Latino, Hispanic, Latinx, Chicano: The History Behind the Terms—as my blog soon reaches 3 million page views!

Friends,

I enjoyed reading this piece and seems to be a good one to ponder as my blog soon reaches 3 million pageviews! Thanks to all my loyal readers from throughout the world who find it useful. Don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions. I've been doing this for a long time and plan to continue as long as I can. Heck, it's my civic duty. Now, to this post.

To complexify the analysis of identity in this piece, the author would do well to additionally incorporate Afro-Indigenous, Afro-Latina/o/x, and Indigenous identities to the mix. Why? As I look at all the work that so many of us are doing in our communities, it's fully about honoring and centering our own diverse identities and Indigeneities like we're accomplishing at our Saturday School, Academia Cuauhtli, and our annual Aztech Kidz Code Summer Camp. At our school and summer camp, we don't seek to turn anyone into an Aztec, but rather to use Aztec and Mayan knowledge and wisdom as a point of departure for students to explore their own identities.

Takeaways? Culture is a powerful social construction, especially when we decide as people at a particular point in history to call ourselves. Culture also inescapably evolves both within communities and in the broader society. It's therefore important now more than ever to speak another language or languages and to become culturally and linguistically competent no matter the anti-DEI or anti-CRT racist agenda pursued by Texas Senators. Becoming competent in these ways is definitely empowering, however, it doesn't happen overnight and requires lifelong learning and investment.

The beautiful part of all of this is rather than "being named," which objectifies us as people, the right to name ourselves is an exercise in being powerful human subjects, authors of our own identities and destinies. Expressed differently, the act of self-determination disrupts the harmful aspects of Western colonization like individualism, extractivism, and viewing Mother Earth as expendable. 

If you have any doubt about this, check out the US wildfire, smoke map: Track latest wildfires, red flag warnings across the US. It's so sad to learn of the terrible devastation with animals losing their habitats and lives and folks losing their homes, well-being, and in some instances, their very lives.

These epistemologies or ways of knowing, have not served any of us or the planet well. Please don't misunderstand. Collectivism, the opposite of individualism, is fully compatible with innovation, freedom, and autonomy.

Indigeneity helps us to get connected to the root of our identities where the knowledge and wisdom of our ancestors and community reside.

-Angela Valenzuela

Latino, Hispanic, Latinx, Chicano: The History Behind the Terms

The effort to coin a term to describe a wildly diverse group of Americans has long stirred controversy.

by Yara Simón

September 25, 2023 | Original: September 14, 2020

History.com

The terms Latino, Hispanic and Latinx are often used interchangeably to describe a group that makes up about 19 percent of the U.S. population. While it’s now common to use umbrella terms to categorize those with ties to more than 20 Latin American countries, these words haven’t always fostered a sense of community among the people they’re supposed to describe.

Before activists, the media and government officials worked to group these identities into one, they were seen as separate. Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, for example, lived in different parts of the country and had their own distinct political and cultural identities.

Yet, as long as there have been people from Latin American countries living in the United States, there have been words to describe them. Some have fallen out of favor, while others have evolved. And many of them have a history as complicated as trying to unify multiple nationalities under one banner.

'Hispanic' Helps Unify Communities, Agenda

Juana Arias/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Grace Flores-Hughes, who claims to have come up with the term Hispanic for the Census, pictured at her Alexandria home in 2003.

The first time the federal government used the word Hispanic in a census was 1980. The appearance of the term was borne from decades of lobbying. “It took the debates of the 1970s, the protests of the late 1960s to get us to 1980,” explains G. Cristina Mora, a sociology professor at UC Berkeley and author of Making Hispanics: How Activists, Bureaucrats, and Media Constructed a New American.

Before 1980, those of Latin American descent were considered Spanish-speaking, having Spanish origin or white on the census. The latter frustrated Mexican-American activists because they had no data to prove that their communities needed resources for programs, such as job training. The National Council of La Raza, known today as Unidos US, led in lobbying the Census Bureau to change the way it categorized Latinos and uniting Puerto Ricans and Mexicans to “hammer out a Hispanic agenda.”

