Do Hispanic voters in California prefer Latino or Latinx? It’s complicated
California politicians should steer clear from using the gender-neutral term “Latinx” to describe groups of Hispanic and Latino voters simply because it is too new, surveys and experts suggest.
Nationally, more people are offended by the use of the term Latinx than prefer it, according to a recent survey of people who identified as Hispanic, Latino/a or Latinx.
The survey, conducted in November by Democratic research firm Bendixen & Amandi International, found that 2% of voters identified as Latinx whereas 21% identified as Latino or Latina. A much greater share, 68%, identified as Hispanic.
Forty percent of respondents said that use of Latinx bothered them at least a little. Still, more than half of the respondents did not care whether a politician or political organization used the term Latinx or not.
Experts have questioned whether the “x,” which breaks from Spanish’s gendered terminology and might make the word more difficult to pronounce, pushed Latino voters away from Democrats who used the term. Four percent of Republicans identified as Latinx, while 2% of Democrats did in the recent survey.
Latinx is still new
The problem is not because it is unpopular, rather that it is still unfamiliar, said Matt Barreto, a professor of Chicana/o studies and political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and founder of polling firm BSP Research.
Only one quarter of Hispanic adults had heard of the term, according to a Pew Research study conducted in December 2019, and only 3% used it.
“Latinx — I disagree that it’s problematic. Folks just really haven’t heard of it. It’s not that it’s a ‘woke term,’ really it’s just the familiarity of it,” he said in a phone interview.
Barreto said that for his firm’s surveys that are aimed at Hispanic and Latino voters, the first two questions probe what they identify as, such as Latinx.
Based on the answers, the survey adjusts to use the person’s preferences throughout. Barreto said that politicians should use a similar approach when possible: Check in with the community you’re speaking with.
“I think it’s best to put it in the hands of everyday people in our community, regardless of politics,” he said.
Latinx could grow with younger generations
Latino or Latina has become more popular than Hispanic for self-identification in California over the past two decades, Barreto said, bucking the national trend.
Use of “Latinx” has never surpassed 2%, he said.
Latinx emerged as a gender-neutral word in the early 2000s as more individuals embraced the LGBTQ community in the U.S.
“Hispanic” broadly describes people who trace their roots to predominantly Spanish-speaking countries. The term continues to draw criticism for its association with Spain and Spanish colonialism. “Latino” and “Latina” gained popularity for people who hail from Latin America in the 1990s.
Pew Research noted in its 2019 survey that, in more than 15 years of polling, half of adults consistently say they have no preference between Hispanic or Latino.
“Importantly, the same surveys show, country of origin labels (such as Mexican or Cuban or Ecuadorian) are preferred to these pan-ethnic terms among the population they are meant to describe,” researchers noted.
Latinos make up the largest ethnic group in California, according to 2020 United States Census data.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said that younger generations are more likely to appreciate the term Latinx than their older counterparts in an interview with Bill Maher in April 2021.
According to the recent Bendixen & Amandi International survey, 4% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 as Latinx; 26% identified as Latino or Latina and 66% identified as Hispanic.
“For the younger generation especially, it is purposeful,” Padilla told Maher. “It is more than just symbolic. In the Spanish language, you have feminine versus masculine nouns, and the move to Latinx is one way of saying, ‘You know what, if we’re all equal, let’s let our language reflect that.’”
This story was originally published December 18, 2021 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Do Hispanic voters in California prefer Latino or Latinx? It’s complicated."
