One of my favorite things to do when I'm in other countries is ask the locals what they think of the United States — our politics, our president, our culture. Much of the time, what they have to say is quite favorable and nothing like what the left would have you believe.
During one of the last times I was in Costa Rica, I asked some folks if they ever used the term "Latinx" to describe themselves. These were worldly, educated people with professional jobs, who were proficient in English. Some of them rolled their eyes and laughed at the absurdity of it. The others asked me what the heck I was even talking about.
As it turns out, that's kind of the norm. Despite what white liberals say, Latinos and Hispanic people have no desire to conform to these woke labels. The Pew Research Center published a study this week that suggested that approximately 76% of Latino and Hispanic adults in the United States have never even heard the term. Around 20% have heard it but have no desire to use it. Only 3% actually use it.
Of those who are aware of it, only 12% say it's a good thing, while 36% believe it's bad. Most everyone else didn't really care or didn't want to say.
Despite this information, as Pew points out, it is often "used by some news and entertainment outlets, corporations, local governments and universities to describe the nation’s Hispanic population."
That's the only way I've ever heard it used in a serious, non-mocking context. A few months ago, I was reading a novel, and the couple in it was going to adopt a baby. The birth mother was from the Dominican Republic, and the narrator and family consistently referred to her as "Latinx." It was so jarring to read that it almost ruined what was actually a decent story.
So if the people it's meant to describe don't care for it or don't use it, where did it come from? Its exact origins are unknown, but a Google search says it originated in "US-based queer, feminist, and academic communities as a gender-neutral, inclusive alternative to the binary Latino or Latina."
In other words, white English-speaking leftists.
One problem is that the Spanish language in itself is not gender-neutral, so it kind of seems like these white leftists are doing what they do best: telling people with brown skin how they should live their lives. Kind of like colonialism, but make it a grammar lesson...
Here's more from Pew:
The emergence of Latinx coincides with a global movement to introduce gender-neutral nouns and pronouns into many languages whose grammar has traditionally used male or female constructions. In the United States, the first uses of Latinx appeared more than a decade ago. It was added to a widely used English dictionary in 2018, reflecting its greater use.
Yet the use of Latinx is not common practice, and the term’s emergence has generated debate about its appropriateness in a gendered language like Spanish. Some critics point to its origins among U.S. English speakers, saying it ignores the Spanish language and its gendered form. Still, there are examples of the term’s use in Spanish in the U.S. and abroad. Meanwhile, others see Latinx as a gender- and LGBTQ-inclusive term, reflecting a broader movement within the U.S. around gender identity.
In the meantime, Latin American leaders, like Javier Milei of Argentina and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, are actually doing away with this kind of "inclusive" language in their public schools. Their thinking is that school is for learning subject matters like math, science, and reading, and how to be a viable adult in a civilized society — not indoctrinating.
Meanwhile, in California:
What about you Gavin, ever heard of the term "Latinx"?pic.twitter.com/qS2jPP6qaR https://t.co/gpBTBEbzPu
— MAZE (@mazemoore) February 13, 2026
What a world.
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