Who invented the term LatinX and do you like it?

I don’t have any strong opinions on it one way or the other, but I’m a white Jew.

I don’t think it’s exactly clear who invented it. It was created years before it gained mainstream traction from what I’ve read. I don’t like it personally and I do not use it as a Latino myself. It’s awkward to pronounce and it betrays a lack of understanding of Spanish and grammatical gender.

I don’t like it.

My father’s from Mexico.

I understand it’s trendy and might look interesting in texts and headlines.

What exactly does it mean? What is the X?

It doesn’t bother me. I’ve heard that some Hispanic people don’t like it.

@JLeslie The X is for non-gender specific since the terms are Latino or Latina otherwise. I don’t defend it or not but that’s why it is used.

@janbb Interesting that they, whoever they are, even worried about that since we are using English. I wasn’t sure if it was gender or just signifying many different countries or what. Also, it sounds like Generation X.

@JLeslie Well, it may be because both “Latino” and “Latina” are regularly used in English, so “Latinx” is a way of not specifying masculine or feminine. But in most languages with grammatical gender, one gender serves as the default when no gender is specified (in Indo-European languages, that’s the masculine). My problem with it isn’t that I think it’s wrong to want a gender neutral term, it’s just that “Latino” can already be used without reference to gender and “Latinx” is clunky and awkward imo.

@Demosthenes It is my understanding that gay, bi and gender neutral Latinos did not want to be designated by a male gendered noun, even if it can be used that way, just as we used to use men as the generic but are moving away from it.

@JLeslie As Demosthenes says, Latino and Latina are regularly used in English.

My knee jerk reaction is I didn’t like the term. I favor using someone’s country, or Latin Americans, sometimes I use Hispanic, but rarely.

@Demosthenes Probably most Americans don’t know Latinos would include male and female. Plus, a lot of Americans seem to be incensed at the idea than “men” can mean all people, as in all men are created equal, so there is probably especially a reluctance among the people who try to find these politically correct words to use the masculine to mean everyone.

@janbb I guess. I don’t hear them that much, but I can’t say I have never used the words being used. I especially think there is no need for LatinX if people use Latinas and Latinos.

Are Latin Americans on board with it? I can’t imagine my husband saying or writing he is LatinX, or his parents are LatinX. Is it just used to describe the community as a whole? Shorter than saying the Latin American community? Did they, whoever they is, decide that Hispanic is not a nice word now and so they moved on to this new one?

Latino very much denotes the masculine and I understand why some people do not like the obvious masculine connotation, but I friggin’ hate the word LatinX. It’s so awkward and does not easily roll off the tongue. And you cannot just say Hispanic because Latino and Hispanic are not interchangeable. I wish we could come up with something different. These days I just say I’m half Mexican so I don’t have to deal with offending anyone or using the incorrect word.

@tinyfaery Thank you for visiting the Q. I just asked my husband today and he thinks it’s not even worth paying attention to. People trying too hard or something. So, all the Mexicans so far in our mini group here don’t like it, you, jca2, Demosthenes, and my husband. Really makes me wonder who the hell is inventing this stuff, and who decides what is politically correct. I care about addressing groups in a respectful way, but I am not so sure LatinX is respectful if a lot of people in the group don’t like it. I almost never use Latina or Latino either, so I did not need a substitute.

@JLeslie For what it’s worth, I think the X is not capitalized; I think it’s Latinx.

@janbb Thanks.

I just say “My father is from Mexico” which usually results in “oh my god, you don’t look Mexican.”

@jca2 LOL. When people say that to my SIL she says, “what do Mexicans look like?”

Edit: I think now she knows what they expect Mexicans to look like. I think being from Mexico and knowing how diverse it was it didn’t register with her that there was a such a stereotype when she first used to come here.

@JLeslie: Haha! I think people assume Mexicans look like indigenous tribal people. There are some that look like that, of course, but there are some that have roots in Spain and so may be taller and lighter.

@jca2 My SIL is olive complexion and black hair, Eva Langoria is her doppelganger, but also our last name throws people off I guess. When I told my husband your dad was Mexican and your last name my husband said, “that’s very Spanish.” LOL. No kidding. Anyway, I am sure he would not be shocked at all that your dad was Mexican if he saw you.

I use it as a teaching moment to let people know throughout the Americas people came from everywhere to settle in the new world.

What you said about saying, “my father is from Mexico,” that’s exactly what I say, “my family is from Latvia and Russia.

I never hear a woman say “I’m Latina.” I don’t hear “I’m Hispanic” either for that matter.

@JLeslie: My last name is hard for a lot of people to pronounce, based on the spelling. Now that Spanish is more common in this country, more people can say it, but they often screw it up because of the vowels.

When I hear your last name, I wouldn’t have thought it was Mexican or Hispanic. It almost sounds like it could be Arabic.

@jca2 Yeah, it’s from the Middle East. In Israel they use the term “Mizrahi Jews” or “Mizrahim” or used to, for Middle Eastern Jews. I don’t know if they still do, In America they are grouped with the Sephardic Jews. I’m guessing some Mizrahim actually came from the Iberian peninsula to the Middle East, but I guess some had never left the Middle East to begin with. Here is a link about the Mizrahi Jews. Mizrahi means from the east.

Some actually have the last name Mizrahi, I guess like how tailors coming through Ellis Island wound up with the name Taylor. Last names often were someone’s profession or place of origin. Some famous people who are Mizrahi Jews are Paula Abdul and Isaac Mizrahi (I think both of their fathers were Syrian Jews). Most of the Middle East Jews I know in America are from Israel, Iran, and Syria. I once met a couple from Egypt.

My FIL’s first languages were Hebrew and Arabic at home (He was born in Mexico) his parents never learned Spanish very well.

My FIL’s parents migrated from Israel (before the UN decision) to Mexico. Before Israel they think the family was in Lebanon and Syria, I don’t know how many generations back.

My husband’s second last name, his mom’s surname, is Spanish, but he dropped it in America. His mom is Spanish and French.

@JLeslie: People say to me “you must look like your mother. Is she German?”

Uh, no.

@jca2 LOL. It doesn’t bother you does it? People guess me wrong all of the time. They ask if I am Italian, Irish, Polish, a lot of people do guess Jewish. I had one person ask how can I be Jewish if I have blue eyes. The guy just was not around a lot of Jews where he lived I guess. Maybe he was raised in an antisemitic place too, I don’t know, could just be ignorance, I rarely assume people are hateful. I met a lot of people while going to school in Michigan who said they didn’t know anyone Jewish, or so they thought anyway. I mean just watching TV you are bombarded with Jewish people, LOL, people just don’t necessarily know it.

Sofia Vergara said she had to dye her hair black to get an acting job in America, because Americans expect Latin American women to have dark hair. She is from Colombia and is a natural blonde. I think dirty blonde by America standards, she looks a little highlighted in photos, but still very fair hair. Here’s a link: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=sofia+vergara+blonde&id=4D64B6686FD04D26DA6C74E0E10FB3A9DA1811E1&form=IQFRBA&first=1&disoverlay=1

@JLeslie: You’re right about Jewish people in the acting world. All the time when I google famous people, it turns out they’re Jewish but many have changed their names.

@jca2 It’s true a lot of them changed or change their names, but a lot of people in the South and middle of the country have no clue what names are Jewish anyway.

If you met me you would most likely guess I was Jewish, or have an inkling I might be, but they often have no idea, because they simply aren’t around a lot of Jewish people.