:Latinx

Latinx as a group identity term denotes individuals in the United States who have Latin American roots.{{Cite journal |last=Santos |first=Carlos E. |date=2017 |title=The History, Struggles, and Potential of the Term Latinx |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322075861 |journal=Latina/o Psychology Today |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=7–14}}{{cite news |last=Reyes |first=Raul A. |date=November 6, 2017 |title=To be Latinx or not to be Latinx? For some Hispanics that is the question |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/be-latinx-or-not-be-latinx-some-hispanics-question-n817911 |access-date=July 14, 2020 |website=NBC News}} Other terms for this specific social category include Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Latine, and Latin@ (combining the letters "a" and "o" into the character @).{{cite magazine |last=Brammer |first=John Paul |date=May 2019 |title=Generation X: Digging Into the Messy History of 'Latinx' Helped Me Embrace My Complex Identity |url=https://www.motherjones.com/media/2019/06/digging-into-the-messy-history-of-latinx-helped-me-embrace-my-complex-identity/ |magazine=Mother Jones |pages=59–61 |volume=44 |issue=3}}{{sfn|Vargas|2018|loc=[https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/latinx#GrouIden 1.1 Group Identity]}} Yet another term is simply "Latin", a gender-neutral alternative, and can be stated in the plural as "Latin peoples".{{cn|date=March 2023}}{{Cite web |first=Latin |title=Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Latin |url-status=live |access-date=28 April 2025}} Latinx is used as an alternative to the gender binary inherent to formulations such as Latina/o and Latin@,{{Cite web |last=Simón |first=Yara |url=http://remezcla.com/features/culture/latino-vs-hispanic-vs-latinx-how-these-words-originated/ |title=Hispanic vs. Latino vs. Latinx: A Brief History of How These Words Originated |date=September 14, 2018 |website=Remezcla |access-date=April 3, 2019}} and is used by and for anyone of Latin-American descent who does not identify as either male or female, or more broadly as a gender-neutral term for such.{{r|Dent|Gender Inclusivity}}{{cite news |last=Reyes |first=Raul A. |title=Are you Latinx? As more use the term, it draws approval and criticism |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/are-you-latinx-usage-grows-word-draws-approval-criticism-n651396 |work=NBC News |date=September 29, 2016}}

Pronunciations of Latinx documented in dictionaries include {{IPAc-en|l|ə|ˈ|t|iː|n|ɛ|k|s|,_|l|æ|-|,_|l|ɑː|-|,_|-|n|ə|k|s|,_|ˈ|l|æ|t|ɪ|n|ɛ|k|s}} {{respell|lə|TEE|neks|,_|la(h)|-,_-|nəks|,_|LAT|in|eks}}.{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Latinx|access-date=April 3, 2019}}{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Latinx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191229121745/https://www.lexico.com/definition/latinx |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 29, 2019 |title=Latinx |dictionary=Lexico UK English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}}{{cite Dictionary.com|Latinx|access-date=December 8, 2019}}{{cite American Heritage Dictionary|Latinx |access-date=December 8, 2019}} Other variants respelled ad hoc as "Latins", "La-tinks", or "Latin-equis" have been reported.{{Cite web |last=Stavans |first=Ilan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/es/2017/11/14/el-significado-del-latinx/ |title=El significado del 'latinx' |website=The New York Times |date=November 14, 2017 |language=es |url-access=limited}}{{cite journal |last=Trujillo-Pagán |first=Nicole |title=Crossed out by LatinX: Gender neutrality and genderblind sexism |journal=Latino Studies |date=2018 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=396–406 |doi=10.1057/s41276-018-0138-7 |s2cid=149648482}} Editors at Merriam-Webster write that "more than likely, there was little consideration for how [Latinx] was supposed to be pronounced when it was created."{{cite web |title='Latinx' And Gender Inclusivity How do you pronounce this more inclusive word? |author= |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-history-latinx |date=2017 |website=Merriam Webster |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803003427/https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-history-latinx |archive-date=August 3, 2017 |quote=A similar use of 'x' is in Mx., a gender-neutral title of courtesy that is used in place of gendered titles, such as Mr. and Ms. It has been suggested that the use of 'x' in Mx. influenced Latinx.}}

The first records of the term Latinx appear in the 21st century, but there is no certainty as to its first occurrence.{{Cite journal |last=Salinas |first=Cristobal |date=2020 |title=The Complexity of the 'x' in Latinx : How Latinx/a/o Students Relate to, Identify With, and Understand the Term Latinx |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338551331 |journal=Journal of Hispanic Higher Education |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=149–168 |doi=10.1177/1538192719900382 |issn=1538-1927 |s2cid=213350723 |doi-access=}} According to Google Trends, it was first seen online in 2004,{{Cite web |last=Gonzalez |first=Irina |date=June 19, 2019 |title=Why Did "Latinx" Get Popular—And What Does It Mean? |url=https://www.oprahmag.com/life/a28056593/latinx-meaning/ |access-date=July 14, 2020 |website=Oprah Magazine}}{{Cite web |last=Gamio Cuervo |first=Arlene B. |date=August 2016 |title=Latinx: A Brief Guidebook |url=https://www.academia.edu/29657615 |via=Academia.edu |publisher=Princeton LGBT Center}} and first appeared in academic literature around 2013 "in a Puerto Rican psychological periodical to challenge the gender binaries encoded in the Spanish language."[https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/08/students-adopt-gender-nonspecific-term-latinx-be-more-inclusive "Latina/o/x"] Josh Logue, December 8, 2015, Inside Higher Ed Contrarily, it has been claimed that usage of the term "started in online chat rooms and listservs in the 1990s" and that its first appearance in academic literature was in the Fall 2004 volume of the journal Feministas Unidas.{{Cite journal |last=Milian |first=Claudia |date=October 4, 2017 |title=Extremely Latin, XOXO: Notes on LatinX |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0921374017727850 |journal=Cultural Dynamics |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=121–140 |doi=10.1177/0921374017727850|s2cid=148942940 }}[https://people.wku.edu/inma.pertusa/encuentros/FemUn/newsletters/FemUn_Fall2004.pdf "Review of Susana Chávez-Silverman’s Killer Crónicas: Urbane Gardens of Earthly Delight"], Elizabeth Horan, Fall 2004, p. 25, Feministas

