As Latinx Heritage Month begins, two faculty explain how the term Latinx came to be — and the importance of celebrating the history and accomplishments of the Latinx community.

Patricia Herrera and Mariela Méndez, experts on Latinx culture, research the term in academia and create programming on campus studying the community around the world.

The term Latino came about in the 1970s, Herrera explained, as an all-encompassing term for people living in the United States with ancestral roots from Latin America. Since then, the term has taken on new meaning with feminist (Latina/o and Latin@) and non-binary (Latinx) communities.

“It’s a personal choice to identify as Latinx,” Méndez said. “The x acknowledges that your identity is being crossed by borders of many kinds: linguistics, geopolitical, gender, race. You need to respect where people are at in that journey.”

Méndez shared her experience of moving to the United States after growing up in Argentina.

“I came to the U.S. as an adult,” she said. “I lived in Argentina for 30 years. “I called myself Argentinian originally, and it’s been a journey. It was a very intentional decision to now call myself Latina. Students are working through these labels, it’s a struggle, it’s a process, it’s not straightforward, it has detours and contradictions and tension, and you work through it.”

Many in the Latinx community hold multiple cultures close, including Herrera.  

“As you are navigating between cultures it’s very clear that there is a holding on to the cultural roots, you begin to fuse cultures depending on the time, place, and who you’re with,” Herrera said. “This month is about honoring our culture, but also our contribution in the Americas as a whole.”

Editor's Note: This story was originally published on Oct. 13, 2021.