“If I'm referring to myself, I would typically use Latino. Chicano, I think would to some extent, also work,” said Cruz Foster, a senior in AC, regarding how he chooses to identify, “…but Latino is just what I use for myself, and also how it's referring to members of my family and our community. I think it just feels the most natural and the one that's most connected. It feels like it makes the most sense, and it's born the most directly out of Spanish, and feels right in terms of the language that I speak with my family.”
In the Bay Area, the term we probably hear the most regarding this community is “Latino” and variations thereof. The definition of Latino includes people from every country in Latin America, including ones that don’t speak Spanish, like Brazil, but doesn’t include people from Spanish-speaking countries in other parts of the world, like Spain. Because of the gendered endings in Spanish, a man of this origin would be “Latino” and a woman would be “Latina.” Additionally, something of note is that, when referring to a group of people made up of both men and women, you would always use the version ending with “o.” For example, even if there was a group of mostly women with one man, you would say something like “los latinos” or “los doctores”, instead of “las latinas” or “las doctoras.”
“I would say it would be, just from my limited knowledge, a bit suspect to say that it applies to men, but is also gender neutral,” said Victor Aguilera, who teaches Comparative Values and Beliefs and Theory of Knowledge in BIHS. “But I also know that growing up, that was the rule. So when I spoke Spanish, I knew that that was what that meant.”
In the past twenty or so years, there has been a growing movement of people with Aguilera’s view challenging this convention. When using a term in Spanish, a lot of people have opted for gender-neutral endings when describing a group of people, or the community at large. This led to the creation of the word “Latinx.” In the past few years, this iteration of the word has become very popular — it’s used in many contexts, and can be seen all around Berkeley and Berkeley High.
While many are happy with the new term and the ground it’s breaking, not everyone thinks the term is necessary — and some are even actively opposed to it.
“I think I very rarely see it (Latino) as not (having) a gender-neutral ending. (If) I'm saying Latino, I'm not referring to just Latino guys, I'm referring to Latino people in general, of all genders,” said Foster, “…that's how the language is formed.”
Regardless of varying opinions, “Latinx” is emerging as the dominant term for the community at Berkeley High. It’s a term teachers often use, there are classes titled Latinx History and Latinx Literature Studies, and the community’s affinity club is called Latinx Unidos.
“I think in Berkeley High I most often hear Latinx. And I'm actually really disappointed that the Latinos Unidos club changed it to Latinx Unidos,” said a student who wished to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly about a controversial topic, “because, first of all, unidos is masculine, so that's really stupid, because it would have to be like Latinx Unidxs. And that just sounds like… what even is that? And secondly, I hate that. I really hate that, and it just makes me cringe.”
Conjugation is, indeed, a common reason that some community members reject Latinx — it’s hard to work into the language, and poses complicated, unanswered questions. Would the gender-neutral version of a word like maestros be maestrx? So, instead of los maestrxs would it be lxs maestrx? In what cases would you use that? How do you pronounce that in Spanish? For that matter, how are Spanish speakers meant to pronounce the letter “x”, when in their language it is typically pronounced as making an “h” or “s” sound? How well does the word flow when they have taken up pronouncing it as Latin-equis, which is how you say the name of the letter “x” in Spanish?
“I think people who are younger are definitely more accepting of the terms we use now, but people who are older might think like, ‘oh, that's so weird.’ Why would we use that term if we have all these terms we've been using for so long?” said Scarlet Guerrero, a sophomore in AMPS. “...I think the reaction (from) older people might be a little more like, ‘oh, that's kind of weird how we're changing things. If it hasn't been like that (ever).’”
According to a study by the Pew Research Center conducted in 2020, only 14% of Hispanics over the age of 29 have heard of the term, and 1.5% use it. Unsurprisingly, younger people (between the ages of 18-29) are much more likely to have heard of the term, 42% say they have, and use it, as 7% of them say they do. While Pew conducted a similar survey in 2024, and found that awareness of the term had doubled among American Hispanics, it was found that still only 4% in total chose to use it. But even with numbers that seem unfavorable to “Latinx”, in Berkeley — as a very liberal city that tends to put an emphasis on terminology — it can seem much more ubiquitous.
