We’re Latino, not Latinx

By Mario Presents

Latin, the basis of all romantic languages, is spoken today by almost no one. However, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and even Romanian are spoken by almost 940 million speakers around the world. One key fact of these languages, plus their derivatives, is that they are all gendered. Gendered means an item can be masculine or feminine and the corresponding conjugations, pronouns, and descriptors are also gendered. Changing this 5,000+ year old habit probably will not happen, but there are people attempting to make it happen.

Latinx, the new adjective to describe all latinos or latinas by a gender neutral term, is accompanied by the suffix -es for a complete linguistic neutering. Niños and niñas become niñes, and a new word is created. Change is not easy for anyone, including supporters of the updated language like the Spanish Ministry of Health, who still use the antiquated phonics from time to time. Forced neutrality is not natural, nor is it helpful, unless you want to deliberately conceal the true identity of a person. “She is found in a group of people, while ‘they’ can be anyone.” 

Lexicons, or the vocabularies of peoples, naturally change over time. Forced adoption of gender neutrality is hitting many roadblocks, including but not limited to culture, tradition, and science. Americans succumb to social pressure very easily. However, the Latino community is not easily swayed. History also shows that aggressive (self) policing of language always backfires on the gestapo. As a hispanic man and bilingual speaker I must say, “Stop trying to make Latinx happen! It’s not a thing, it never will be. Gracias.”