Unidas In the rest of the United States, it was first used in activist and LGBT circles as a way to expand on earlier attempts at gender-inclusive forms of the grammatically masculine Latino, such as Latino/a and Latin@. A similar use of 'x' in the term Mx. may have been an influence or model for the development of Latinx.

Use of x to expand language can be traced to the word Chicano, which had an x added to the front of the word, making it Xicano. Scholars have identified this shift as part of the movement to empower people of Mexican origin in the U.S. and also as a means of emphasizing that the origins of the letter X and term Chicano are linked to the Indigenous Nahuatl language.{{Cite journal |last=Rossini |first=Jon D |date=2018 |title=The Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas Graduate Class: Geography, Pedagogy, and Power |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/715912/pdf |journal=Theatre Journal |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=443–445 |doi=10.1353/tj.2018.0093 |s2cid=135220164}} The x has also been added to the end of the term Chicano, making it Chicanx. An example of this occurred at Columbia University where students changed their student group name from "Chicano Caucus" to "Chicanx Caucus" in December 2014. The following year, Columbia University changed the name of Latino Heritage Month to Latinx Hispanic Heritage Month.{{Cite news |last=Armus |first=Teo |date=2015-10-07 |title=Student groups shift toward use of Latinx to include all gender identities - Columbia Daily Spectator |url=https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2015/10/07/latino-latinx/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018205138/https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2015/10/07/latino-latinx/ |archive-date=2015-10-18 |access-date=2024-08-04 |work=Columbia Daily Spectator}} Salinas and Lozano (2017) state that the term is influenced by Mexican indigenous communities that have a third gender role, such as Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca (see also: {{slink|Gender system#Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico}}).{{r|Salinas & Lozano}}

Between 2004 and 2014, Latinx did not attain broad usage or attention. Awareness of the term grew in the month following the Pulse nightclub shooting of June 2016; Google Trends shows that searches for this term rose greatly in this period.{{cite magazine |last=Brammer |first=John Paul |date=May 2019 |title=Generation X: Digging Into the Messy History of 'Latinx' Helped Me Embrace My Complex Identity |url=https://www.motherjones.com/media/2019/06/digging-into-the-messy-history-of-latinx-helped-me-embrace-my-complex-identity/ |magazine=Mother Jones |pages=59–61 |volume=44 |issue=3}}{{rp|60}} The term was added to the Merriam-Webster English dictionary{{Cite Merriam-Webster|Latinx|access-date=April 3, 2019}} in 2018, as it continued to grow in popularity in the United States, and to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2019.{{cite web |last=Dent |first=Jonathan |date=March 18, 2019 |title=New Words in the OED: March 2019 |url=https://public.oed.com/blog/new-words-in-the-oed-march-2019/ |work=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}} Between 2019 and 2024, awareness for the term doubled among those who self-identified as U.S. Latinos or Hispanics.{{Cite web |last=Lopez |first=Luis Noe-Bustamante, Gracie Martinez and Mark Hugo |date=2024-09-12 |title=Latinx Awareness Has Doubled Among U.S. Hispanics Since 2019, but Only 4% Use It |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/latinx-awareness-has-doubled-among-u-s-hispanics-since-2019-but-only-4-percent-use-it/ |access-date=2025-04-20 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}}

Despite the increase in awareness, use of the term to describe oneself has not greatly increased over time.{{Cite web |last=Lopez |first=Luis Noe-Bustamante, Gracie Martinez and Mark Hugo |date=2024-09-12 |title=Latinx Awareness Has Doubled Among U.S. Hispanics Since 2019, but Only 4% Use It |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/latinx-awareness-has-doubled-among-u-s-hispanics-since-2019-but-only-4-percent-use-it/ |access-date=2025-04-20 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}} {{As of|2018}}, use of the term Latinx was limited nearly exclusively to the United States.{{harvnb|Vargas|2018}}. "Latinx is a term used exclusively within the United States, or nearly so, such that people from Latin America would not ordinarily think of themselves as Latinxs, unless or until they reside in the United States." Manuel Vargas writes that people from Latin America ordinarily would not think of themselves using the term unless they reside in the United States.

