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Recently, a group of Connecticut state legislators introduced a bill to prohibit state agencies from using the term “Latinx” in official communications. The term has been adopted to replace the term “Latino” or “Latina” and thus contemplate those who do not identify with the male and female genders.
One of the deputies leading the bill, Geraldo Reyes Jr., from Waterbury, stated that the term “Latinx” does not represent Latinos, mainly because it is not a word in Spanish. The deputy defends that the word “Latinos” would already represent everyone and would be a neutral term. He is of Puerto Rican descent and has other Latino colleagues who support the project.
Some defenders of the expression, such as professor Maia Gil'Adi, claim that the use of the word “Latin” is exclusive to women and those who do not identify with any of the genders. She also recalls that the use of “Latinx” dates back to the 1990s, when young people from the Latino and Queer community introduced the term and the ‘x’ would be a reminder of the indigenous roots of some.
Another professor, David Pharies of the University of Florida, says the use of the word with an 'x' at the end was "clearly a proposed solution outside the Spanish-speaking world". According to him, an alternative to this would be to use the 'e', forming "Latine" and facilitating the pronunciation of Spanish speakers.
However, according to some surveys carried out, such as Gallup, show that there are few Latinos who prefer the use of the term “Latinx”. The survey revealed that 15% prefer “Latinos” and 23% prefer “Hispanics” while only 4% prefer “Latinx”. Most (57%) say they do not care or have no preference for any of the expressions.
Regarding the use of “Latinx” in public documents, it is not possible to track how many times it appears. A search on the state government portal returns at least 945 appearances of the term in state documents, mostly in press releases, blogs and reports.
A month before this bill in Connecticut, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders launched a series of measures after taking office, including a ban on government officials from using the term “Latinx” in official documents. Other politicians around the country had also instructed their bases not to use this expression in formal content.
Another important decision on the subject was made by the League of United Latin American Citizens, created in 1929, it is the oldest group of Latinos fighting for civil rights. Since 2021, the group has not used the word “Latinx”.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/02/politics/connecticut-latinx-ban-bill-cec/index.html
