Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Mosaic Journalism Program for Bay Area high school students, an intensive course in journalism. Students in the program report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.
Latinx is one of the more recent additions to the Spanish language. Documented online as far back as 2004, it’s been gaining relevance since 2016. Saray Orozco, a rising senior at San Jose High, explains why people use the word.
“Latinx is a very general term, and it’s already well known, so it helps a lot of people to understand,” Orozco said. “And to be more inclusive, because a lot of people, when they hear Latina or Latino, they think that they’re not included into the conversation.”
Many point out that Spanish is grammatically patriarchal. Catalina Lopez, an editor for the Santa Clara High School student newspaper, explained that the masculine version of words is emphasized.
“Honestly, the Spanish language is kind of sexist,” she said. “Male dominant.”
What she means is that even if there’s only one man in a group of women, the group is called ellos instead of ellas because of the one man.
The fact that Latinx exists highlights a flaw in how Spanish is being taught and used.
I have a solution to this problem. Latinx, as a word, doesn’t need to exist.
I’m a Mexican American kid and not the most fluent in Spanish. I’m also cisgendered and straight, so I can’t speak from the perspective of Latinx people. While I like the idea of making minority groups in society feel more comfortable and accepted, the fundamentals of “gendered nouns” like Latino and Mexicano are too easy to misinterpret.
Masculine and feminine nouns, as they’re typically dubbed in the Romance languages like Spanish and Italian, are being accused of assigning genders to inanimate objects and concepts, like buckets and fish, cubetas y pescados.
And although masculine words in Spanish are intended to be usable in gender-neutral circumstances, in an interview with Public Radio International Spanish-speaking non-binary femme writer Jack Qu’emi explains why that’s not acceptable.
“In Spanish, the masculinized version of words is considered gender neutral, but that obviously doesn’t work for some of us because I don’t think it’s appropriate to assign masculinity as gender neutral when it isn’t, no matter how lightly that is implied.”
Masculine words are commonly lower-pitched while feminine words are higher-pitched. Consider that when using masculine words like pescado, hombre and ojo, or the feminine rosita, mujer, and belleza. You’ll notice the difference in how your voice elevates or descends when you say them.
To avoid the idea that Spanish genders words, we should try saying low-pitch and high-pitch instead of masculine and feminine. Tono alto y tono bajo.
Related Articles
Opinion: My family calls me unruly. So what if I am?
Graduation rates plunge at some East Side schools
Boba cafe brings Viet cuisine to Alum Rock neighborhood
Bay Area teens lean on AI for mental health support
Bay Area schools look to tackle fentanyl crisis head on
By doing this, every Latino person will feel more comfortable accepting Latino as the gender-neutral term it was intended to be due to the removal of implied gender in the language. Native Spanish speakers anywhere also won’t have to struggle to death pronouncing the X in Latinx.
I understand if some people feel more comfortable with Latinx than being called Latino (for men) or Latina (for women). It’s just the structure of the language. It doesn’t have anything to do with gender.
Latinx activists are not going to be happy with me. I propose that the Royal Spanish Academy, official guardians of the language in Spain, direct teachers to avoid identifying words as masculine or feminine. We would replace that with low-pitch and high-pitch sounds.
Here’s one example: In Spanish, we say la puerta está quebrada (the door is broken). Nobody would think the feminine door is broken. Romance languages were designed to be practical and pleasant to the ear. The purpose of low-pitch and high-pitch is to eliminate the connotation of gendered words by replacing masculine and feminine.
And while we’re at it, we should not question the idea of men acting feminine or women acting masculine.
We can’t get caught up in pointless debates that only exist to tear us apart, like the argument over Latinx. If people want to be represented in language, they must understand how it is built.
I predict that Latinx will remain because it’s the choice of a growing number of young people. It’s ultimately people who use language, and it will evolve no matter what.
Jorge Ramirez Gomez is a member of the class of 2025 at San Jose High School.