A 2019 poll (with a 5% margin of error) found that 2% of US residents of Latin American descent in the US use Latinx, including 3% of 18–34-year-olds; the rest preferred other terms. "No respondents over [age] 50 selected the term", while overall "3% of women and 1% of men selected the term as their preferred ethnic identifier".{{Cite web |last=McWhorter |first=John |date=December 23, 2019 |title=Why Latinx Can't Catch On |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/why-latinx-cant-catch-on/603943/ |access-date=May 27, 2020 |website=The Atlantic}}

A 2020 Pew Research Center survey found that only 23% of US adults who self-identified as Hispanic or Latino had heard of the term Latinx. Of those, 65% said that the term Latinx should not be used to describe them, with most preferring terms such as Hispanic or Latino. While the remaining 33% of US Hispanic adults who have heard the term Latinx said it could be used to describe the community, only 10% of that subgroup preferred it to the terms Hispanic or Latino. The preferred term both among Hispanics who have heard the term and among those who have not was Hispanic, garnering 50% and 64% respectively. Latino was second in preference with 31% and 29% respectively. Only 3% self identified as Latinx in that survey.

A 2020 study based on interviews with 34 Latinx/a/o students from the US found that they "perceive higher education as a privileged space where they use the term Latinx. Once they return to their communities, they do not use the term".

A 2021 Gallup 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 where they were asked which term they lean toward, 5% chose Latinx.{{cite web |last1=McCarthy |first1=Justin |last2=DuPreé |first2=Whitney |date=August 4, 2021 |title=No Preferred Racial Term Among Most Black, Hispanic Adults |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/353000/no-preferred-racial-term-among-black-hispanic-adults.aspx |access-date=August 5, 2021 |publisher=Gallup}}

A 2021 poll by Democratic Hispanic outreach firm Bendixen & Amandi International found that only 2 percent of those polled refer to themselves as Latinx, while 68 percent call themselves "Hispanic" and 21 percent favored "Latino" or "Latina" to describe their ethnic background. In addition, 40 percent of those polled said Latinx bothers or offends them to some degree and 30 percent said they would be less likely to support a politician or organization that uses the term.{{Cite web |last1=Caputo |first1=Marc |last2=Rodriguez |first2=Sabrina |date=December 6, 2021 |title=Democrats fall flat with 'Latinx' language |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/06/hispanic-voters-latinx-term-523776 |website=Politico}}{{Cite web |date=November 21, 2021 |title=The use of 'LatinX' among Hispanic Voters: Bendixen & Amandi International |url=https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017d-81be-dee4-a5ff-efbe74ec0000 |website=Politico}}

A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that awareness among U.S. Latinos and Hispanics increased from 23% to 47%, but those who self-identified as Latinx only increased from 3% to 4%, roughly equal to 1.9 million people.{{Cite web |date=2024-09-29 |title=Awareness of 'Latinx' increases among US Latinos, and 'Latine' emerges as an alternative |url=https://apnews.com/article/us-latino-opinions-survey-latinx-latine-3b787510bca7fbd679010af2493eaeed |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=AP News |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Lopez |first=Luis Noe-Bustamante, Gracie Martinez and Mark Hugo |date=2024-09-12 |title=Latinx Awareness Has Doubled Among U.S. Hispanics Since 2019, but Only 4% Use It |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/latinx-awareness-has-doubled-among-u-s-hispanics-since-2019-but-only-4-percent-use-it/ |access-date=2024-10-02 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}} Demographic groups including age, sexual orientation, and Afro-Latino identity show the largest distinction between users and non-users. Nonetheless, 75% of U.S. Hispanic adults in the survey opposed the use of Latinx to describe their respective population, with 52% preferring the term Hispanic and 29% preferring the term Latino/Latina.

Latinx has become commonly used by activists in American higher education and the popular media who seek to advocate for individuals on the borderlines of gender identity.{{cite journal |last1=Salinas |first1=Cristobal |last2=Lozano |first2=Adele |date=2017 |title=Mapping and recontextualizing the evolution of the term Latinx: An environmental scanning in higher education |journal=Journal of Latinos and Education |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=302–315 |doi=10.1080/15348431.2017.1390464 |s2cid=149435457}} Herlihy-Mera calls Latinx "a recognition of the exclusionary nature of our institutions, of the deficiencies in existent linguistic structures, and of language as an agent of social change", saying, "The gesture toward linguistic intersectionality stems from a suffix endowed with a literal intersection—x."{{r|Herlihy-Mera}} Some commentators, such as Ed Morales, a lecturer at Columbia University and author of the 2018 book Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture, associate the term with the ideas of Gloria Anzaldúa, a Chicana feminist. Morales writes that "refusal to conform to male/female gender binaries" parallels "the refusal to conform to a racial binary".{{rp|61}}