“I couldn't say that it's full animosity towards the word Latinx, but I have yet to talk to people within the Latin community and hear someone be like, 'oh yeah. I love that word, that sounds right.’” said Foster. “The sentiment feels very like — it feels like another, different word. And I like talking to, like, my family about it, they're like, ‘yeah, we don't use that. We wouldn't use that…it doesn't feel right.’”
At the same time, Latin and all its variations aren’t the only labels that exist in this community — Hispanic and Chicano are other terms that are often heard across the United States and Berkeley. While Chicano has a more complicated meaning that has to do with both the first generation Mexican-American experience, as well as political organizing, Hispanic can be very similar to Latino — with the difference being that it focuses on language as opposed to geographical location. Chicano is too specific to be an alternative to Latino/x, but Hispanic is sometimes considered as a solution. Hispanic is not without its own controversies, however – it has been accused of being eurocentric, since it is about the language spoken that was brought over by the Spanish colonizers. Latino, in the same vein, has also been accused of eurocentrism, since the root of the food is the European language of Latin. It sometimes seems that every term has a negative flipside.
Nonetheless, another alternative has been put forward to Latinx in recent years as a more linguistically acceptable variation: “Latine.”
“If you're gonna insist on being all wokie and progressive, I think the ‘e’ is much better, because it's more acceptable in Spanish,” said the anonymous student. “I guess it’s not just some, like, ‘x’ — so weird — but ‘e’, it's a vowel. That's more manageable. I think ‘e’ just combines better with the language.”
While Latine is now one of the most popular terms alongside Latino and Latinx, other variations have passed through the mainstream over the years — some have stylized a gender-neutral version as “latino/a/x/e” or “latin@”, although they are not verbally pronounceable. Another creative solution is demonstrated by Claudia Sheinbaum, the current Presidenta of Mexico, who began a speech to her country by addressing her audience as “latinas y latinos.” Labels go in and out of style, and there is no doubt that the preferred or accepted terminology will continue to change as it always has.
“I think there is definitely, how do I say — not peer pressure. I wouldn't go so far as to call it performative,” said Aguilera. “But one of my critiques of teaching in places like Berkeley, where students know the narrative of equity and inclusion, it's like they have the rhetoric, they can use the rhetoric, and they can talk it, but their behavior doesn't always match it.”
Aguilera added that to him, personally, what matters the most to him by far is not terminology, but treatment — if someone’s regard for another person comes out positively in their actions, then the specific words they use matter little. But sometimes, Aguilera said, he doesn’t see his students' behavior matching their inclusive rhetoric. A few years ago, for example, when there were Black Lives Matter protests on campus, he would see kids outside with BLM signs who, when in his class, would not talk with the Black student they were sat beside.
“I don't know, I just think that it's (Latinx is) trying to be inclusive, but it's just kind of doing the opposite thing, because maybe some Latinos don't feel included by that word,” said the anonymous student.
This sentiment can especially come up during Hispanic Heritage Month, which is celebrated September 15 to October 15, when there is a multitude of different language being used to describe the community. “The point of that heritage month is to honor the history and struggle and identity and group of a specific community. And to do that, and to talk about that — which is so important — with a word that's not from or natural and native to that community, feels like it's coming from the wrong place,” said Foster, “…the statement that you're making, the thing that you're putting out, is about one community, and so I think you should just be using the language and the terminology in (and) from that community.”
“I think if there was a term that could encapsulate everyone and everyone and everyone was satisfied, then we would be using that term already,” said Aguilera, noting that there is no term that can be used that will make everybody happy. “But I don't, I don't see us getting there anytime soon.”
The best that can be done is to keep an open mind — to question the origin and true meaning of every word, and how they make people feel included or excluded. While there is no word that is perfect, everyone should still try their best.
“Honestly, I think if someone's personal preference offends someone else, the person that got offended should probably just be like, 'hey, I know you probably use this and that in a different way (than) how I use it, but I prefer if you use this way when you're around me,’” finished Guerrero.