U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) unveiled a new bill on Thursday that aims to prohibit the use of the “woke” term “Latinx” from official federal use.
If successful, the bill would prohibit the use of the term “Latinx” in official government communication by federal agencies or employees, taking a stance against what the lawmakers argue is an unnecessary imposition on the language and identity of Hispanic Americans.
“Hispanic Americans overwhelmingly oppose the term ‘Latinx,’ and I want to make sure our government does not bow to woke activists in our federal departments or agencies by insisting on ridiculous terminology like this,” Mr. Cruz said in a statement.
According to Mr. Cruz, the term “Latinx” has no place in official government communication, and he said he’s “proud to work with Sen. Rubio to keep it out.”
Mr. Rubio echoed similar sentiments, describing the term’s use by woke activists as an imposition on Latinos.
“Hispanic Americans don’t need fabricated woke terminology imposed on us,” Mr. Rubio said. “The term ‘Latinx’ has no place in our federal agency’s official communication as it’s a degradation tossed around by progressive elites.”
According to Maia Gil'Adi, an assistant professor of “Latinx and Multiethnic Literature” at Boston University, the term “Latinx” emerged in the 1990s from Latino and Latina youth and the LGBT community. The use of the “x” in “Latinx” represents a link to the indigenous heritage of many individuals.
The centuries-old Spanish language already used Latino as a default gender-neutral term, one Hispanic Democrat has argued.
The bill states that the term is unnecessary and inappropriate, and its use should be eliminated from official government communication. The bill’s sponsors believe that it is important to respect the wishes of Hispanic Americans, who they claim overwhelmingly oppose the term.Similar Bills, Bipartisan Issue
Similar bills have been introduced by lawmakers from both parties in the House of Representatives and at the state level.Earlier this year, Hispanic Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) presented the Reject Latinx Act in Congress. Additionally, Democrats in Connecticut have put forth their own legislation to ban the use of the term.
Five Hispanic lawmakers in Connecticut, all part of the state’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, proposed a bill to eliminate the term “Latinx” from official use in the state government in February.
Democratic state Rep. Geraldo Reyes Jr. of Waterbury said the term “Latinx” is not a Spanish word, but rather a “woke” term that can be considered offensive to Connecticut’s substantial Puerto Rican community. He described the term as personally “offensive.”
The other four members who oppose the term in Connecticut’s legislature are Reps. Christopher Rosario from Bridgeport, Juan R. Candelaria from New Haven, Robert Sanchez from New Haven, and Minnie Gonzalez from Hartford.
The term has been officially rejected by Real Academia Española, a Madrid-based institution that governs the Spanish language, and by the League of United Latin American Citizens, the oldest Latino civil rights group in the United States.
According to ThinkNow, a market research firm located in Burbank, California, its data challenges the prevalent usage of the term “Latinx.”
Its research from 2019 indicates that 98 percent of Latinos do not identify with the term and instead prefer to be identified as Hispanic. The preferred terms among respondents were Hispanic, followed by Latino/Latina, and then by their family’s country of origin.
The term “Latinx” was only favored by 2 percent of Hispanics, with no individuals over the age of 50 expressing a preference for it. These findings align with a study conducted by Pew Research, which reported similar results regarding the percentage of Latinos and Hispanics who use the term.
In January, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders banned the term from official use within the state.