The term appears in the titles of academic books in the context of LGBT studies,{{Cite book |last1=Pastrana |first1=Antonio Jr. (Jay) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wo_JDQAAQBAJ |title=An Examination of Latinx LGBT Populations Across the United States: Intersections of Race and Sexuality |last2=Battle |first2=Juan |last3=Harris |first3=Angelique |date=December 22, 2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=9781137560742 |series=Palgrave Pivot |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-56074-2 |oclc=974040623}} rhetoric and composition studies,{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UyhEDQAAQBAJ |title=Decolonizing Rhetoric and Composition Studies: New Latinx Keywords for Theory and Pedagogy |date=October 15, 2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-137-52723-3 |editor-last1=Ruiz |editor-first1=Iris D. |location=New York |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-52724-0 |oclc=934502504 |editor-last2=Sánchez |editor-first2=Raúl}} and comics studies.{{cite book |last=Aldama |first=Frederick Luis |title=Latinx Comic Book Storytelling: An Odyssey by Interview |date=2016 |publisher=¡Hyperbole Books!, a San Diego State University Press imprint |isbn=9781938537929 |location=San Diego, California |oclc=973339575}} Scharrón-del Río and Aja (2015) have traced the use of Latinx by authors Beatriz Llenín Figueroa, Jaime Géliga Quiñones, Yuderkys Espinosa Miñoso, and Adriana Gallegos Dextre.{{cite web |url=http://www.latinorebels.com/2015/12/05/the-case-for-latinx-why-intersectionality-is-not-a-choice/ |title=The Case for 'Latinx': Why Intersectionality Is Not a Choice |last1=Scharrón-del Río |first1=María R. |last2=Aja |first2=Alan A. |date=December 5, 2015 |website=Latino Rebels}} The term has also been discussed in scholarly research by cultural theorist Ilan Stavans on Spanglish{{Cite web |title=Ilan Stavans |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/contributor/ilan-stavans/ |access-date=August 4, 2020 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books}} and by Frederick Luis Aldama and Christopher Gonzalez on Latinx super heroes in mainstream comics and Latinx graphic novels such as United States of Banana.{{Cite book |last1=Aldama |first1=Frederick Luis |title=Latinx Superheroes in Mainstream Comics |last2=Jennings |first2=John |last3=Hernandez |first3=Javier |date=October 10, 2017 |isbn=9780816537082 |location=Tucson, Arizona |publisher=University of Arizona Press |oclc=983824443}}{{Cite book |last1=Aldama |first1=Frederick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6GN8DwAAQBAJ&q=frederick+luis+aldama+latinx+braschi&pg=PT97 |title=Latinx Studies: The Key Concepts |last2=González |first2=Christopher |date=December 7, 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781351614351}}{{Cite book |last=Aldama |first=Frederick Luis |title=Poets, Philosophers, Lovers: On the Writings of Giannina Braschi |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |date=2020 |isbn=9780822946182 |location=Pittsburgh |oclc=1143649021}} The term and concept of Latinx is also explored by Antonio Pastrana Jr., Juan Battle and Angelique Harris on LBGTQ+ issues. Valdes also uses the term in research on black perspectives on Latinx.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7HVgDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |title=Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg |last=Valdés |first=Vanessa K. |date=March 15, 2017 |location=Albany, New York |publisher=SUNY Press |oclc=961828672 |isbn=9781438465159}}{{cite web |url=http://www.aaihs.org/thinking-about-an-x/ |last=Johnson |first=Jessica Marie |date=December 12, 2015 |title=Thinking About the 'X' |work=Black Perspectives |publisher=African American Intellectual History Society |access-date=April 23, 2017}} Despite the extensive use of the term across academic texts, Salinas and Lozano (2019) write that authors often lack definitions for the term within their texts.

Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera writes that in Puerto Rico, the "shift toward x in reference to people has already occurred" in limited academic settings and "for many faculty [in the humanities department at the University of Puerto Rico] hermanx and niñx and their equivalents have been the standard ... for years. It is clear that the inclusive approach to nouns and adjectives is becoming more common, and while it may at some point become the prevailing tendency, presently there is no prescriptive control toward either syntax".{{cite news |last=Herlihy-Mera |first=Jeffrey |date=May 1, 2018 |title=The Cross-Lingual Interse(x)tionality of 'Latinx' |url=https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2018/05/01/the-cross-lingual-intersextionality-of-latinx/ |url-access=limited |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821200657/https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2018/05/01/the-cross-lingual-intersextionality-of-latinx/ |archive-date=August 21, 2019 |work=The Chronicle of Higher Education}} Also available at [https://www.academia.edu/40003706 Academia.edu].

Several student-run organizations at academic institutions have used the word in their title.{{cite web |title=Student Organizations: UNC Latina/o Studies Program |url=http://lsp.unc.edu/student-organizations/ |access-date=April 23, 2017 |website=lsp.unc.edu}} {{cite web |title=Iowa State University – Student Organizations |url=https://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/site/2105 |access-date=April 23, 2017 |website=stuorg.iastate.edu}} {{cite web |date=October 24, 2016 |title=Latinx Student Organizations: Multicultural Resource Center |url=https://new.oberlin.edu/office/multicultural-resource-center/student-resources/latinx-resources/latinx-student-organizations |access-date=April 23, 2017 |website=new.oberlin.edu |publisher=Oberlin College}} At Princeton University the Latinx Perspective Organization was founded in 2016 to "unify Princeton's diverse Latinx community"{{Cite web |title=Home |url=http://pulatinx.wixsite.com/pulpo |access-date=April 23, 2017 |work=Princeton University Latinx Perspectives Organization}} and several student-run organizations at other institutions have used the word in their title.{{cite web |title=Student Organizations: UNC Latina/o Studies Program |url=http://lsp.unc.edu/student-organizations/ |access-date=April 23, 2017 |website=lsp.unc.edu}} {{cite web |title=Iowa State University – Student Organizations |url=https://www.stuorg.iastate.edu/site/2105 |access-date=April 23, 2017 |website=stuorg.iastate.edu}} {{cite web |date=October 24, 2016 |title=Latinx Student Organizations: Multicultural Resource Center |url=https://new.oberlin.edu/office/multicultural-resource-center/student-resources/latinx-resources/latinx-student-organizations |access-date=April 23, 2017 |website=new.oberlin.edu |publisher=Oberlin College}} The University of California, Berkeley, has established the Latinx Research Center, "a faculty-led research hub...that is home to cutting-edge research about the diverse Latinx community of the U.S."{{Cite web|url=https://lrc.berkeley.edu/|title=Latinx Research Center | An Interdisciplinary and transAmericas Research Hub}} Conversely, a 2020 analysis found "that community college professional organizations have by and large not adopted the term Latinx, even by {{sic}} organizations with a Latinx/a/o centered mission", although some academic journals and dissertations about community colleges were using it.{{Cite journal |last1=Salinas |first1=Cristobal |last2=Doran |first2=Erin E. |last3=Swingle |first3=Ethan C. |date=2020 |title=Community Colleges' Use of the Term 'Latinx' |url=https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/edu_pubs/179 |journal=New Directions for Community Colleges |volume=2020 |issue=190 |pages=9–20 |doi=10.1002/cc.20383 |issn=0194-3081 |s2cid=225845183}}

