s inclusive.”
Gabriella Rodriguez, executive director of QLatinx, an LGBTQ+ advocacy groupin Central Florida, explained it like this:If one male-presenting individual comes into a space filled with women-presenting individuals, in Spanish it would be an assembly of individuals who present as male.
For example, a group of female-identifyingattorneys in Spanish would be called las abogadas. Add one male-identifying attorney to the group, and the word to describe the group takes on the masculine form: Los abogados.
"The Spanish language is super gendered," she said.
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Who gets to decide how 'language changes?'
Although most commonly used by young people, the term created by Hispanic and Latin AmericanLGBTQ+ activists nearly a decade ago has filtered into community and resource centers in Florida.
The termgained popularity after the 2016 shooting that killed 49 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando. Nearly all of the victims in the mass shooting were Hispanic or of Latin American descent.
By using Latinx, those communities hope to show acceptance to people who find comfort in the word'sinclusivity.
"Language changes," Michael Riordan, of Palm Beach County's LGBTQ+ Compass Community Center said. "As it changes, we learn new things and we look to use language that's inclusive and respects all individuals."
Compass hosts agroup for people in Palm Beach County who are LGBTQ+ and Hispanic or Latin Americancalled "Latinx."
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Ernie Gonzalez, who was born in Puerto Rico, is a member and staff organizer for that group.
Gonzalez said he would use the word Latinx to describe his identity among non-Hispanic people or young people, but said he can't picture himself using it with older neighbors or family members on the island.
"You can code switch with older generations and younger generations," he said. "I wouldn’t use (Latinx) with an older generation because it's not a word they would be familiar with."
But Gonzalez thinks the word is a sign of where younger Spanish speakers want their language to go: Toward a more inclusive future.
"Having the term in existence is allowing for more inclusion. It's not just for individuals who are nonbinary or trans, but also for when we have things thatare written out," he said, pointing to legal documents written for the general population regardless of gender.
"To have a term that describes people who do not want to be gendered in a gendered language shows progression," Gonzalez added.
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Hispanic, Latinx Americans push back against generalizations
Some leaders are more hesitant to use "Latinx" because they say it's used to paint people with Spanish-speaking ancestry with too broad a brush — a criticism often launched at media organizations, universities, and governments that refer to Hispanic people and Spanish speakers as if they are a monolithic group.
"Latinx is an attemptby leftists to reworkour home language," said Rolando Chang Barrero, a CubanLGBTQ+ community organizer,art gallery owner and member of the Palm Beach County Democratic Caucus.
"Classifying us as Latinx or even as Hispanic is a misnomer that does not represent the 33 foreign countries represented in my community.Each country is as nuanced as the United States," Barrero added.
Pan-ethnic labels used to describe people from Spanish-speaking countries are not an invention of the 21st century, Barrero said.
The 1980 U.S. Censuswas the first decennial count to ask respondents if they were "Hispanic." Previously, the Census attempted to quantify people by asking if they had Spanish surnames orwhether they spoke Spanish at home.
In 2020, the Census asked respondents whether they were of "Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin." The question included a space to specify a person'scountry of ethnic origin.
But even those terms are nuanced.
Hispanic origin refers to any person whose family comes from a Spanish-speaking country, whereas Latino or Latinarefers to a person whose family comes from a Latin American country in Central or South America or the Caribbean.
Barrero said the introduction of umbrella terms like Hispanic and Latinx lead to generalizations about people who hail from Spanish-speaking countries instead of a greater understanding of their cultures and traditions.
"They’re using the word like'the Hispanic market' and '(the) Hispanic voting block.'That has caused a lot of interference in understanding who we are as a people," Barrero said. "We share a language, but that’s where it begins and where it ends."
Latinx self-identification and the push to respect pronouns
Just as Nuñez said Latinx doesn't describe her identity, LGBTQ+ leaders hope that people decide for themselves whether they use Latinx.But they hope others respect the decision.
Barrero, a gay person who uses both he/him and ze/zir pronouns, said while he takes issue with non-Hispanic people using Latinx to describe many communities all together, people who are Hispanic and nonbinary or transgendershould feel supported when they use it.
"I completely respect someone's pronouns and their identity, but we should not (all) fall under that label." Barrerosaid. "We have many nuanced people in our community and that hasn't reached the mainstream."
Barrero and others are pushing for an understanding of "intersectionality" — a respect for all of a person's identities when considering their life experience — in Hispanic and Latin American communities.
Still, as individuals decide whether to use the word, Acosta knows people such as his great aunt, who lives in Bogotá, Colombia, will have a different understanding than he does in Orlando.
"As Latinx folks, the term was coined by people in the movement in the United States," Acosta said. "The issue then becomes, do those that are Latin American, who are living in Latin America, do they appreciate the term or is it the United States imposing on their language?"
Katherine Kokal reports for the Palm Beach Post. Contact her atkkokal@pbpost.com and follow her on Twitter@katikokal.
Ana Goñi-Lessan reports for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her atAGoniLessan@tallahassee.comand follow her on Twitter@goni_lessan.
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