Citation

Guidotti-Hernández NM. Cult. Dyn. 2017; 29(3): 141-159.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0921374017727853

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

There is a tremendous shift in public digital discourse and the academy more broadly, about the use of Latinx, one that may appear, on the surface, as an uncritical, hip way to shift how we talk about ourselves. While there is a long history of contestation about these categories of naming, my goal in this essay is to chart out the histories of how we went from using Mexican American and Puerto Rican to Chicano and Nuyorican and then the latest iterations, like Latina/o and eventually Latinx. By drawing on specific case studies of millennial digital cultures and the creation of new-phase ethnic studies departments in the 2000s, I demonstrate how millennials use Latinx to transcend gender, racial, class, and regional constraints they see emanating from boomer-generation ethno-nationalist formations. To be a part of the affective community represents a core value for millennials because it is antiessentialist because Latinx bears the load of recognition and diversity and represents the power of inclusion without speaking for everyone. Ultimately, Latinx can carry the excessive and diverse affective load of a population in ways that other ethno-nationalist and pan-Latina/o terms cannot.

Language: en