Some U.S. Republicans argue that the word is a product of liberal "wokeism". In January 2023, Republican Governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued the Executive Order to Respect the Latino Community by Eliminating Culturally Insensitive words from Official Use in Government, banning the use of Latinx in official Arkansas government communications.{{cite news |last=Bernal |first=Rafael |date=January 12, 2023 |title=Sanders bans 'Latinx' on first day as Arkansas governor |url=https://thehill.com/latino/3810366-huckabee-sanders-bans-latinx-on-first-day-as-arkansas-governor/ |work=The Hill}}

Some U.S. Democrats argue that the term disfigures the Spanish language and is an act of cultural appropriation.{{Cite news |last=Nir |first=Sarah Maslin |date=March 1, 2023 |title=Some Republicans Want to Ban 'Latinx.' These Latino Democrats Agree |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/01/nyregion/latinx-connecticut-arkansas.html |access-date=March 3, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}} In February 2023, a group of Hispanic Connecticut lawmakers, including five Democrats, proposed a similar ban on formal state documents, calling the term offensive to Spanish speakers.{{cite news |last=Eaton-Robb |first=Patton |date=February 2, 2023 |title=Democratic-backed Connecticut bill would ban 'Latinx' term |url=https://apnews.com/article/politics-connecticut-state-government-waterbury-arkansas-77817868efdbd4ee7651575acc665c6f |work=APNews.com |publisher=Associated Press}} State Representative Geraldo Reyes Jr., who introduced the measure, called the term "offensive and unnecessary". Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego, who represented a majority-Hispanic congressional district in Arizona before 2025, advises Democrats not to use the term.{{cite news |last1=Yglesias |first1=Matthew |date=November 5, 2020 |title=Trump's gains with Hispanic voters should prompt some progressive rethinking |url=https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2020/11/5/21548677/trump-hispanic-vote-latinx |access-date=November 5, 2020 |work=Vox}} Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are hesitant to use the term until after usage continues to evolve to make it more common, according to California representative Raul Ruiz.{{Cite web |last=Paz |first=Christian |date=November 23, 2021 |title=Another Problem for Latinx |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/11/latinx-future-progressive-congress-latino/620764/ |access-date=December 9, 2021 |website=The Atlantic}}

Democrats have utilized Latinx far more often, particularly on social media where 47% of Democrats of the 116th Congress used the term across Twitter and Facebook posts compared to just 1% of Republican lawmakers.{{Cite web |last=Shah |first=Sono |date=2020-08-24 |title=Rising share of lawmakers – but few Republicans – are using the term Latinx on social media |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/08/24/rising-share-of-lawmakers-but-few-republicans-are-using-the-term-latinx-on-social-media/ |access-date=2025-04-20 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}}

On June 26, 2019, during the first 2020 Democratic Party presidential debate, the word was used by the presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, who is not Hispanic or Latina,{{Cite web |last=Weinberg |first=Abigail |date=June 26, 2019 |title=The First Question of the Democratic Debate was a Challenge to Elizabeth Warren. She Didn't Back Down |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/06/the-first-question-of-the-democratic-debate-was-a-challenge-to-elizabeth-warren-she-didnt-back-down/ |access-date=June 29, 2019 |website=Mother Jones}} which USA Today called "one of the highest profile uses of the term since its conception".{{cite news |last=Rodriguez |first=Adrianna |date=June 29, 2019 |title='Latinx' explained: A history of the controversial word and how to pronounce it |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/29/latina-latino-latinx-hispanic-what-do-they-mean/1596501001/ |access-date=July 1, 2019 |newspaper=USA Today}}

Matthew Yglesias of Vox, discussing Donald Trump's gains among Hispanic voters in the 2020 United States presidential election, stated that for Democrats, while other factors played a larger role, the term "is, if nothing else, a symptom of the problem, which is a tendency to privilege academic concepts and linguistic innovations in addressing social justice concerns." He says that "[t]he message of the term{{nbsp}}... is that the entire grammatical system of the Spanish language is problematic, which in any other context progressives would recognize as an alienating and insensitive message."

File:07a.UnionStation.WDC.21January2017 (32087184250).jpg. The sign reads, "women's, LGBTQIA, immigrant's {{sic}}, black, Latinx, Muslim, & disability rights are human rights".]]

