Hispanic, Latine/a/x/o: What Do I Use (?!)
Photo of four Latina representing women
written by Trinity Villanueva
Throughout our Beyond Allyship Lab we ask participants that if they have an identity that is part of the dominant culture around them to read books, articles, and watch movies of different identities than their own. This could mean anything covering race/ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, and so on. We are the intersectionality of so many different types of identities - that are both surface and much deeper.
In celebrating Hispanic/LatinX Heritage Month, I (Trinity) have put together a list recommending some authors and actors that you may or may not be familiar with and some of the creativity that represents different types of Latine culture. I’m also keeping in mind that these are for anyone - even if you are Latine/Hispanic, but these resonated with me and lots of other folx I know from the United States.
My two highest recommendations are Gabby Rivera’s Juliet Takes a Breath and the NPR Article (6 min listen) that celebrated as Hip Hop turns 50 and how Latinos impacted the Hip Hop scene and evolution.
Before I dive deeper into a fun and light list of recommendations… I want to acknowledge some words for many of you that might get you stuck when referring to folx of our ethnicity - Hispanic/Latin—what do I use!?
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As you may be wondering, I utilize the word Latine. This is my choice as I am part Latine myself, and a part of how I identify, as a multi-ethnic woman. Years ago, in my career, I was part of helping to re-curate an art exhibition that utilized the word ‘LatinX’, and somehow I didn’t quite identify with it. Many colleagues around me who were from or their parents were from (i.e. Mexico, El Salvador, Cuba), also did not identify.
Born and raised by a Puerto Rican mother, I was constantly retold that I was simply that - Puerto Rican.
My parents are of the Baby Boomer generation (my father was not Latino, actually he was Filipino-Hawaiian - which you can read more about here), and because of this, when you look at the im/migrant stories in the United States during the 1950s through the 1970s, the numbers are not as highly reflected as they are today for Brown people from Latin American countries. However, during that time was a great Exodus from the Caribbean, due to the Post Revolution in Cuba and the naturalization of Puerto Ricans, many relocated to Miami, DC, Philadelphia, and New York City.
In those specific metropolitans, my mother was part of that story, an English language learner, who was wearing summer clothes in the winter time, and lived in ‘a barrio’ similar to what might be depicted in movies like West Side Story.
Many people referred to her and her family and friends as ‘Spanish’.
With all of these layers, my mother and her family spoke Spanish and referred to themselves and each other as ‘Puerto Rican’ and everything that they participated in as ‘Spanish’. While growing up, I ate “Spanish food”, danced to “Spanish music”, and grew up with “Spanish people” although we all knew each other as Puerto Rican or Cuban or Colombian or Dominican and other parts of the Caribbean. This is my experience.
However, as time moved on, more and more immigrants from Mexico and Central American and South America started coming to the United States, due to many political histories that happened during those times in the 1970s and 1980s, and up until now.
As a person of Latine ethnicity, it is very important to stress that Latine/Hispanic is NOT a race. We are an ethnicity.
Latin is in largely in part due to geography. This is representative of Latin America. Hispanic is something that was attributed to people who speak Spanish.
A person from Brazil can identify as Latino but not as Hispanic. A person from Spain can identify as Hispanic but not as Latino. A person of Mexican descent can identify as both. But also might not want to! Make sense?
Fast forward to when I was helping re-curate this exhibition, I was fascinated by the word ‘LatinX’ because it took the gender away. However, when pronounced in Spanish, it doesn’t flow. So ‘Latine’ therefore is preferred by me because I don’t think the importance of gender is necessarily important and the ‘X’ doesn’t roll off my tongue.
Hopefully this short explanation can better help you understand the differences between the usage of the two primary words (Hispanic and Latine/a/o/X).
My Recs that show trueness in Latinidad and break many stereotypes or created a path for others:
Writers
Yung Pueblo, Inward
Pablo Neruda, Memoirs
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Gabby Rivera, Juliet Takes a Breath
Film/ Series
Articles
If you want to see some additions to this starting list, send me a message, and I’ll add in!