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The words we use to identify ourselves and to identify others matter. These words reflect our identities, our beliefs, and our histories. As such it is important to understand what these words are and their origins. It is our hope that providing information on these terms will help others understand more about who we are and our communities.

Chicana/o/x was originally a slur used to identify Americans of Mexican descent and reflect them being of a lower social class. However, this term was reclaimed in the 1960’s & 70’s as part of the Chicano Movement to create a sense of community solidarity, ethnic pride, and political power. In more recent years the Chicana/o/x identity has continued to become less of an ethnic identity and more of a political stance representing a desire for change, political activism, and representation for our communities. The term has also moved away from its nationalist identity, which solely represented Mexican-Americans to attempting to embrace and include more Latin-American identities.

Latina/o/x is a term often used in the United States to identify people from Latin American counties, who are of Latin American descent, or are culturally Latin American, regardless of the language primarily spoken in their Latin American country of origin or descent. Typically this identity includes Brazil, but does not include Spain or indigenous communities that existed before the creation of the modern Latina/o/x identity.

Hispanic is a term often used to identify people who trace their roots back to a primarily Spanish speaking country, examples being Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Spain. However, this category historically has not included people from Brazil, Indigenous Latin American communities, Afro descendants, or Asian descendants.

The difference between these two identities is that of culture versus language. Typically Latina/o/x is a cultural identifier that represents a person who is from or is descended from a country in Latin America, examples being; Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Honduras.

This is in contrast to Hispanic which is connected to the primary language spoken in their country of origin or descent being Spanish. This includes origins such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain, and the Philippines.

So this means many countries of origin and descent are both Latina/o/x and Hispanic. Places like, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Honduras, and Chile. However, some countries are Latina/o/x and not Hispanic, such as Brazil as they primarily speak Portuguese and not Spanish. While others are Hispanic and not Latina/o/x, such as Spain and the Philippines, as they are not located in Latin America.

“Although there are certain similarities between the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the situation is different in each country, with different percentages of indigenous populations. The indigenous population of Latin America consists of approximately 50 million people, who belong to 500 different ethnic groups. The largest populations (in absolute and relative terms) are in Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and Bolivia.” – Martin de Dios, Affiliate researcher at the Center for Studdies for Human Development of Universidad de San Andres.

Much like their American Indian counterparts, indigenous populations of Latin America are vast and diverse, each with their own unique cultures, practices, languages, and histories. Because of this, many Indigenous Latin American communities actively choose not to identify as Hispanic or Latina/o/x, as their cultures and identities existed before either category was created. While many communities have connections with Latina/o/x cultures, they often have a desire to remain distinct from them.

Afro-Latinos are people from Latin America or are of Latin American descent that are interwoven with African or black identities historically ingrained within Latin America. This includes Haitians, descendants of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and other black descended indigenous cultures.

Afro-Latina/o/x people reflect the complex and varied nature of race and identity among Latinos. A Pew Research Center survey of Latino adults shows that one-quarter of all U.S. Latinos self-identify as Afro-Latino, Afro-Caribbean or of African descent with roots in Latin America.

Latinx is used generally as a gender-neutral term for Latin Americans, but it has been especially embraced by members of Latina/o/x LGBTQ+ communities as a word to identify themselves as people of Latin descent possessing a gender identity outside the male/female identities.

Latinx was originally formed as a word for those of Latin American descent who do not identify as being of the male or female gender or who simply don’t want to be identified by gender. Latinx purposefully breaks with Spanish’s gendered grammatical tradition. X signifies something unknown and is used in Latinx to connote unspecified gender.

History of Latinx

Colorism is a practice of discrimination where those with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin. This practice is a product of racism, in that it upholds the white standards of beauty and benefits white people in the institutions of oppression (media, medical world, etc.). A major effect of Colorism is the devaluing of Black, Indigenous, and darker skinned mixed individuals by society.