Latinx has been the subject of controversy.{{r|Reyes 2017}} "Linguistic imperialism" has been used as a basis of both criticism and support and the term has been rejected by many members of the Hispanic and Latino or Latin communities.{{cite web |last=Yarin |first=Sophie |date=October 7, 2022 |title=If Hispanics Hate the Term 'Latinx', Why is it Still Used? |url=https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/why-is-latinx-still-used-if-hispanics-hate-the-term/ |access-date=October 4, 2023 |website=BU Today |publisher=Boston University}}{{Cite web |date=December 14, 2021 |title=Opinion: I'm Latina. Here's why I won't use the term Latinx |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/many-latinos-say-latinx-offends-or-bothers-them-here-s-ncna1285916 |access-date=October 4, 2023 |website=NBC News}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.axios.com/2022/01/04/the-rise-and-fall-latinx-latino-hispanic|title=Latino groups want to do away with "Latinx"|date=January 4, 2022 }}{{Cite web |date=January 4, 2022 |title=Latino groups want to do away with 'Latinx' |url=https://www.axios.com/2022/01/04/the-rise-and-fall-latinx-latino-hispanic |work=Axios.com}}{{Cite web |last=Newport |first=Frank |date=January 7, 2022 |title=Controversy Over the Term 'Latinx': Public Opinion Context |url=https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/388532/controversy-term-latinx-public-opinion-context.aspx |work=News.Gallup.com |publisher=Gallup, Inc.}}

In 2018, the Royal Spanish Academy rejected the use of -x and -e as gender-neutral alternatives to the collective masculine -o ending, in a style manual published together with the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (ASALE).[https://theworld.org/stories/2020/12/21/royal-spanish-academy-dismisses-movement-make-spanish-more-gender-inclusive RAE rejects Latinx] Regarding this decision, Darío Villanueva, RAE's director said, "The problem is we're confusing grammar with machismo."{{cite web |url=https://remezcla.com/culture/rae-style-manual/?rfb&jwsource=cl |title=The RAE Has Made Its Decision About Latinx and Latine in Its First Style Manual|date=November 28, 2018 }} According to HuffPost, some refuse to use the term on the grounds that Latinx is difficult to pronounce in the Spanish language.

Linguists Janet M. Fuller and Jennifer Leeman state that some people reject the use of Latinx to refer to people regardless of gender because they see it as a one-size-fits-all term that erases diversity, preferring to switch between -o/-a/-x when referring to specific individuals.{{cite book |last1=Fuller |first1=Janet M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jsHeDwAAQBAJ&q=Latinx |title=Speaking Spanish in the US: The Sociopolitics of Language |last2=Leeman |first2=Jennifer |date=2020 |publisher=Multilingual Matters |isbn=9781788928304 |chapter=Race, Racialization and Latinx Ethnoracial Identity |access-date=September 25, 2020}} Those who oppose the term in its entirety have argued that the -x is artificial, unpronounceable, an imposition of English norms on Spanish, or overly faddish.

Many non-binary Latinos whose first language is not English have also criticized the term on the basis that it caters more to Latin Americans who are fluent in English and can pronounce the -x ending easily while ignoring gender neutral alternatives already employed by Latin American activists, such as -e (Latine).{{Cite web |last=Pellot |first=Emerald |date=October 25, 2019 |title=This Comic Proves That The Great Debate On The Word 'Latinx' Rages On |url=https://wearemitu.com/things-that-matter/heres-why-some-latinx-users-are-switching-to-latine-instead/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302153137/https://wearemitu.com/things-that-matter/heres-why-some-latinx-users-are-switching-to-latine-instead/ |archive-date=March 2, 2021 |access-date=January 12, 2023 |website=We Are Mitú}}

Linguist John McWhorter argues that, in contrast to other neologisms such as African American, Latinx has not become mainstream {{As of|2019|lc=yes}} because the problem of implied gender it aims to solve is more a concern of the intelligentsia than the "proverbial person on the street".

According to HuffPost, "Many opponents of the term have suggested that using an un-gendered noun like Latinx is disrespectful to the Spanish language and some have even called the term 'a blatant form of linguistic imperialism{{' "}}.{{cite news |last1=Ramirez |first1=Tanisha Love |last2=Blay |first2=Zeba |date=July 5, 2016 |title=Why People Are Using The Term 'Latinx' |work=HuffPost |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-people-are-using-the-term-latinx_us_57753328e4b0cc0fa136a159 |access-date=November 15, 2017}} Defending usage of the term against critics arguing linguistic imperialism, Brooklyn College professors María R. Scharrón-del Río and Alan A. Aja argue that the Spanish language itself is a form of linguistic imperialism for Latin Americans.

Another argument against Latinx is that "it erases feminist movements in the 1970s" that fought for use of the word Latina to represent women, according to George Cadava, Director of the Latina and Latino Studies program at Northwestern University.

Writing for Latino Rebels, Hector Luis Alamo describes the term as a "bulldozing of Spanish". In a 2015 article published by the outlet as part of a debate on the term, Alamo wrote: "If we dump Latino for Latinx because it offends some people, then we should go on dumping words forever since there will always be some people who find some words offensive."{{cite web |date=December 12, 2015 |last=Alamo |first=Hector Luis |title=The X-ing of Language: The Case Against 'Latinx' |url=http://www.latinorebels.com/2015/12/12/the-x-ing-of-language-the-case-against-latinix/ |work=Latino Rebels}}

