Hispanic Heritage Month began as a week long commemoration of Hispanic contributions to the United States in 1968 by the Johnson Administration. In 1988, it was expanded from September 15 to October 15 by the Reagan Administration. While terms describing Hispanic and Latino identities have shifted and evolved since, Hispanic Heritage Month continues being the most recognized and universally adopted name. Some customers have wondered why the library and others have not updated the name to include gender neutral terms, such as Latinx Heritage Month, and there are several reasons why.
Key differences exist between pan-ethnic terms, such as Hispanic and Latino, and they are not synonyms. The Spanish Royal Academy (RAE) offers a website and Q&A service called Foundation of Urgent Spanish (Fundéu) to resolve questions, doubts, and mistakes about Spanish language, grammar, usage, and more. In a 2011 article, Hispanic America, Iberian America, and Latin America are not synonyms the RAE explains:
“Hispanic America” refers to the group of Spanish speaking American countries, the people are called Hispanic American and it is important to remember that this refers to what is related to Spanish America, without including Spain.
“Latin America” encompasses the group of counties in North and South America where languages derived from Latin are spoken: Spanish, Portuguese, and French. The name “América Latina” is an equivalent synonym. The people are called Latin American.
"To refer exclusively to Spanish speaking countries it is more proper to use the specific term Hispanic America, or if Portuguese speaking Brazil is included, the term Iberian America or Ibero-America should be used. The people are called Iberian Americans."
While Ibero-America, Iberian America, and Iberian American do a better job of grasping the shared history and ancestry of Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries on both sides of the Atlantic, their use is not widespread among English speakers. In contrast, a term such as Chicano refers exclusively to people of Mexican descent in the United States and is not pan-ethnic or pan-national.
While people may interchange Latin or Latino with Hispanic, the terms are not synonymous. As previously noted by the RAE, Latin America encompasses Spanish, Portuguese, and French speakers, which would include Haiti, Québec, and the Québécois in Canada. For example, there is a Latin American Park in the City of Québec which honors Latin American independence heroes. The plaque commemorating the park’s 1995 dedication acknowledges Québec’s solidarity with its Latin American neighbors and publicly identifies Québécois as “Latins du Nord” or the “Latinos of the North.”
Over the last several years, identities and labels with an “x” suffix have emerged, including Hispanx and Latinx, but their use is not widespread. They are used by a mainly English speaking minority concentrated in the United States.
A 2020 Pew Research Center study described the emergence of Latinx as “a new, gender neutral, pan-ethnic label… used by some news and entertainment outlets, corporations, local governments and universities to describe the nation’s Hispanic population.” In addition to the Latino and Hispanic synonym confusion discussed previously, the researchers explained how only 23% of people who identify as Hispanic or Latino have heard Latinx, while just 3% actually use it. Usage drops even lower for Spanish speakers since it is English speakers who predominantly use Latinx.
Pronunciation can be clunky and awkward if the Spanish equis is pronounced, rendering hispanequis and latinequis. The added “x” makes the pronunciation sound foreign to some who speak only Spanish, wrote BBC News Mundo reporter Patricia Sulbarán Lovera in a 2018 article, What does "Latinx” mean and why is the term used more in the United States than Latin America?
A Spanish counterpart to the “x” suffix is @ to include masculine and feminine genders (i.e. compañer@s). The RAE discourages such use, explaining that it is unnecessary and inappropriate because the masculine gender’s role as an unmarked gender already includes both masculine and feminine.
Use of English demonyms ending in “x” is not widespread and demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how gender functions in Spanish grammar. “In Spanish, the term género (gender) has been reserved for the grammatical category that classifies words as masculine, feminine, or, in certain cases, neutral and does not necessarily reflect the sex of the referent,” according to the RAE. Because not all Spanish nouns ending in -o are masculine and not all nouns ending in -a are feminine, terms like Hispanx and Latinx can be seen as linguistic English imperialism encroaching on Spanish language.
Krogstad, J. M., Passel, J. S., & Noé-Bustamante, L. (2022, September 23). Key facts about U.S. Latinos for National Hispanic Heritage Month. Retrieved from Pew Research Center: pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/09/23/key-facts-about-u-s-latinos-for-national-hispanic-heritage-month
Noé-Bustamante, L., Mora, L., & López, M. H. (2020, August 11). About one-in-four U.S. Hispanics have heard of Latinx, but just 3% use it. Retrieved from Pew Research Center: pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/11/about-one-in-four-u-s-hispanics-have-heard-of-latinx-but-just-3-use-it
Real Academia Española. (2011, February 04). Arroba (@) para el género, uso inadecuado. Retrieved from FundéuRAE: fundeu.es/recomendacion/arroba
Real Academia Española. (2011, February 04). Hispanoamérica, Iberoamérica y Latinoamérica no son sinónimos. Retrieved from FundéuRAE: fundeu.es/recomendacion/hispanoamerica-iberoamerica-latinoamerica
Real Academia Española. (2016, December 14). Género y sexo, significados. Retrieved from FundéuRAE: fundeu.es/recomendacion/genero-y-sexo-31
Sulbarán Lovera, P. (2018, December 14). ¿Qué significa ser "latinx" y por qué es un término más usado en Estados Unidos que en Latinoamérica? Retrieved from BBC News Mundo: bbc.com/mundo/noticias-46502320