Country's oldest Latino-rights group drops 'Latinx' as backlash grows against the woke term

The nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization told its staff and board members to discontinue using the term “Latinx” in official communications.

Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, banned the term in an email this week to Sindy Benavides, the league’s CEO; David Cruz, its communications director; and the LULAC board of directors.

“Let’s stop using Latinx in all official communications,” Mr. Garcia said in the email, NBC News first reported. He noted that the term is “very unliked” by most Latinos.

The email included a link to a Miami Herald editorial headlined, “The ‘Latinx community’ doesn’t want to be called ‘Latinx.’ Just drop it, progressives.”

Mr. Garcia’s directive caught wind of influential Latinos and media across the country and the response was 99% positive.

“Everybody says it’s about time. Why are people trying to define us when we already defined ourselves? It’s been like a groundswell of support,” Mr. Garcia told The Washington Times in an interview.

The Hispanic backlash against the word Latinx has caused a stir among those on the political left who considered it part of progressive culture. The term was created as an English-language gender-neutral and LGBTQ-inclusive term to refer to Latinos.

A Bendixen and Amandi poll of 800 Hispanic voters last month showed the term to be unpopular with Hispanic voters, with only 2% of Latinos acknowledging the word while 40% are offended by it.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus told The Washington Times they also take issue with the word.

“I’m Latina, you know. Latinx — that’s, bulls—-,” Rep. Nydia Velazquez, New York Democrat, said.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, Arizona Democrat, went on a Twitter rant about the issues related to the term. 

“When Latino politicos use the term, it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use. … It is a vicious circle of confirmation bias.”

Like LULAC, Mr. Gallego instructed his staff to stop using the term in official communications.

Latinx also does not translate into Spanish.

Like other Romance languages, Spanish divides endings of nouns into masculine “o’s” or feminine “a’s.” It defaults to the masculine ending when referencing a noun related to both males and females in one group.

However, the term still has supporters on the left.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, New York Democrat, says he and his children use Latinx often. 

“This is a modern term. In the future, It’s going to be a common word. I use it all the time. My children use it,” said Mr. Espillat. “In terms of gender, Latinx is neutral.” Mr. Espillat noted he uses all masculine forms of the Spanish word “man” and feminine forms of the Spanish word “woman.”

Rep. Grace Napolitano, California Democrat, said she does not use the word, but times have changed.

“I am Latina — Mexican. When times change, words or meanings change. Each generation has their own way of saying things,” she said. “I personally don’t use the term Latinx. Once upon a time, the old terms were used, but when it is over, new words are used.”