Title: Is 'Latinx' elitist? Some push back at the word's growing use
Headings: Is 'Latinx' elitist? Some push back at the word's growing use
Is 'Latinx' elitist? Some push back at the word's growing use
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Content: Using Latinx is a way to bring visibility to people who have been marginalized and who we have not taken care of as part of our families.” Acknowledging a word's socio-political history
Concern over the use of Latinx also comes from Chicanas, women of Mexican descent who have a desire to respect past political battles, including the fight to use terms like Chicano/a and the more gender-neutral Chican@.
Denise Sandoval, a professor of Chicano and Chicana Studies at California State University at Northridge, grew up identifying as Chicana while fighting for recognition of the role of women in the Chicano experience. Chicana activists in the 1960s sought a voice in a movement dominated by men. Bowles recalls gender activists in Argentina and Paraguay in the 1970s who crossed out the letter "o" at the end of gendered words on their protest signs as a demand for acknowledgment. Denise Sandoval: Lowriders Tell the Story of the Chicano experience
Sept. 25, 201703:31
Sandoval sees the discussion over Latinx as both important and a distraction. “My tendency is to not enter this discussion, because this is really not about labels, but all the forms, both institutional and collective, that marginalize and oppress us, such as homophobia, racism, sexism, etc.,” she said. Sandoval said it's important to focus on the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and power, and how they affect identity. “I can’t use Chicano only to map the Mexican-American experience.