Latino Student Union to vote on Latinx name change

A push for inclusivity prompted the Latino Student Union to consider changing their name from Latino to Latinx.

Latinx is a more inclusive version of the word Latino. Since other versions of the word Latino, such as Latino/a or Latin@, only include male and female genders, Latinx was created to contain more genders, such as gender fluid, non-binary and genderqueer individuals.

“We want to stay relevant,” LSU president Victoria Voelkel said. “We want to make sure that we know what’s happening in our community, and we want to address it. We don’t want people, maybe people who identify as Latinx, to think that this is just something we’re ignoring.”

At their meeting at the Student Center Oct. 5, members of LSU shared their viewpoints on the name change in small groups. Aside from members of LSU, representatives from other campus and student organizations attended the discussion, including faculty from the Multicultural Center and Spectrum president Mariann Fant.

LSU executives stressed before discussions began that members were not supposed to reach a conclusion on the term Latinx; instead, they were simply to start a dialogue.

Lee Bard II, a senior psychology major, came to his first LSU meeting as a non-member to be a part of that dialogue.

“It was an interesting experience for me just to hear the different reactions of members of the group and just how they were so focused on like, their language and the heritage of what Latino means to them,” Bard said. “I think [LSU] has the potential to be really great and produce really thought-provoking conversations on campus.”

Fifth-year landscape architecture and Spanish double major Nelly Chavez has been a member of LSU since her freshman year and supports the change from Latino to Latinx.

“It matters to me because I’m a student and I want to see progress,” Chavez said.

Chavez thought that some members who do not support the change to Latinx may feel like their identity is not being preserved.

“I think that, from what I’ve seen, the people who have a problem with it are majority male," Chavez said. "I think that sometimes when those who have privilege have that privilege taken away from them, they feel oppressed. So for them, it’s like, ‘you’re taking away my label.’ But for me, it’s like, ‘yes, I’m finally getting rid of this label.'"

Bard believed that some members felt uneasy about re-branding LSU.

“I don’t think anyone was not for the term Latinx, but I think that there was some unrest in the organization about using it to define the organization,” Bard said.

Salvador Reynoso, a senior graphic art management major, does not fully support the change from Latino to Latinx.

“I’m fully for the word [Latinx], but honestly, it’s my opinion that it’s a word that people made up to feel comfortable,” Reynoso said. “I feel that Latinx and Latino are the same thing, in a way, because… once you’re Latino, you can change who you are, but you cannot change where you come from. You cannot change what you are. If you’re Latino — black, white, dark, tall, green, yellow — you are always going to be Latino. It doesn’t matter what gender you are.”

However, if the change does happen, Reynoso said that he will still be just as active in LSU.

LSU will vote on the change Oct. 19. The executive board will either keep the old name or change to Latinx based on the results.

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