Since the 1970s Spanish language media and media executives have been using the terms Hispanic and Latino to homogenize millions of people into a Eurocentric identity that erases the complex and diverse Indigenous, Brown, Black, and other non-white  populations that comprise the MAJORITY OF THE SO-CALLED LATINOS. This forced "unity" was created to exploit our massive population by creating a singular identity that encompasses millions of people.

We are not a monolithic market that uniformly believe in the same political views.

We are not a monolithic cultural group based on the use of the Spanish language. Many of us have been colonized by Spanish speaking Europeans and our ancestors were terrorized into hispanization. Why do European languages dominate these identity markers? Many of our communities continue to speak our Indigenous languages like Nahuatl, Otomi, and Mixteco.

If speaking a Latin language makes us "Latinos" then speaking English makes us equally BRITANIC? 

Our communities deserve proper representation and an equitable media that truly honor our diversity.

We are not a homogenous group of people who can be easily disposed into palatable and eurocentric identities.

We demand that all major media networks STOP USING THE TERMS HISPANIC AND LATINO WHEN REFERRING TO OUR COMMUNITIES and hire more of our people within their networks. Hire more Brown, Indigenous, Black , non-white staff to truly practice racial equity within your corporations. White people who speak Spanish do not represent that majority of our community.

This is about equity. We urge you to use disaggregated date. Get to know the different needs of each community. There is absolutely no way that the labels Hispanic, Latino, Latinx accurately capture who we are. Our communities are not a generic people with simplified and unitary identity factors.

WE DO NOT ALL VOTE THE SAME.

WE DO NOT EAT ALL THE SAME FOOD.

Question: Why aren't any other massive immigrant populations racialized through European languages like our communities are?

Some alternatives can be:

Mexican, Central American, and South American community.

Brown community

The Native community

Indigenous Community

Non-White Community

Or you can also ask the people/person you are speaking to what THEY CHOOSE TO BE CALLED.

Before you cover a particular city or area, ask the person you are speaking to what they want to be called.

No one asked us for our approval Of these pro-colonial terms.

No one asked us for our consent to be erased.

There must be equity and racial justice in all institutions that PROFIT from designated populations.

We demand you to stop using the terms HISPANIC and LATINO immediately. This is your opportunity to show your DIVERSE AUDIENCE that you care about the community opinion.

As the recent census results states:

The United States is now seemingly the most racially diverse it has ever been.

30% of Native Americans self-identified as "Latino."

"The Hispanic or Latino population, which includes people of any race, was 62.1 million in 2020. The Hispanic or Latino population grew 23%, while the population that was not of Hispanic or Latino origin grew 4.3% since 2010."

If there is an obvious increase in racial identities why continue to homogenize millions of people into Eurocentric identities? 
 
 
 The homogenous terms LATINO AND HISPANIC erase the roots and ancient identities of the majority of people who are labeled HISPANIC or LATINO.

The term latino is a EUROCENTRIC AND RACIST TERM that centralizes whiteness.

Our communities deserve better.

Sincerely,,

Citlalli Citlalmina Anahuac

Www.citlalli-anahuac.com 

Poet, historian, activist

Creator of Mexican Excellence on youtube, Tik.Tok, and Instagram.

WHY WE ARE NOT LATIN/LATINX FACT SHEET:

1970s: Mexican and Puerto Rican activists wanted the census to give them a distinct category to better suit their community needs and be properly funded. The Bureau did not want to do this because it feared that other groups would request the same.

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1980: Hispanic/Spanish-origin category first appeared on census

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Michel Chavelier was a French economist 1850 while traveling to America to distinguish between Latin and Anglo-Saxon people.

He developed the idea that the Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking parts of the “Americas” were connected and founded on a shared  cultural or racial affinity with all romantic European peoples. He argued that people in the “Americas” were inhabited by people of a "Latin race," which could be associated to  "Latin Europe."

Source:

McGuiness, Aims (2003). "Searching for 'Latin America': Race and Sovereignty in the Americas in the 1850s" in Appelbaum, Nancy P. et al. (eds.). Race and Nation in Modern Latin America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 87-107

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French ruler Napoleon III used the term “Latin America” to create a common heritage between France and Mexico during his attempted takeover of Mexico in the 1860s. Latin America was formerly known as "Hispanic America", thereby implicitly excluding France.

The term was then supported by the French Empire of Napoleon III during the French invasion of Mexico to include France as a country of influence on the area and to exclude English-speaking countries, and to create a “natural way” to establish France's cultural and political role in the area.

WE ARE NOT LATINX EITHER:

Latinx inducted into Merriam Webster dictionary 2018 : used to include non binary people and dismantle the masculinity use of the term.We should always support our 2s, LGBTQ+ family and understand intention but that does not wipe away the GENOCIDAL foundation of the word LATIN.

HOW LATINO WAS CREATED AS A MARKETING SCHEME:

“It has been an invention of Cuban American advertising executives in south Florida and New York who in the 1970s and1980s were eager to lump and homogenize small Latin American national group identities into a larger unitary market sector. If they could create a clearly identifiable “Latino” market, they stood to profit enormously.They could then persuade large food, beverage, and domestic product manufacturers that Latinos constituted a significant mass market that needed special advertising campaigns and only these agents were expertly prepared to address."

Latino Inc: The Marketing and Making of a People (Berkeley: University of California Press 2002)

Educational videos on WHY WE ARE NOT LATINO/ LATINX:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KbMz8Cjli4&t=3s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHxTcH4HURk&t=1198s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQcp1kuxHp0&t=1182s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGo91K5izxI&t=3622s

 

 

THIS PETITION IS BEING ENDORSED BY:

Brown Contintent

Huitzilyolotl Anahuac (educator, Writer, activist)

Indigenous Podcast: Marcus  and Juancholoa

Karen Samour