Latinx

See also: latinx

English

Etymology

The gender-neutral suffix -x replaces the gendered Spanish suffixes -a and -o. Reinforced by United States Spanish latinx, formed on the same principle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ləˈtin.ɛks/, /læˈtin.ɛks/, or /ˈlæt.ɪnˌɛks/, or sometimes as the phrase "Latino and Latina"

Adjective

Latinx

1. (chiefly US, sometimes proscribed, sometimes offensive, see usage notes) Of Latin American descent or origin. [from 21st c.]

   Synonyms: Latine, Latin@ (which see for more)

   • 2015, Eric A. Stanley, Nat Smith, Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, →ISBN:

     "Black and/or Latinx transgender people often find ourselves the target of increased police hostility,..."

   • 2015, Julie Decker, The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality, →ISBN:

     There is also the fact that, from an early age, people of color— especially young black people and to some extent Hispanic and Latinx/Latino/Latina people—are automatically sexualized to a higher degree by white observers [...]

   • 2016, Charles J. Sykes., Fail U.: The False Promise of Higher Education, →ISBN, page 188:

     […] anti-black racism, anti-Latinx racism, […]

   • 2019 November 18, Derecka Purnell, “Bloomberg's weak apology for stop-and-frisk is too little, too late”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     Police found no weapon on 93% of the people stopped, and it is unclear what was found on the remaining 7%. Actually, among people that the police frisked, black and Latinx people were less likely than white people to have a weapon on them.

Noun

Latinx (plural Latinxs or Latinx or Latinxes)

1. (chiefly US, sometimes proscribed, sometimes offensive, see usage notes) A Latin person (of any gender); a Latino or Latina.

   Synonyms: Latine, Latin@ (which see for more)

   • 2008 July 26, Elisa Camahort Page, “Elisa Camahort Page on Twitter”, in Twitter‎^[3], archived from the original on 17 November 2016:

     @nmoon Looks can be deceiving, but I "see" no Latinx, several multi-racials, 3 whites 90% AfrAm. I don't see anyone who looks solely AsAmer

   • 2011 April 20, Karari Kue, “Karari Kue on Twitter”, in Twitter‎^[4], archived from the original on 2016-11-17:

     @metalmujer @soylamar there's also a variant with an x (Latinxs, maestrxs, etc.) but not quite as popular as @

   • 2011 April 21, Reina Valenzuela, “Reina Valenzuela on Twitter”, in Twitter‎^[5], archived from the original on 2016-11-17:

     @kararikue @metalmujer I would love to read more abt the variations of Latin@ Latinx send me links, working on a presentation on diversity

   • 2015 Fall, City on a Hill Press-Primer, page 30:

     Asian Latinxs [...] Chicanxs/Latinxs [...]

   • 2016, Miguel A. De La Torre, The U.S. Immigration Crisis: Toward an Ethics of Place, page 72:

     Exclusion mainly occurs because Latinxs are conceived by the dominant Euroamerican culture as not belonging, as perpetual “illegals.”

   • 2016 Spring, La Vida Nueva, page 48:

     [And] there is no reason Latinxs shouldn't be the ones to fill them.

   • 2019, Kristin Lené Hole, Dijana Jelača, Film Feminisms: A Global Introduction, Routledge, →ISBN:

     Do stars with “hyphenated identities” have a responsibility to their constituencies (for example, a Latinx star to young Latinxes)?

   • 2019, “Author Biographies”, in Inmaculada M. García-Sánchez, Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, editors, Language and Cultural Practices in Communities and Schools: Bridging Learning for Students from Non-Dominant Groups, New York, N.Y., London: Routledge, →ISBN, page xiii:

     Her [Lucila D. Ek’s] research focuses on the bilingualism, biliteracy, and identities of Latinxes.

   • 2019, Grisel Y. Acosta, editor, Latina Outsiders Remaking Latina Identity, Routledge, →ISBN:

     Similarly, White Latinx people, who can pass in the United States as part of the dominant culture, sometimes experience pressure to not identify as Latinx or are told they are not as Latinx as brown-hued Latinxes.

   • 2020, Teddie M. Potter, “Foreword”, in Laura Maria Pigozzi, Caring for and Understanding Latinx Patients in Health Care Settings, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN, page 10:

     Dr Pigozzi’s book is essential reading for professionals who want to deliver effective and equitable care for Latinx.

