The terms Hispanic and Latino are inadequate when describing a vast group of people with diverse backgrounds. It is wonderful to have a month to celebrate this group but language is always changing. Latinx is the latest entry in this lineage that attempts to categorize the group. Very interesting article from the New Yorker on the evolution of Latinx and how people self identify:
Accordingly, the Pew study found that the young most commonly identify as Latinx. Young women do, in particular: forty-two per cent of Latinos between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine have heard of the term, and fourteen per cent of women in that age group use it. It’s mostly older people, immigrants (who make up about a third of the Latino population), and those who don’t speak English who have never heard of it. Cristina Mora sees this confirmed in her own research in California: “We see it used a lot in high schools.” Morales says that, with Latinx, we are actually peeking into the future, not just because of the age of its users but for the radical option it offers. “Latinx is futuristic because it subverts the Spanish language by erasing the gender binary. As far as I know, we are the only ethno-racial group where this kind of discussion over labelling is going on.”
But future struggles will spawn new names. And maybe there is a future in which we will just call ourselves—and be called by others—by a name that, in its broader sense, brings together two continents: Americans.