Stop calling us Latinx

Imagine having thousands of years of history, countless cultures, multiple ethnicities, and a great pool of diversity. Then, imagine taking that, and diminishing it all to one word.

That’s what “Latinx” does. It’s a diminishing, culturally minimizing noun, and it’s time to stop using it. Latinos across the country and the globe are more than this six-letter term, which is meant to group all people of Latin-descent into one group. The problem is that there are thousands of different types of Latin-descendent peoples, from our Hispanic heritage in New Mexico to our Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Mexican, and Spanish brothers and sisters, and numerous other groups of Latino heritage.

All of our different ethnicities have their own style and influences, while our cultures may be bridged by religion and language, we are not all the same. In Mexico, Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated, while American Hispanics are more likely to celebrate the more westernized Halloween, and Spain celebrates All Saints Day. Calling us Latinx diminishes the respect each culture is owed by saying that all people of Latin-descent are the same.

On August 22 Jean Gurrero, an LA Times columnist, tweeted, “Democratic outreach to Latino voters on the recall election is not working. I’ve been speaking to young Latinxs and almost none of them have any idea what is going on. This is really, really bad.” Gurrero was talking about California’s recall election to re move the governor on September 14, expressing her concern that the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, might be removed because Latinos aren’t interested in participating in this election. Of course they aren’t! You can’t diminish the people you want to vote for you. You can’t call out the entire Latino demographic and lay blame on them for a failing governor.

If you really want to work with Latinos, find out where they’re from, learn a little about their culture, because we all celebrate differently. Learn a little about their ancestral homeland, about the foods and drinks of their culture – not all of us have horchata, not all of us have empanadas, not even all of us have sweet rice.

We are proud to be Latin, and we are proud of the things that set us apart, because diversity is what makes us strong. Stop calling us Latinx and respect our heritage.