In his daily work at the New Haven Pride Center for the LGBTQ community, Max Cisneros is often asked: 鈥淲hat is Latinx?鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 a perfect opportunity to make these terms more accessible to folks and include them into the opening-up language,鈥� Cisneros said.
only 3% of the Hispanic population uses the term . The word emerged as a gender-neutral term for Latin Americans, purposefully breaking Spanish gendered grammar. And it鈥檚 not the only term to evolve out of the word 鈥淟atino,鈥� which refers to a person living in Latin America or someone of Latin American descent.
For Cisneros, the New Haven Pride Center鈥檚 Latinx program officer, the term is also an opportunity to talk about language and inclusion.
鈥淟atinx isn鈥檛 so much including a male, female or a third gender, which is the X,鈥� Cisneros said. 鈥淭o me, Latin X is more like all of Latino America.鈥�
Much like the LGBTQA+ umbrella term, Cisneros says, Latinx is part of a tradition of evolving language. He says accessing language to affirm his own queer identity and his roots opened a space of possibilities to better serve a community he identifies with.
鈥淏ut for other folks, it鈥檚 a learning curve,鈥� he said.
Latino identity is shared among more than 20 nations, said Charles Venator-Santiago, an assistant professor at El Instituto at the University of 海角换妻.
鈥淭he list of identities is just as complicated as it is here in the United States,鈥� he said.
It鈥檚 a diverse experience that has also been swept into the term 鈥淟atinidad.鈥�
鈥淭he problem of 鈥楲atinidad鈥� is how do you identify shared beliefs, experiences, interpretations of what it means to be Latino? Afro Latinos or women or LGBTQ,鈥� Venator-Santiago said.
He explains that when it comes to the word 鈥淟atinx,鈥� part of the challenge of adapting the term is generational.
Younger generations born or raised in the United States are more likely to use Latinx, but some say it doesn鈥檛 capture the racial diversity within the community.
鈥淚鈥檓 a woman, I鈥檓 an immigrant and I鈥檓 also Black,鈥� Danessa Pedroso said.
鈥淧eople either thought that I was African American or Dominican because I spoke Spanish.鈥�
Pedroso said she grew up between two worlds 鈥� Cuba and 海角换妻. Finding a sense of identity when she moved to Hartford was difficult. Faced with culture shock and discrimination, she says fitting in was not easy.
She鈥檚 not alone. A shows that about a quarter of Latino adults say they have personally experienced discrimination or unfair treatment from other Latinos.
鈥淲hen I first got here, [I was placed] in a bilingual school. And that bilingual school was a little hard just because I was either too Black to be Spanish or too Spanish to be Black,鈥� Pedroso said.
For several years, Pedroso struggled to identify as fully Cuban, but the term Latinx helped her to bridge a shared experience with Caribbean and South American heritage.
Now Pedroso identifies as a proud Afro Latina. She said for a long time she lacked a word that she could identify with, but now her Afro Cuban heritage is essential to her identity and her self-expression.
鈥淚 think the movement of Afro Latinos 鈥� and the term 鈥楲atinx鈥� overall 鈥� has really put a light in [acknowledging] that there are Black people everywhere,鈥� she said.
