both a Hispanic and a Latino. A Brazilian American is also a Latino by this definition, which includes those of Portuguese-speaking origin from Latin America. But also by this definition, Italian Americans are not considered "Latino", as they are for the most part descended from immigrants from Europe rather than Latin America, unless they happen to have had recent history in a Latin American country. Preference of use between the terms among Hispanics in the United States often depends on where users of the respective terms reside. Those in the Eastern United States tend to prefer the term Hispanic, whereas those in the West tend to prefer Latino. The U.S. ethnic designation Latino is abstracted from the longer form latinoamericano. The element latino- is actually an indeclinable, compositional form in -o (i.e. an elemento compositivo) that is employed to coin compounded formations (similar as franco- in francocanadiense 'French-Canadian′, or ibero- in iberorrománico, etc.). The term Latinx (and similar neologism Xicanx) have gained some usage. The adoption of the X would be "[r]eflecting new consciousness inspired by more recent work by LGBTQI and feminist movements, some Spanish-speaking activists are increasingly using a yet more inclusive "x" to replace the "a" and "o", in a complete break with the gender binary. Among the advocates of the term LatinX, one of the most frequently cited complaints of gender bias in the Spanish language is that a group of mixed or unknown gender would be referred to as Latinos, whereas Latinas refers to a group of women only (but this is changed immediately to Latinos, if even a single man joins this female group). A 2020 Pew Research Center survey found that about 3% of Hispanics use the term (mostly women), and only around 23% have even heard of the term. Of those, 65% said it should not be used to describe their ethnic group. Some have pointed out that the term “Hispanic” refers to a pan-ethnic identity, one that spans a range of races, national origins, and linguistic backgrounds. “Terms like Hispanic and Latino do not fully capture how we see ourselves”, says Geraldo Cadava, an associate professor of history and Hispanic studies at Northwestern University. According to 2017 American Community Survey data, a small minority of immigrants from Brazil (2%), Portugal (2%), and the Philippines (1%) self-identified as Hispanic. History 16th and 17th centuries Spanish explorers were pioneers in the territory of