MEC Human Rights and Equity Committee
September 15th marked the beginning of a month-long observance of Latinx Heritage, celebrating communities within the U.S. that have ancestry from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. It is a time dedicated to honoring the history, cultures, identities, achievements, and contributions.
The start of Latinx Heritage Month coincides with the independence anniversaries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, as well as Mexico, Chile, Belize, and Brazil.
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson first established Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968, and then in 1988 Congress expanded this into the month-long observance we recognize today.
Throughout this month, you may come across terminology such as Hispanic, Latin, or Latinx but may not know the difference between each word or how they are connected.
The word “Hispanic” comes from the Latin word Hispanicus, which means "of Spain" or "pertaining to Hispania," the ancient Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula, currently known as Spain and Portugal. In the 1970s, the U.S. Census Bureau and other government agencies popularized the term as a category to classify people of Spanish-speaking descent or origin. This categorization ultimately excludes people of Brazilian origin.
"Latin" comes from Latīnus, which means "belonging to Latium," an ancient region in central Italy where Rome was founded. The term describes the family of modern Romance languages that evolved directly from Vulgar Latin, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian. The word "Latin" evolved into "latino" in the 19th century geopolitical labeling and Spanish language shortening, shifting from an ancient regional language to a descriptor for people from Latin America.
The word “Latinx” is a gender neutral, pan-ethnic term used to describe people of Latin American descent or cultural identity, serving as a substitute for the gendered words Latino and Latina. The word "Latinx" originated in the early 2000s and its creation was a deliberate effort to move past the traditional masculine/feminine binary inherent in the Spanish language. Because Spanish is a Romance language, words referring to a person must end in an -a (feminine) or an -o (masculine). Under traditional Spanish grammar rules, a mixed gender group defaults to the masculine plural -os (los latinos). For LGBTQ+, non-binary, and feminist advocates, this structure felt exclusionary to genderqueer individuals and reinforced male centric linguistic norms. The "X" acts as an algebraic variable, a placeholder that doesn't imply any specific gender, allowing for the inclusion of non-binary and transgender individuals. While Latinx made its way into major American dictionaries, it has faced criticism from native Spanish speakers because an "X" at the end of a word is unnatural to pronounce in Spanish. Because of this, non-binary and feminist communities in Spanish speaking countries developed a parallel term: “Latine.” By replacing the gendered vowel with an -e (which already exists naturally in neutral Spanish words like estudiante), the word remains gender inclusive while being able to easily pronounce in both spoken Spanish and English.
By shifting from Hispanic Heritage to Latinx Heritage, this also allows for Brazil to be included in this month-long celebration because it is rooted in the geographic concept of "Latin America," which encompasses all countries in the Western Hemisphere where Romance languages (including Portuguese) are spoken.
Regardless of your preferred terminology, we invite you to celebrate this community and to wear your AFA pin with pride. Latinx Heritage may be celebrated for only a month, but this community's contributions to the U.S. and the world surpass a lifetime.