Why we use the term Latine

By: Nicole Caridad Ralston (she/her/hers)

We at Beloved Community utilize the term Latine in place of Latino or Latina. In doing so, we want to take a moment to speak to why and what has informed this culturally significant shift.

Latinx has been a term coined by LGBTQ+ Latin Americans in the U.S to better describe folks from or descendants of Latin America while being gender inclusive. We have been using the term Latinx for several years. We know Spanish as a language is very gendered and words ending in ‘o’ usually are masculine and words ending in ‘a’ are generally feminine. More recently, the term “Latine” has gained traction and popularity to replace Latinx because it is a term easier to pronounce in Spanish as so many gender inclusive words already end in e like ‘estudiante,’ which means student. I want to acknowledge that while you will not hear Beloved Community utilizing the term Hispanic to refer to the Latine community, we do honor that some members of the community prefer that term. Here’s why we don’t use that term: Hispanic arose in the United States due to the U.S. Census creating the term to refer to descendants of Latin America. One of the issues with the term Hispanic lies in the fact that it directly refers to Spain or belonging to Spain. We know much of Latin America was forcefully colonized by Spain, and in an effort to recognize resistance and independence of these lands, while honoring Indigenous peoples and the African-diaspora in Latin America, we do not use Hispanic as a term. I also want to state that Latine/x/o/a are still terms utilized by the United States government to best categorize vastly different people’s under a unifying term.

It may not always feel right, but we encourage you to do research and choose what is right for you.

RESOURCES

The Problematic History of the Word "Hispanic"

Latine vs Latinx? What Young People of Latin American Descent Think of These Terms