Another State May Prohibit Using 'Latinx'

Connecticut Democrat says term offends those of Puerto Rican descent
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 1, 2023 6:40 PM CST
Another State May Prohibit Using 'Latinx'
The Connecticut State Capitol is seen in Hartford in 2012.   (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

A group of Hispanic lawmakers in Connecticut has proposed that the state follow Arkansas' lead and ban the term "Latinx" from official government documents, calling it offensive to Spanish speakers. The word is used as a gender-neutral alternative to "Latino" and "Latina" and is helpful in supporting people who do not identify as either male or female, according to the word's backers. But state Rep. Geraldo Reyes Jr. of Waterbury, the bill's chief sponsor and one of five Hispanic Democrats who put their names on the legislation, said Latinx is not a Spanish word but is rather a "woke" term that is offensive to Connecticut's large Puerto Rican population, the AP reports.

"I'm of Puerto Rican descent, and I find it offensive," Reyes said. Last month, Arkansas prohibited government officials from using Latinx on formal documents as part of several orders issued by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders within hours of her taking office. Reyes said his motivations might be different from Sanders', but he believes her decision was the right one. The League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Latino civil rights group in the US, announced in 2021 that it would no longer use the term Latinx. "The Spanish language, which is centuries old, defaults to Latino for everybody," Reyes said. "It's all-inclusive. They didn't need to create a word, it already exists."

But Maia Gil'Adi, an assistant professor who teaches Latinx and Multiethnic Literature at Boston University, said the word actually dates back to Latino and Latina youth and queer culture in the 1990s, with the "x" being a nod to many people's Indigenous roots. "The word Latino is incredibly exclusionary, both for women and for non-gender-conforming people," she said. "And the term Latinx is really useful because of the way it challenges those conceptions." David Pharies, a Spanish language professor at the University of Florida, said, "Latinx was clearly a solution that was proposed outside the Spanish-speaking world."

(More ethnicity stories.)

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