One of my best friends in high school was Mexican. He didn’t call himself “Hispanic” or “Latino.” He called himself Mexican because he was from Mexico. I’m not sure how the subject came up, but even over beers in high school, important discussions are occasionally had. But he said that being Mexican was not the same as being Cuban. He understood the use of the terms “Latin” and “Hispanic,” but his point was that all those countries and their people are unique. They aren’t just, as a certain doctor once said, “breakfast tacos.” But to a large extent, with exception of Portuguese, they do share a common language in Spanish, albeit with differing dialects. And just as they were unhappy with being all lumped together as breakfast tacos, many Hispanic people take exception to the term “Latinx.”
Besides the patronizing nature of the term, Spanish is a gendered language. Nouns are masculine or feminine. So in addition to woke people with good if self-serving intentions making up names for other people, they are playing fast and loose with other cultures’ languages. Of course, there is an opinion among the enlightened class that gendered languages make it difficult for women to succeed, especially in developing countries. Hence, the “x” in Latinx, I suppose. A gendered language could make gender fluidity complicated, and make terms like “cat-self” and “frog-self” even more laughable than they already are.
A group of Connecticut Hispanic legislators, Democrats no less, have had it up to their hairlines with “Latinx” and want to call a halt to its usage. According to a report in National Review, state representative Geraldo Reyes finds the term disrespectful. Reyes told the Associated Press, “I’m of Puerto Rican descent and I find it offensive. The Spanish language, which is centuries old, defaults to Latino for everybody. It’s all-inclusive. They didn’t need to create a word, it already exists.” Reyes commented that “Latinx was created by progressives and did not arise from those who speak it. Four other Hispanic lawmakers share Reyes’s sentiment and want the word “Latinx” banned from government documents. Reyes sponsored a bill to put an X over “Latinx” and those other lawmakers are supporting the bill.
National Review notes that in 2021, Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) told his staff “Latinx” was off-limits, tweeting:
To be clear my office is not allowed to use “Latinx” in official communications.
When Latino politicos use the term it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use. It is a vicious circle of confirmation bias. https://t.co/kMty6q7UQn— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) December 6, 2021
“Rich white progressives” — those three words pretty much sum up the issue. The problem with progressive ideas is not only that they are bad, but that progressives are not happy until everyone follows them. And since the current cause célèbre is to strip everything of gender, or obfuscate gender to the point that it is meaningless, it stands to reason that they would want to de-gender (disgender?) languages. And since Hispanic people are not white, the elites figured that they would naturally bow their heads and bend their knees, declaring themselves to be Latinx. Beyond the arrogance of the idea, it is a perfect example of cultural appropriation. The Left is saying to Hispanics, “Your language is no longer your own. It is ours to do with as we please. We don’t use gendered language, so you can’t either.” Like gender, the progressives want Spanish to be whatever they say it is.
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