{"id":8603,"date":"2019-11-15T19:06:08","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T19:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/?p=8603"},"modified":"2019-11-17T14:50:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T14:50:17","slug":"xpanding-the-diaspora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/2019\/11\/15\/xpanding-the-diaspora\/","title":{"rendered":"Xpanding the diaspora"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve been thinking about “what we talk about when we talk about Latinx” for some<\/a> years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My main question has been: Why not Latines?<\/a> why not use the vowel “e” that we already use for non-gender-specific terms like alcaldes (mayors) and doctores (doctors), etc. Why the consonant \u201cX\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a few weeks ago that I started thinking about pre-Hispanic and <\/a>post-Hispanic<\/strong><\/em><\/a> <\/em><\/a>cultures<\/a> in the Americas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was that “post-Hispanic” naming that helped me accept the purpose of the X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that “LatinX” cannot be said easily in Spanish is a feature, not a bug. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The use of the English “ex” is meant to disrupt the flow of speech; like a branch on a tree, rather than a dam on a river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a little bit “Malcolm X” and a lot to do with the right to self-name. Specifically, I think post-Hispanic (English-native versus “Spanish dominant”) generations want to be able to indicate their specific role in, and contribution to, the diaspora. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, I’ll call anyone what they want to be called. Full stop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, I will continue to use Latines when describing everyone \u2013 Latino, Latina, Latinx. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps, our children, raised in the US, will choose the LatinX for themselves. It has a great sound to it. Not unlike the call sign of a great Tijuana American alternative music radio station: 91x<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been thinking about “what we talk about when we talk about Latinx” for some years. My main question has been: Why not Latines? why not use the vowel “e” that we already use for non-gender-specific terms like alcaldes (mayors) and doctores (doctors), etc. Why the consonant \u201cX\u201d? It was a few weeks ago that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8603"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8612,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8603\/revisions\/8612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}