Hispanic, Latino/a, Latine, Latinx
Last updatedWhat to know
After years of protests and lobbying, in 1976 the US Congress passed a law to collect the data for “Americans of Spanish origin or descent.” The law described Hispanic people as “Americans who identify themselves as being of Spanish-speaking background and trace their origin or descent from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central and South America, and other Spanish-speaking countries.” This legislation was pivotal in the addition of the term “Hispanic” to the US Census in 1980. In 1970, for comparison, the Census featured the combined category of “Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, Other Spanish.”
While the US Census Bureau uses “Hispanic,” and Pew Research Center uses “Hispanic” and “Latino” interchangeably, some draw a distinction between the two terms, arguing that Hispanic refers to individuals from Spain or from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, while Latino signifies individuals from Latin America regardless of language. (Many also criticize the term “Hispanic” due to its colonialist connection to Spain.) Neither term is universally embraced by all of the communities they’re supposed to describe, and some critics particularly point to the ways they seem to erase hundreds of Indigenous communities and languages.
In the early 2000s, some publications and media outlets began using the term “Latinx” as a gender-neutral alternative to Latino/a. (Latinx first appeared online around 2004.) This term is also controversial: Polling by Pew and others find that it hasn’t caught on widely with people who identify as Latino/a, in part because it does not follow the structure of the Spanish language. Some critics of the term point out that using a blanket gender-neutral term like Latinx can detract from recognizing trans people’s identity; some feminists also argue that it contributes to the erasure of women.
Other alternatives in use now, though not as widespread, are Latin and Latine, the latter of which is a gender-neutral term but is more accessible to the grammatical and linguistic structure of Spanish than Latinx. Others prefer more specific cultural descriptors.
The categories Latino and Hispanic do not refer to racial categories. Under the umbrella term of Hispanic or Latino, people can be a variety of races.
As with any identifier, being as specific as possible and taking into account an individual’s preference whenever possible ensures coverage reflects how someone self-identifies.
Additional resources
- Who is Hispanic? (Pew Research Center)
- Latino and Hispanic identities aren’t the same. They’re also not racial groups. (Vox)
- About One-in-Four U.S. Hispanics Have Heard of Latinx, but Just 3% Use It (Pew Research Center)
- What’s Liberating, Not Limiting About Using The Term Latinx (Chicago Reporter)
- Latinx: an inclusive or offensive word? (La Noticia)
Summary
While the US Census Bureau uses “Hispanic,” and Pew Research Center uses “Hispanic” and “Latino” interchangeably, some draw a distinction between the two terms, arguing that Hispanic refers to individuals from Spain or from Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, while Latino signifies individuals from Latin America regardless of language. Several gender-neutral alternatives to Latino/a have gained use recently, including Latinx, Latin, and Latine, though they are not always popular with the communities they purport to describe. As with any identifier, being as specific as possible and taking into account an individual’s preference whenever possible ensures coverage accurately reflects how someone self-identifies.