• eldavi@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    i wonder if the words “latine” and “latinx” are a manifestation of democrats being out of touch here. the article accurately describes how we’re a heterogeneous mix of people; but seems unaware of some things like how using the word latine reduces the audience to young urban liberal americans only.

    also: only the out of touch were surprised; anyone who watches telemundo or univision enough already knew that trump was going to win due to the rampant & mostly unchecked misinformation that defined spanish media during the election.

    finally: their take on the evangelicals influence misses the point. yes, there are fewer latino evangelicals than there are latino catholics; but the evangelicals proselytize HEAVILY and that’s expanding their control over many of the most pivotal voting districts in this country that used to be democratic strongholds like the rio grande valley in texas; the imperial valley in california; and the central suburbs of chicagoland.

    • dirthawker0@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Color me old and decrepit but why use 2 new terms when the language already has 2 terms that seem fine, Latina and Latino? Is this something akin to negro -> African American -> Black? I can kind of get Americans feeling that Latinx is more gender neutral, but Latine seems very redundant.

      • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        latine originates in south america and does the same thing that latinx does; but doesn’t carry the divisiveness of latinx because of that origin. (ie latinx is usually fine with americans who are latino; but latinos who aren’t american, or are newly american, sometimes don’t like it because it feels like cultural appropriation to anglicize a clearly spanish word that identifies them).

        also: latino and latina does not include people who don’t identify as either and is also cumbersome in english when you want to use inclusive language; latine gets rid of all of that.

        and i’m also old and decrepit; i still keep defaulting to latino too.

        • dirthawker0@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          I didn’t know latine had its roots in the language. As an Asian American, cultural appropriation bothers me and I want to be respectful to the language/culture/people. Thanks for the explanation, I’m a bit smarter today thanks to you.

        • CM400@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Why not use “Latin”? Idgaf, I’ll call people whatever they want to be called, it just never made sense to me to add a gender-neutral term when one already exists…

      • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        It worked and I wonder if someone in the trump campaign was trolling everyone knowing that the democrats were barely bothering in Spanish media.

    • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Latine is more sensical in Spanish. You’re correct that it’s used more by young, urban, and non-male people. If by “out of touch” you mean it doesn’t cater to Latino men over 30, you may be right. If being “in touch” means exclusively catering to older Latino men, I don’t think that’s a long-term winning strategy. More inclusive Spanish along with non-inclusive Spanish can generally coexist. I don’t think it needs to be a universal decree.

      • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Latine or Latinx are correct but theyre loaded words like “woke” is except it goes beyond conservativism and into cultural divisions that disqualify you in the eyes of new & non-americans that aren’t yet familiar enough to understand American pop culture.

        • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Fair enough, but to be clear, the origin of latine isn’t from within the US. It migrated from Spanish-speaking countries (largely within the demographics we talked about earlier) as a corrective for latinx. I think you’ll find most people in the United States have not seen “latine” used before. It’s used more outside of the US than within it.

          • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            Yes and I hope that it can have more mileage than Latinx since it’s origin isn’t American and the old Latino/a is bit too exclusive and cumbersome for my tastes.

            • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Totally agree. I find this one much less forced. Hopefully it doesn’t get taken up in the culture wars. It would just be nice to have an accepted neuter term for… latino/as.

              • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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                1 month ago

                The biggest issue w Latinx seems to be with its undeniably American origin and pronunciation; Latine avoids both and nothing shuts down a desire to educate a “gringo” or “pocho” better than when you educate them on their culture.