“In the late 1960s and early 1970s as people in the Census Bureau and bureaucrats in the Nixon administration were thinking about what this new group would be called, Hispanic became a term that people thought would probably be well-known because it was linked to hispano,” Mora says. “But Hispanic was helpful because it seemed more American.”

Hispanic refers to those from Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries, which excludes Brazilians. Grace Flores-Hughes, who worked as a secretary in what was then known as the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, has said she coined the term. However, as Mora explains, it’s possible that Hispanic was in use before then.

While 1980 marked a milestone, this pan-ethnic term didn’t really catch on until about the 1990s. By then, there had been two rounds of censuses and the media, particularly Univision and Telemundo, had helped to unite these communities.

“It wasn’t just activists and it wasn’t just bureaucrats,” Mora says. “It was certain figures like Telemundo, Univision, who had a huge vested interest in connecting their audiences across the country and having those audiences across the country see themselves as one market.”

'Latino' as Alternative to 'Hispanic'

While Hispanic may have utility, the term has been criticized for highlighting Spain, which colonized much of Latin America. Some have offered “Latino” as an alternative. This term refers to those from Latin America, meaning it includes Brazil but not Spain.

The word existed long before the 1960s. But Ramón A. Gutiérrez, a Preston & Sterling Morton Distinguished Service Professor of United States history at the University of Chicago, explains that it was previously a Spanish-language word that came from Latino America, which Colombian writer José María Torres Caicedo helped popularize.

“Latino is short for Latino Americano,” he says. “And it’s the result of what happens between 1808 and 1821 as the Latin American countries become independent.”

In the second half of the 19th century, the abbreviated words “hispano” and “latino” were in use in California among Spanish speakers, but eventually, other terms replaced them. By 1920, they had “virtually disappeared,” Gutiérrez writes.

The term Latino gradually re-emerged in English, appearing in books and even in a 1970 White House diary entry by Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson. In another early example, a March 17, 1973 issue of the Black Panther Party’s newspaper described a program drawn up by an “action group composed of Blacks, Latinos and Whites.” By 2000, Latino was on the census, with the question, “Is this person Spanish/Hispanic/Latino?”

Though Latino deemphasized the connection to Spain, some still rejected the term as it attempted to group several distinct cultures into one. For example, a popular bumper sticker declaring, “Don’t Call Me Hispanic, I’m Cuban!” circulated in Miami during the early 1990s, according to Mora. In many cases, those who didn’t want to identify as Hispanic or Latino chose nationality.

A 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 47 percent of respondents most often describe themselves by their family’s country of origin, while 39 percent use the terms Latino or Hispanic and 14 percent most often describe themselves as American.

Some Mexican-Americans Embrace 'Chicano'

Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

Mexican-Americans hold a rally at the California state capitol to protest discrimination. This group marched 600 miles from Calexico.

For some Mexicans who shunned Latino and Hispanic, this meant turning to the word “Chicano.”

There are a few theories about the origins of Chicano, including that it comes from mexicano (pronounced meshicano), a word that some “groups of Nahuas (Indigenous speakers of Nahuatl) began calling their language,” writes David Bowles, an author and professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Another possibility is that Chicano is a result of hypocorism. “It’s basically using baby talk,” Bowles says. “If you think about nicknames, Spanish nicknames, if you’re Ignacio, you’re called ‘Nacho.’ Graciela, you’re called ‘Chela.’ It’s possible that that could be some type of hypocorism behind the change from mexicano to Chicano—a playful kind of thing.”

One of the first mentions of Chicano in print is in Spanish-language newspaper La Crónica in 1911, where it was used as a slur against “less cultured” Mexican Americans and recent immigrants. But by the 1960s, the word had changed. While not every Mexican or Mexican American would use the term, it gained traction, including among Mexican Americans who were fighting for civil rights.

“Because the word was in regular use at that time,” Bowles says, “it was kind of this way of reclaiming the slur and using it for a political Latinx identity.”

