In all honesty, I don’t think it matters whether it’s Latine or Latinx, the problem is that people don’t want to adapt to new concepts and the terms* that come with it, even though it might make people like me feel more accepted. Not even accepted, respected.
*People will say “it sounds dumb because they are made up words”… as oppose to the words we encounter in the wild?
The discussions about “Latinx” have been discussed and dragged to the grave, because it sounds too anglicized, but then they won’t use Latine either.
And I get that latino is gender neutral, what I have always questioned though, is how the masculine gender seems to be the one that turns neutral in most cases, when it’s never the other way around, but that’s a discussion for another time.
I am Mexican, I’ve been living in Mexico my whole life, in online spaces, I use latine/latinx (I see the latter more as a translation, I mean, if you’re writing in English, you wouldn’t say “I am mexicano” you would use the English word, etc.) but I will never use those words in real life because Mexico and most Latam countries are very conservative and the mere idea of non binarism instantly gets mocked and disregarded.
Overall, these conversations are really tiring for me and other enbies I’ve talked about it with, 9 times out of 10, the main thing I get from reading the discussions is that my own people will prioritize their own convenience (even if people using these terms doesn’t affect them at all) over trying to challenge the patriarchal and colonist mindsets that made languages the way they are in the first place.
Languages are fluid, they are bound to change over time, but they’ll take longer the more resistance and regulations people make (regulations that, like I said, are often rooted in concepts like colonialism and classism, that out of brevity I won’t disclose, but are pretty rampant in Spanish speaking countries).
Lastly, I also find it interesting and kinda sad that these type of discussions are, most likely, bound to be one-sided because the number of latine enbies who will also happen to be in these niche communities is going to be quite low. It is no surprise to me then seeing so many cis people commenting here, even non Latines.
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