While you may not know it from mainstream media and election coverage, Latine-American communities aren’t a monolith. We come in all shades, are from different countries and economic backgrounds, and have different generational statuses. Perhaps because of these differences, it’s hard to agree on a term to call people from Latin America.
Traditionally, we’ve been called (and refer to ourselves as) “Latinos,” but that was controversial because it’s the male term—and also reinforced the gender binary. People felt excluded and started creating more terms to refer to themselves and their Latine siblings. (I, for one, like Latine and Latinx.)
It’s all too easy to cast this information aside and instead refer to people however you see fit, like calling someone Latin when they specifically identify as Latinx. However, it’s still important to know that these terms exist, and understand the difference between them, especially when you’re making a concerted effort to invest your dollars in Latine-owned companies.
Zoila Darton, a Panamanian Jamaican Jew and founder of WORD Agency, puts it best: “At least through my lens of what it means to be Latina, there is no one way. You’re either in it or you’re not.”
There’s an ongoing conversation about Latinidad and who can claim it. For example, some people argue that if you don’t speak Spanish or if you’ve never been to your parents’ homeland, you’re “less Latine.” That’s not the case. If you identify your heritage as Latine, then you’re Latine.
All that said, the only way you should be referring to someone’s race or ethnicity is how the individual perceives themselves. The good news here is all you have to do is ask. Of course, you want to steer away from “Where are you from?,” so you may instead try “How do you refer to your heritage?”
The different terms used to demark Latin American heritage
Below are just a few terms that Latine people use to refer to themselves. There are, of course, other monikers, but these are the ones I’ve seen most often in the discourse, about what to call people with Latin American roots. Nothing is perfect, and that’s okay.
Hispanic
What’s perhaps most confusing about the “Is it Hispanic or is it Latino” debate is that the U.S. Census doesn’t differentiate between those two—choosing instead to group them together.
But there is a difference. According to Britannica, the term “Hispanic” is “a narrower term that includes people only from Spanish-speaking Latin America,” (aka people who hail from a country that was colonized by Spain). These countries include Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
Latino/Latina
The #LatinoGang movement that is reggeaton is perhaps the strongest evidence that Latin Americans (specifically from Colombia, Puerto Rico, Panama, and the Dominican Republic) refer to themselves as Latinos. Again, though, a lot of folks took an issue with how Latino is the male term for a group of people who aren’t just male.
An important note here: A Brazilian is considered Latine. However, since they were colonized by Portugal and speak Portuguese, they would not be considered Hispanic.
Latinx
Because Spanish is a gendered language, and because Latin American countries tend to be patriarchies, most terms to refer to groups of people default to the masculine. Additionally, with terms being masculine or feminine, many non-binary people felt excluded from Latino/a nomenclature.
But there really isn’t a way for everyone to be happy with just one term, so critics of “Latinx” have taken to saying that they feel this is a term imposed on them by white researchers (which, by the way, is untrue).
Latine
Many Spanish speakers felt Latinx didn’t quite roll off the tongue—and they were unsure if they could trust the people who coined the term. Spanish speakers who want a more gender-inclusive term feel more connected to this term because it shies away from the binary of “Latino/Latina” while still keeping to the traditional phonetics of their mother tongue.
Latin
During our conversation about the distinctions between these terms, Darton used the term “Latin” to describe a culture. When I asked her why she conceptualized her experience as “Latin,” she said it was largely about her musical-skewing upbringing.
When you think about it, Latine, Spanish-Language artists like Marc Anthony and Bad Bunny are categorized as “Latin” in Billboard and Rolling Stone.
Spanish
Remember that song, “The Motto,” by Drake? There’s an interesting lyric in there: “Some Spanish girls love me like I’m Aventura.”
He’s referring to Latinas but uses this misnomer. You might think, “Well, the girls speak Spanish, right?” And you’d be right, kind of. The term Spanish does denote a language, but in the sense of ethnicity and nationality, it only refers to someone whose homeland is the country of Spain.
Written by: Natalie Arroyo Camacho