Wayne State University professor Nicole Trujillo-Pagán has argued that patriarchal bias is reproduced in ostensibly "gender neutral" language{{cite journal |last=Gastil |first=John |author-link=John Gastil |date=December 1990 |title=Generic pronouns and sexist language: The oxymoronic character of masculine generics |journal=Sex Roles |volume=23 |issue=11–12 |pages=629–643 |doi=10.1007/BF00289252 |s2cid=33772213}}{{cite journal |last1=Sniezek |first1=Janet A. |last2=Jazwinski |first2=Christine H. |date=October 1986 |title=Gender bias in English: In search of fair language |journal=Journal of Applied Social Psychology |volume=16 |number=7 |pages=642–662 |doi=10.1111/j.1559-1816.1986.tb01165.x}}{{cite journal |last1=Prewitt-Freilino |first1=Jennifer L. |last2=Caswell |first2=T. Andrew |last3=Laakso |first3=Emmi K. |date=February 2012 |title=The gendering of language: A comparison of gender equality in countries with gendered, natural gender, and genderless languages |journal=Sex Roles |volume=66 |issue=3–4 |pages=268–281 |doi=10.1007/s11199-011-0083-5 |s2cid=145066913}} and stated, "Less clear in the debate (as it has developed since then) is how the replacement silences and erases long-standing struggles to recognize the significance of gender difference and sexual violence."{{cite web |last=Trujillo-Pagán |first=Nicole |url=http://www.latinorebels.com/2018/02/27/no-shock-or-awe-about-acting-latinx/ |title=No Shock or Awe About 'Acting' Latinx |work=Latino Rebels |date=February 27, 2018 |access-date=July 29, 2018}}

A 2019 National Survey of Latinos found that only 3 percent of Hispanic-Latinos have ever used "Latinx" to describe themselves.{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=Who identifies as "Latinx"? An examination of the determinants of the use of Latinx among Hispanic-Latinos in the United States |url=https://osf.io/m39v5/ |access-date=June 19, 2021 |website=osf.io}} The League of United Latin American Citizens announced in 2021 that it would stop using the term in its official communications, calling it "very unliked" by nearly all Latinos.{{cite news |last=Falcon |first=Russell |title='Latinx' dropped from LULAC official usage, deemed 'very unliked' by Latinos |url=https://www.kxan.com/news/latinx-dropped-from-lulac-official-usage-deemed-very-unliked-by-latinos/ |publisher=KXAN-TV |publication-place=Austin, Texas |access-date=July 4, 2022 |date=December 15, 2021}}{{Cite news |last=Gamboa |first=Suzanne |date=December 9, 2021 |title=Latino civil rights organization drops 'Latinx' from official communication |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-civil-rights-organization-drops-latinx-official-communication-rcna8203 |website=NBC News}} A 2024 study found that use of the term Latinx by Democratic politicians alienates Latino voters from the party, and that Latino voters are less likely to support Democrats who use Latinx than those who use Latino in their otherwise identical messaging.{{Cite news |last1=Roman |first1=Marcel |last2=Sahar d'Urso |first2=Amanda |date=1 November 2024 |title=Opinion: Democrats wrongly assume only Trump's words alienate Latinos |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/01/latinx-latinos-trump-democrats/ |newspaper=The Washington Post}}

Skepticism behind the term's inclusivity has also been posited. Florida Atlantic University professor Cristobal Salinas Jr. argues that, despite being connected to Indigenous cultures and languages, the term is not inclusive of Indigenous cultures outside of Mexico, where the letter "x" is not part of their respective vocabularies.{{Cite web |title=(PDF) The Complexity of the “x” in Latinx : How Latinx/a/o Students Relate to, Identify With, and Understand the Term Latinx |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338551331_The_Complexity_of_the_x_in_Latinx_How_Latinxao_Students_Relate_to_Identify_With_and_Understand_the_Term_Latinx |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250307102547/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338551331_The_Complexity_of_the_x_in_Latinx_How_Latinxao_Students_Relate_to_Identify_With_and_Understand_the_Term_Latinx |archive-date=2025-03-07 |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=ResearchGate |language=en}} Additionally, Salinas Jr. contends that the term's inconsistent usage across texts defending the term's inclusivity of LGBTQ people "has created confusion between gender and sexual identity".

{{See also|Gender neutrality in Spanish}}

Similar gender-neutral forms have also arisen. One such term is Latin@,{{r|Vidal-Ortiz & Martínez|Scharrón-del Río}} which combines the written form of the {{nowrap|{{angbr|-a}}}} and {{nowrap|{{angbr|-o}}}} endings.{{cite news |last1=Demby |first1=Gene |title='Latin@' Offers A Gender-Neutral Choice; But How To Pronounce It? |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/01/07/168818064/latin-offers-a-gender-neutral-choice-but-how-to-pronounce-it |access-date=September 24, 2020 |work=NPR.org}} Similar terms include Chicanx{{cite book |last=Cashman |first=Holly |title=Queer, Latinx, and Bilingual: Narrative Resources in the Negotiation of Identities |date=2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415739092 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Muw9DwAAQBAJ&q=latinx+chicanx |quote=Similarly, Latinx, Chicanx [...] along with many other terms, are all used to describe the ethnolinguistic community. |at=Introduction; Note 1}} and the variant spelling Xicanx.{{cite web |title='We Are Still Here' is a Gorgeous Book Capturing the Queer-Inclusive Evolution of East LA's Chicanx Identity |last1=Noriega |first1=Christine |url=https://remezcla.com/features/culture/we-are-still-here-xicanx-book/ |date=February 16, 2017 |website=Remezcla |quote=[T]he Xicanx identity [is] a relatively new term some Mexican-Americans have claimed that stems from the grassroots and working-class roots of the 1960s Chicano movement, but also incorporates indigenous consciousness, feminism, and queer theory in its politics.}}