'Latinx' Emerges as Gender-Neutral Term

Spanish is a gendered language. If there is a group made up of women, they can be described as “ellas.” If there is a group with men and women, it defaults to the masculine (ellos instead of ellas). The word “Latino” follows this convention, labeling nouns as either masculine or feminine. For those who fall outside the gender binary, this word fails to represent them, which is where the gender neutral “Latinx” comes into play.

Much like the other words used to describe those of Latin American descent, Latinx has faced some pushback—from arguments that it’s difficult to pronounce to the Real Academia Española, the institution tasked with maintaining the consistency of the Spanish language, saying it’s unnecessary. Some even argued non-Latino whites imposed the word on Latinos.

Bowles argues against this notion. “White people did not make up Latinx,” he says. “It was queer Latinx people... They are the ones who used the word. Our little subgroup of the community created that. It was created by English-speaking U.S. Latinx people for use in English conversation.”

Though it’s unclear when or how it began, it’s mostly tied to the early 2000s, with it reportedly appearing on Google Trends in 2004. There are a few possibilities about how the word came to be. One theory is that Latin American protests inspired the word. From the 1970s to the 1990s, as feminists protested, they would X out words ending in “OS” to “visually… reject the notion that the default is the masculine,” Bowles says. It could have also been a nod to the use of X during the civil rights movement in the United States.

Despite an August 2021 Gallup poll finding that only 4 percent of Hispanic Americans use Latinx, it’s a term that gained momentum through the 2010s and 2020s, cropping on TV shows and in politics.

 

Census 2020: More Than 1 in 2 People Added to U.S. Population Are Latino by Rogelio Sáenz, Ph.D.

University of Texas San Antonio professor and demographer, Dr. Rogelio Sáenz weighs in on the current U.S. Census count. It provides added perspective to my two earlier posts today:

• America’s White Population Shrank for First Time in U.S. History, Census Data Show 

• People of color make up 95% of Texas’ population growth, and cities and suburbs are booming, 2020 census shows

I always think first of the children and how and whether we are taking care of their needs and well-being. I honestly believe that if we center our concerns on the youth, the rest will fall into place.

We must all do our part.

-Angela Valenzuela

Census 2020: More Than 1 in 2 People Added to U.S. Population Are Latino

By: Rogelio Sáenz

AUG 13, 2021

1:37 PM

The much-anticipated results of the 2020 Census for redistricting purposes are just in. The numbers illustrate the major changes that have been afoot in the U.S. population for some time. The nation’s population is becoming increasingly diverse due to major growth in the Latino, Asian, and multiracial populations and an aging white population that declined for the first time ever.

A total of 331.4 million were tallied in the 2020 Census, an absolute increase of 22.7 million people in the country. The Latino population led the way with slightly more than one of every two persons added to the country’s population through birth or international migration between 2010 and 2020 being Latino (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Percentage Distribution of U.S. Population Growth, 2010-2020

Overall, the Latino population increased by 23% during the decade while the white population declined by 8.6%.

Due to its aging population, the white population continued the downward slide of its share of the nation’s overall population at 57.8%., down from 63.7% a decade earlier (Figure 2). On the other hand, the Latino population increased its share of the population from 16.3% in 2010 to 18.7% in 2020 with a total Latino population of 62.1 million. These trends are in line with U.S. Census Bureau population projections suggesting that in 2044 whites will comprise less than half of the U.S. population. People of color now make up 42.2% of the U.S. population.

Figure 2. Percentage Distribution of U.S. Population by Race/Ethnicity, 2010 and 2020

Overall, the Latino population increased by 23% during the decade while the white population declined by 8.6%.

Due to its aging population, the white population continued the downward slide of its share of the nation’s overall population at 57.8%., down from 63.7% a decade earlier (Figure 2). On the other hand, the Latino population increased its share of the population from 16.3% in 2010 to 18.7% in 2020 with a total Latino population of 62.1 million. These trends are in line with U.S. Census Bureau population projections suggesting that in 2044 whites will comprise less than half of the U.S. population. People of color now make up 42.2% of the U.S. population.

