Activists and academics are concerned with debating the differences between the terms “Hispanic”, “Latino”, and “Latinx” that pervade the categories of identity, language, and community. Many of them ended up supporting and adopting the one that comprehensively contemplated the Latino/ Hispanic in the country.

Although the debate began in the last decade, it was only recently that the term “Latinx” has gained prominence and attracted resistance from those who oppose its use, which has also been proposed as an alternative to languages that follow the binary gender, such as Spanish and Portuguese.

A recent survey by Bendixen & Amandi International, a leading Democratic-oriented institution specializing in publishing for the Latino community, sought to further investigate perceptions of the terms. Last November, researchers asked 800 people of different age groups (Hispanics/Latinos) which term would come closest to describe their ethnic origin. To the general average of adults surveyed, 2% preferred the term “Latinx”, 68% voted for the term “Hispanic”, while 21% chose “Latino” or “Latina”, regardless whether they were born in the United States or not. It is noted that among those who selected the term “Latino”, almost twice as many were born abroad.

Asked if the term “Latinx” is offensive to describe the Latino/Hispanic community, an average of 40% responded that it bothers or offends to some degree, and over 50% of respondents said they do not feel uncomfortable at all. But what generated greater debate in the political field was that an average of 30% of respondents agreed that they would be less likely to support a politician or political organization using the term, despite an average of 50% of people not noticing any difference in term in this question.

In line with this, other surveys such as the one conducted by the Pew Research Center found that only 3% of Hispanics use the term “Latinx”; as well as the one carried out by Gallup, which fixed the same discovery at 4%.

Lately, criticism of the use of “Latinx” has been directed more forcefully at the Democratic Party, as “Democrats seek to reach out to Latino voters in a more gender-neutral way, they’ve increasingly begun using the word Latinx, a term that began to get traction among academics and activists on the left, according to a publication by “Politico”, despite the significant number of rejections.

Furthermore, according to the publication, the Democrat tactic of getting closer to the descendants of Latin Americans, referring to them as “Latinx”, would be a counterproductive effort, since it would not conform to the data of the aforementioned surveys.

“But as some on the left began embracing the term Latinx in politics, it started to expose a fault line in the party between moderate traditionalists and the more activist progressive base. Those embracing Latinx have explained that the word — and the trend of making Spanish words gender-inclusive by ending them in an X — is not a product of the U.S. left or white elites, but instead, can be traced back to Latin America and Latinos. It’s also an alternative to Hispanic, a term also criticized for its ties to Spain, which colonized much of Latin America”, as noted by Politico’s publication. 

Activists and progressives who advocate the use of the term consider it important to bring political closer to young Latino voters who identify with the struggle to combat machismo and conservative gender constructions. Despite prominent Democrats such as President Joe Biden and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez include the term “Latinx” in their speeches, the Republican tactic seems to use this tactical “flaw” to amplify its political influence over the Hispanic/Latino community in the country.