Latine (plural: Latines) as a gender-neutral term is less prevalent than Latinx within the U.S.,{{cite journal |last1=Vidal-Ortiz |first1=Salvador |last2=Martínez |first2=Juliana |title=Latinx thoughts: Latinidad with an X |journal=Latino Studies |date=2018 |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=384–395 |doi=10.1057/s41276-018-0137-8 |s2cid=149742570 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327404627 |via=ResearchGate |quote=Terms like Latin@, Latine, and LatinU have been deployed—with less traction—to mobilize Latina/o communities}} although the opposite is true throughout the Spanish-speaking world.{{Cite web |last=Franco |first=Marina |date=Apr 11, 2024 |title=Latine is the new Latinx |url=https://www.axios.com/2024/04/11/latino-latinx-latine-hispanic-term-explainer |website=Axios}} In the U.S., "Latine" arose out of genderqueer speakers' use of the ending {{nowrap|{{angbr|-e}}}}; similar forms include amigue ('friend') and elle (singular they).{{cite thesis |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6j73t666 |title=Morphological Gender Innovations in Spanish of Genderqueer Speakers |last=Papadopoulos |first=Benjamin |date=2019 |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |page=3}} In Argentina, efforts to increase gender neutrality in Spanish have utilized both grammatical genders together, as well as {{nowrap|{{angbr|-@}}}} and {{nowrap|{{angbr|-x}}}} endings. According to The New York Times, the {{nowrap|{{angbr|-e}}}} ending has been more widely adopted because it is easier to pronounce.{{cite news |last=Politi |first=Daniel |date=April 15, 2020 |title=In Argentina, a Bid to Make Language Gender Neutral Gains Traction |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/world/americas/argentina-gender-language.html |url-access=limited |access-date=November 10, 2020 |work=The New York Times}}

In Portuguese, the use of {{Lang|pt|Latino(a)}}, with parentheses, is preferred over {{Lang|pt|Latino/a}}, with a slash.{{Cite web |last=Rodrigues |first=Sérgio |date=April 29, 2015 |title=Escrevemos 'alunos(as)' ou 'alunos/as'? Parênteses ou barra?: Sobre Palavras |url=https://veja.abril.com.br/coluna/sobre-palavras/escrevemos-alunos-as-ou-alunos-as-parenteses-ou-barra/ |access-date=March 5, 2023 |website=VEJA |language=pt-BR}}{{Cite web |title=Barra e parêntesis em alternância de género |url=https://ciberduvidas.iscte-iul.pt/consultorio/perguntas/barra-e-parentesis-em-alternancia-de-genero/22051 |access-date=March 5, 2023 |website=Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa |language=pt}}

{{wiktionary|Latinx}}

{{div col|colwidth=18em}}

• Feminist language reform
• Gender neutrality in languages with grammatical gender
• Gender neutrality in English
• Grammatical gender in Spanish
• Gender neutrality in Portuguese
• Hispanic–Latino naming dispute
• Mx (title)
• Spanish orthography
• Womxn
• Womyn

{{div col end}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-last1=Zalta |editor-first1=Edward N. |editor-link1=Edward N. Zalta |title=Latinx Philosophy |last=Vargas |first=Manuel |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/latinx/ |date=2018 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |edition=Winter 2018 |issn=1095-5054 |oclc=643092515 |access-date=}}

• {{Cite web |last=Ayala |first=Laz |url=https://mailtribune.com/opinion/guest-opinions/dont-call-me-latinx-im-a-latin-american |title=Don't call me Latinx, I'm a Latin American |date=November 8, 2020 |website=Mail Tribune |location=Medford, Oregon |access-date=November 9, 2020 |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108231908/https://mailtribune.com/opinion/guest-opinions/dont-call-me-latinx-im-a-latin-american |url-status=dead }}
• {{Cite web |last=Berastaín |first=Pierre |date=August 31, 2017 |title=Should organizations use Latin@ or Latinx? |url=https://enblog.nationallatinonetwork.org/should-organizations-use-latin-or-latinx/ |website=National Latin@ Network |publisher=Casa de Esperanza}}
• {{Cite web |last=Fountain |first=Sasha M. |date=September 24, 2016 |title=What is Latinx and AfroLatinx? |url=https://medium.com/heymigente/what-is-latinx-and-afrolatinx-c05a63b5a3d4 |website=Medium}}
• {{Cite news |last1=Guerra |first1=Gilbert |last2=Orbea |first2=Gilbert |date=November 19, 2015 |title=The argument against the use of the term 'Latinx' |work=The Phoenix |url=https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2015/11/19/the-argument-against-the-use-of-the-term-latinx/ |access-date=July 1, 2019}}
• {{Cite news |last=Meraji |first=Shereen Marisol |date=August 11, 2020 |title='Hispanic,' 'Latino,' or 'Latinx'? Survey Says... |work=Code Switch |publisher=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2020/08/11/901398248/hispanic-latino-or-latinx-survey-says}}
• {{Cite book |last=Morales |first=Ed |title=Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture |publisher=Verso |date=2018 |isbn=9781784783198 |location=London}}
• {{Cite web |last=Padilla |first=Yesenia |date=April 16, 2016 |title=What does 'Latinx' mean? A look at the term that's challenging gender norms |url=https://www.complex.com/life/2016/04/latinx/ |website=Complex}}

Category:2000s neologisms

Category:2004 neologisms

Category:American political neologisms

Category:Hispanic and Latino

Category:Gender-neutral language

Category:Nonstandard spelling

Category:Spanish grammar

Category:Spanish language in the United States

Category:Linguistic controversies

Category:LGBTQ Hispanic and Latino American culture

Category:LGBTQ-related controversies in the United States

Category:English exonyms

Category:Racism in the United States