   • 2020, Sheila Bridges-Bond, “A Bilingual Child Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)”, in Diane M. Scott, editor, Cases on Communication Disorders in Culturally Diverse Populations (Advances in Linguistics and Communication Studies), IGI Global, →ISBN, page 92:

     Seventy percent of Latinxes’ ages 5 and older speak English proficiently, yet English proficiency varies across bilingual communities in the U.S. South Americans have the largest percentage (66.8%) of children who speak English very well, while 43.1% of Mexicans and 41.0% of Central American children (ages 5 – 18 years) speak English less than well.

   • 2020, Edwin David Aponte, Miguel A. De La Torre, Introducing Latinx Theologies, Orbis Books, →ISBN:

     With the 2000 and 2016 presidential elections being decided by the electoral college rather than the popular vote, the distribution of Latinx is of prime political importance. Latinx are learning that the best defenses against xenophobic laws are U.S. citizenship and the right to vote.

   • 2020, Desiree D. Zerquera, Jasmine Haywood, Martín De Mucha, “More Than Nuance: Recognizing and Serving the Diversity of the Latinx Community”, in Robert T. Teranishi, Bach Mai Dolly Nguyen, Cynthia M. Alcantar, Edward R. Curammeng, editors, Measuring Race: Why Disaggregating Data Matters for Addressing Educational Inequality (James A. Banks, editor, Multicultural Education), Teachers College Press, →ISBN, part II (Unmasking Educational Inequality Through Disaggregated Data), page 157:

     The following section seeks to deepen our understanding of the heterogeneity of Latinxes.

   • 2021, Nicholas Freudenberg, “From Now to Next: How to Build a Movement for Another World”, in At What Cost: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 298:

     Recent national elections launched millions of young people, women, working people, LGBTQIA+ people; those concerned about the environment; Blacks, Latinxes, and immigrants fighting voter suppression; and others into electoral politics, movement building, and community organizing.

   • 2021, Michael M. Chemers, editor, The Theatre of Luis Valdez, Routledge, →ISBN:

     GARCÍA I think that's such a great way of thinking about some of the critical issues that we're facing today as Latino/Latina/Latinxes, however you identify yourself, in the United States.

   • 2022, Stephen C. Finley, In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam, Duke University Press, →ISBN:

     While Farrakhan’s body gains its meaning through relationship to the Wheel, his true “mother,” Farrakhan is connected to the meaning of black women’s bodies and to all “black” people’s bodies—black in all the colors and “races” of blackness—historically, Native Americans, Asians, Latinxes, and the people of African descent, among whom African Americans are most significant.

   • 2022, Bryan Powell, Gareth Dylan Smith, editors, Places and Purposes of Popular Music Education: Perspectives from the Field, Intellect, →ISBN:

     Latinxes often view their achievements as being dependent on the outcome of others.

   • 2022, Kristy Nabhan-Warren, “Introduction: Una Historia de perseverancia y resiliencia pueblo (A People’s History of Perseverance and Resilience)”, in The Oxford Handbook of Latinx Christianities in the United States, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 4:

     The handbook authors draw on their methodological expertise and demonstrate in their individual chapters how Latinx are crafting lived theologies of liberation through their words, actions, and embodied faith. […] Reimagining Christianity and its theological constructs, and proclaiming what it can be for US Latinx, as well as demonstrating what this looks like, is at the heart of all of the chapters.

Usage notes

• Latinx is used as a gender-neutral alternative to Latino and Latina, including in the plural (where Latinxs can replace long phrases like Latinos and Latinas, or the use of Latinos alone to refer to mixed-gender group, which some feminists object to), by a small number of Hispanic people and others, mostly younger people, women, and non-binary people. Some Hispanic people object to Latinx, considering it nontraditional or "politically correct". A 2019 poll of 508 Hispanic people found that only 2% chose the term as the one term that best described them; a 2020 poll found that only 3% of US adults who identified as Hispanic or Latino also described themselves as Latinx, and only 23% had heard of Latinx (of whom 10% preferred it). A 2021 poll asked Hispanic Americans about their preference among the terms Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx; 57% said it did not matter, and 4% chose Latinx; in a follow-up question about which term they lean toward, 5% chose Latinx.
• As of 2023, the use of Latinx is illegal in government communications of the state of Arkansas, and gender-neutral forms including this one have been banned in education spaces in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and criticized by the Royal Spanish Academy.
• Some people use Latine as an alternative, saying it is more pronounceable in Spanish.

Related terms

• Chicanx
• Filipinx
• Pilipinx

 

Descendants

• Spanish: latinx

Translations

Translations

• Spanish: latine (es) n, latinx n, latin@ n

Further reading

• Latinx on Wikipedia.Wikipedia