Figure 2. Percentage Distribution of U.S. Population by Race/Ethnicity, 2010 and 2020

Some noteworthy changes reflecting the significant growth of the Latino population. First, the Latino population increased in all states and the District of Columbia.

Second, one of the most dramatic alterations in the Latino population is its increasing representation in an expanding swath of states around the country. The number of states where Latinos comprised more than 10% of the population climbed from 17 in 2010 to 27 in 2020 with Massachusetts, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Maryland, the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, Georgia, and Wyoming joining the ranks in 2020 (Figure 3). This fanning out of the Latino population contrasts greatly to an earlier time more than a half-century ago when Latinos were clustered in the Southwest, Illinois, Florida, and New York.

Figure 3. States Where Latinos Represent 10% or More of Overall Population, 2020

Third, Latinos were the largest or second largest racial/ethnic group in 24 states in 2020 (Figure 4). California has now joined New Mexico to represent the two states where Latinos are the largest racial/ethnic group. Of the 22 states where Latinos make up the second largest group, Texas stands out with whites holding a slim percentage share advantage of 39.7% versus 39.3% for Latinos. It is projected that Latinos will outnumber whites in the state in 2022.

Figure 4. Twenty-Four States Where Latinos Represent the Largest or Second Largest Racial/Ethnic Group, 2020

Final Thoughts

There is undoubtedly an undercount of Latinos and other groups in the midst of the pandemic and the Trump Administration’s attempts to insert a citizenship question and to disallow the tally of unauthorized persons in the counts used to generate redistricting. Still, kudos go out to the good people at the U.S. Census Bureau who protected the integrity of the Census, produced the most accurate count of the population, and were able to fend off Trump’s directives to manipulate the count.

There is still a lot of greater details that will emerge over the coming months on the changing U.S. population. The true reality is that the nation is becoming increasingly diverse with Latinos in the forefront of this shift alongside Asians, Blacks, and persons identifying with multiple racial categories.

But one clear message emerges from the results of the 2020 Census, as the count will be used for redistricting purposes. Trucha, raza, we know the gerrymandering and underhand tactics that Republicans will use to dilute our community’s numbers. Remember that in our nation, whites sustained a decline of nearly 9% between 2010 and 2020 with Latinos increasing by 23%, a pattern replicated in many parts of the country.

Finally, on a personal note, I have been studying the demography of Latinos intensively since 1980. It has been an incredibly rewarding journey to see first-hand these tremendous changes and cannot wait to see what lies ahead.

***

Rogelio Sáenz is a sociologist and demographer. He is professor in the Department of Demography at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Sáenz is a regular contributor to Latino Rebels. Twitter: @RogelioSaenz42.

Platforms of Power: Shaping the U.S. Latino Narrative | 2020 In Focus: Election, Census, and the Latino Community

THIS LOOKS BOTH TIMELY AND EXCITING. GO TO LINK TO REGISTER.

-Angela

Join the Friends of the American Latino Museum for a weekend of conversations about diverse storytelling, creating inclusivity, and the watershed year 2020 promises to be. And each night, we will bring our friends together for a celebration of the work done and the work yet to come.

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Where: Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center
600 River St.  • Austin, TX

When: March 13 – 14, 2020 

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With the support and partnership of NBC Universal Telemundo and the UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative, we are excited to bring this space to SXSW.

Be sure to register below and check back here regularly for updates on our schedule and ways to get involved. We can’t wait to see you in Austin!

We are grateful to be joined in Austin with our friends, supporters, and leaders from across the entertainment and advocacy space. 

GET FREE GENERAL ADMISSIONS TICKETS HERE.

A conversation featuring Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) and Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; Ivette Rodriguez of LA Collab; Ruben Garcia of Creative Artists Agency; Sonja Diaz of UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative; moderated by Julio Ricardo Varela of Futuro Media.

