By now, chances are that you’ve heard the term “Latinx.” And the opinions on the word are plenty.
On May 15, Openhouse SF — an LGBTQ Senior Center in San Francisco — hosted a multigenerational panel “Why the X? Latinx Examined,” discussing the term and its use in today’s society.
Latinx was first seen online in 2004 and is defined as a queer-inclusive, gender-neutral or nonbinary alternative to Latino and Latina.
Whether someone identifies as Latino, Latina or Latinx, all of the panelists — Luisa Justo Dongo, of Openhouse, Unidos/United; Prado Gómez, Operations Director of Shanti Project; Sylvia Vargas, Openhouse SF’s Director of Community Engagement Programs; and Dana Arango, Openhouse SF’s housing and resource navigator — agreed that language keeps evolving and that debates over such terms will continue.
Hosted by Luis de la Garza, the panelists described their experiences and the words they use to express themselves.
Luisa Justo Dongo, originally from Peru, said the issue lies in labels and generational, cultural and personal history. Prado Gómez shared a similar sentiment and added that it depends on geographical experience.
“But the term X for my own cultural reference goes back to Malcolm X and using the X as rejection of colonization as a form of filing in an unknown piece of history, personal history, cultural history and also the letter X sounds different in English than it does in Spanish,” Gomez said. “It doesn’t have the same association, as far as how folks in my world identify with all of the above, depending on their awareness of and inclusion of gender is beyond the binary but most folks I know actually will revert to their specific culture or ethnic identity.”
Gomez, who is half Mexican, identifies with the term Mestizo or Chicano rather than Latin X, which is a prime example of all panelists agreeing that within Latin culture, one refers primarily to where they or their family are from geographically.
Sylvia Vargas, Openhouse SF’s Director of Community Engagement Programs, who is also half Mexican and identifies as Chicana or Mexican, said it varies because when she travels to Mexico she feels like an outcast.
“I grew up in the generation of ‘Hispanic’ because that’s what was on the paperwork, that’s the box you would check in school or what have you and having a father born in Mexico and a mother born in Salinas, California. Going to Tijuana it felt like I didn’t belong in either place because I could never speak Spanish with my cousins,” Vargas said.
For her, Latinx seems more of a label she doesn’t completely identify with due to her upbringing.
“For my family, they would not know what Latin X means and they would look at me like ’what’s the matter with you?’ you’re Mexican, you’re chicana,’” she said.
Dana Arango, housing and resource navigator for Openhouse SF, also grew up in a similar setting as Vargas, where her family uses Hispanic or Mexican, but feels no connection to the term Hispanic.
“We were colonized through the Spaniards and I feel no connection to the Spanish roots that I may have, so I choose not to use Hispanic and going to school I met other folks who didn’t connect to Hispanic either and we connect more to Latinos or Latinas,” Arango said.
Within the Spanish-speaking community, some people introduce themselves simply by which country they are from and nothing else.
“As soon as they hear me speak Spanish they are like ‘de donde eres?’ and we connect like this: ‘Yo soy de Nicaragua or El Salvador or Guatemala,’ and we are excited to share this with each other,” Arango said.
Arango uses Latinx and Latina interchangeably wherever she feels most comfortable embracing that side of her.
All panelists agreed that identification has changed over time and however, people identified were valid through that period. The key thing is to take pride in identity and heritage.
“All of these factors affect the term we use gender, generation, identity, privilege or access to information and it’s important for the future generations to understand that,” Gomez said. “Nice to see the current generation of folks reaching back to ancient knowledge and wisdom that understands that there are more than two genders in the world amongst humans and to be aware and intentional about making space for that language.”