On ‘Latinx’

It’s probably been a few months now since I got into an argument on Twitter over use of the term ‘Latinx.’ Some do indeed object, saying that Spanish (really many languages) are gendered and that we should embrace speakers’ usage.

The trouble with that argument is that, historically, English has also been gendered, even if not to the degree that many other languages are. We have moved away from that, sometimes awkwardly—I personally remain linguistically uncomfortable with genderqueer pronouns—and still with a distance to go, because the use of the masculine gender to include the feminine and genderqueer is seen to subordinate women’s and genderqueer identities to men’s and really to treat women and genderqueers as an afterthought to men. Choosing the word ‘Latino’ to include women and genderqueers fairly obviously repeats that mistake^[1] and, while I won’t presume to tell Spanish-speakers how to speak Spanish, in English, we still need to move away from such gendered language.

Which is why, in my dissertation, I avoided the term ‘Latino.’ Instead, I used the term ‘hispanic,’^[2] a move I later regretted. In that regret, I understood ‘hispanic’ to refer to the Spanish language, thus excluding Portuguese speakers (as in Brazil).^[3] It also excludes the speakers of many, many indigenous languages, but the word appears more seriously to also draw on the legacy of the Spanish Empire.^[4] At the time, I was unaware of a term ‘Latinx.’

Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez also points out that ‘Latino’ affirms the patriarchal Latin cultural characteristic of machismo.^[5] This would definitely not be a way to change my mind.

1. ^[1]Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez, “What Does ‘Latinx’ Mean?” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 16, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/race-on-campus/2021-03-16↩
2. ^[2]David Benfell, “Conservative Views on Undocumented Migration” (doctoral dissertation, Saybrook, 2016). ProQuest (1765416126).↩
3. ^[3]David Benfell, “Dissertation errata and updates,” Not Housebroken, n.d., https://disunitedstates.org/dissertation-errata-and-updates/; Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, “Hispanic Or Latino? A Guide For The U.S. Presidential Campaign,” National Public Radio, August 27, 2015, http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/08/27/434584260/hispanic-or-latino-a-guide-for-the-u-s-presidential-campaign↩
4. ^[4]Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez, “What Does ‘Latinx’ Mean?” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 16, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/race-on-campus/2021-03-16↩
5. ^[5]Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez, “What Does ‘Latinx’ Mean?” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 16, 2021, https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/race-on-campus/2021-03-16↩