糖心Vlog

What鈥檚 in a Name?

Yesterday (September 15) marked the independence from Spanish colonial rule of several Latin American countries:  Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico commemorates its independence today, September 16, and Chile鈥檚 independence anniversary follows two days after, on September 18. Thus begins the month of recognizing and celebrating the history, culture, and contributions of the Latinx community in the United States.   

Under President Lyndon B. Johnson, the observation of the contributions of Americans with ancestry from the Caribbean, Central and South America, Mexico, and Spain was established in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week. In 1988, under President Reagan, this week of recognition was extended to a month and enacted into law as Hispanic Heritage Month.

At 糖心Vlog, a Hispanic Serving Institution, we kick off this month of recognition with informational resources, artistic renderings, and critical examination. We celebrate this month as Latinx Heritage Month. Why have we chosen this name over the nationally established name of Hispanic Heritage Month? What鈥檚 in a name?

In the article, 鈥淢apping and recontextualizing the evolution of the term鈥疞atinx: An environmental scanning in higher education鈥� by Cristobal Salinas Jr.鈥痑nd Adele Lozano, they detail the following history of the usage of the terms:

• 鈥淗ispanic鈥痙erives from the Latin word 鈥疕ispania, which later became鈥疎spa帽a鈥�(Spain).鈥�
• 鈥淗ispanic鈥痳efers to people who are from countries where the primary language is Spanish (e.g., Spain, Columbia, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic, among others).鈥� 鈥淏y contrast, the term鈥疞atino鈥痺as adapted by the U.S. government to label individuals who identify as鈥痬estizo or mulato鈥�(mixed White, with Black and Native) people of Central or South America.鈥�
• 鈥淭he term鈥疞atino鈥痳efers to people from the Caribbean, as well as Mexico, and the countries that comprise Central and South America, even those countries that are not Spanish-speaking (Belize, Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname).鈥�
• 鈥淚t is important to understand the historical similarities and differences between鈥疕ispanic and鈥疞atino, which have resulted in different meanings for these two terms. A key similarity between these pan-ethnic terms is that they both refer to a cultural and ethnic group, not a race. Indeed, people of Latin American descent comprise various races, depending on ancestry and context, as the social construction of race continues to change through time. Furthermore, a 2012 report by the Pew Research Center found that when it comes to self-identification, 鈥渕ost Hispanics prefer their family鈥檚 country of origin over pan-ethnic terms.鈥濃��
• 鈥淟atinx鈥痜irst emerged in 2004 among 鈥渓eft-leaning and queer communities as a way to promote inclusivity in language.鈥� With the rise of social media, the term then 鈥済ained a foothold by mid-2015, and its use began spreading beyond LGBTQIA communities.鈥濃��
• 鈥淭he term 鈥疞atinx鈥痺as 鈥渂orn out of a collective aim to move beyond the masculine-centric 鈥楲atino鈥� and the gender inclusive but binary embedded 鈥楲atin@鈥�.鈥濃��

At 糖心Vlog, we choose to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month as Latinx Heritage Month. This terminology reflects our values as a college that embraces inclusivity and knowledge. Latinx reflects the intersectionality of our various identities (culture, language, race, ethnicity, phenotype, immigration status, gender, and sexuality), recognizes the diversity of the Latinx community, nods to the past shared history of colonialism, with its inherent violence against the Indigenous communities of the Americas and the forced enslavement of African peoples and, perhaps most importantly, the agency, resilience and beauty of the Latinx experience.   

Saludos,
Dr. Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy
Senior Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Reference:
Cristobal Salinas Jr. & Adele Lozano鈥�(2019)鈥疢apping and recontextualizing the evolution of the term鈥疞atinx: An environmental scanning in higher education,鈥疛ournal of Latinos and Education,鈥�18:4,鈥�302-315,鈥疍OI:鈥�10.1080/15348431.2017.1390464

Downloadable Zoom Backgrounds

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Music in the Latinx World

When we think of Latinx culture, we often think of music. Music has been a very important form of expressive culture throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.  Music reflected the culture contact and exchange between various ethnic groups in the region, resulting over the years in genres that are hybrid and syncretic, such as Coste帽o music of Colombia.  Music has functioned as resistance--as a repository of the history of people systematically oppressed through colonial and racist laws and practices that sought to prohibit subjugated people from practicing their own cultural forms while forcefully requiring them to adopt the cultural practices of the colonizer. Rara music and performance of Haiti is an example of this phenomenon. Music reflected the image that was to be presented to the world as the national culture of the emergent nation, as was the case of merengue in the Dominican Republic.  In Los Angeles, the Eastside music scene serves as the stage upon which Chicano/a cultural politics of consciousness, community building, and collaboration with other minoritized and marginalized communities were enacted. Music in the Latinx world was, and continues to be, a form of expression that is celebratory, political, deeply rooted in historical experiences, and deployed intentionally to express identity, sentiment, interpersonal relations, and geopolitics.

Take time to listen to, and enjoy, Latinx music through the following playlists!

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