The American Latino experience has been largely left out of conversations in history, media, politics, and entertainment. This exclusion leads to ignorance around the contributions of Latinos across industries, giving rise to stereotypes and misunderstandings. As the Latino community continues to grow, xenophobia and misinformed rhetoric regarding Latinos have taken a serious toll on our community and the nation—in some instances, even putting lives in danger.

But over the last decade or more, there has been a concerted effort on all fronts to push back and regain control of the narrative by Latinos and Latinas in media, politics, and business. With more Latinos than ever in government, behind the camera, and giving voice to our community’s stories, we have an opportunity to seize and shape the conversation around the diversity of our history and our present day America. How can today’s various platforms find synergy to create inclusivity for Latinos while tackling ignorance and hate? And how can we use our platforms of power to create a more positive narrative around our community?

GET FREE GENERAL ADMISSIONS TICKETS HERE.

A powerful conversation featuring Congressman Will Hurd (TX-23); Dr. Matt Barreto, UCLA Latino Policy & Politics Initiative; and Julie Rodriguez, DNC Platform Committee; moderated by Vanessa Hauc, Noticias Telemundo.

For the first time in history, Latinos are the largest minority group of potential voters in the United States. In the 2020 election, a record 32 million Latino Americans will be eligible to vote. But far from being a uniform voting bloc, the Latino community in the US is incredibly diverse demographically, culturally, and ideologically. Engaging and mobilizing Latino voters has been a priority for campaigns and interest groups as Latinos make up an increasingly larger segment of the US population. But authenticity is key—are activists and candidates doing a better job of speaking to the concerns and interests of Latinos? What gaps still remain?

In the wake of Super Tuesday, join us for a conversation about the watershed year 2020 promises to be, and the role of the Latino community.

How Latinos Are Shaping America’s Future | National Geographic | BY HÉCTOR TOBAR| JULY 2018

As per this great story in National Geographic 
(July, 2018), Latinas and Latinos are definitely 
shaping our country's future. Link to the actual 
article to view the gorgeous photos.

My friends, there is nothing to fear about this and much 
to celebrate, too.  This is a community that prides itself 
on being hard-working, family- and community-oriented, 

happily bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural.  We also have 
a long history of intermarrying with people of diverse 
cultures, races, and nationalities.  We are indeed 
amorphous:

"Among the major ethnic or racial identities in the United States—white, black, Asian, Native American—Latino is the most amorphous. Latino people can be African, Mesoamerican, Asian, or white." 

And we come with perspectives that come from our own literary, intellectual, aesthetic, and spiritual traditions that 

are positive for this nation.  Plus, we've been here in the 

U.S. and before that on this continent for so very long that 

we are on familiar ground regardless of whether 
we are immigrant or U.S.-born.  That said,

"Every day the rest of the United States becomes a little more like Wilder [Idaho]."

This column advances this "dramatic reordering 
of the nation’s demographics" in positive terms.  

As well it should... 

-Angela Valenzuela

How Latinos Are Shaping America’s Future

They’re the focus of the immigration debate. But across the nation, Latinos 

are rising to power and offering a glimpse of what’s ahead.

BY HÉCTOR TOBAR| July 2018 | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KARLA GACHET AND IVAN KASHINSKY

ISMAEL FERNANDEZ GREW up in Wilder, Idaho, a town of 1,700 
souls surrounded by tall hop plants and stubby alfalfa fields.

He lived with his grandparents in a home built on land where his 
grandfather, a Vietnam War veteran, once picked beets and onions.

When Fernandez was 19, he was elected to the city council. On his first 
day in office, in 2015, he stepped up to the short dais in Wilder City 
Hall and sat alongside the four other council members. A local reporter noticed something no one else had: There were five Spanish surnames 
on the council members’ nameplates. Almazan. Rivera. Godina. Garcia. 
Fernandez. The story soon went national. For the first time ever in Idaho—a state where non-Hispanic whites make up 82 percent of the population—voters had elected an all-Latino city council.

Wilder

IDAHO

UNITED STATES

NGM MAPS

Wilder is 76% Latino.

The town of 1,700 made headlines for its all-Latino city council in 2015.

Continue reading here.