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INSPIRATION FOR ARTICLE

I began writing this paper while writing my doctoral dissertation. I felt 
compelled to justify, in detail, why I choose to utilize Latine in my writing 
instead of “Latinx.” This led me to spend a lot of time going down a 
lot of research rabbit holes in search of the perfect citation, one that 
encompassed my full perspective on the need to use gender-inclusive 
– but not gender-neutral – language when referencing my pan-ethnicity. 
Realizing that the empirical article I was looking for didn’t exist yet, I 
decided to write it myself. It was important to me to publish this piece in 
the Columbia Social Work Review because of the connections between 
CSSW and the topic of my article. One thing I hope readers take away 
from it is a greater understanding of the term “Latinx” including how 
it came to be and how its usage has grown. I’m really excited to see 
this paper in print and share it with family, friends, colleagues, and 
professional partners, in the hopes that it will provide them with a 
well-researched basis to explain why and how they choose labels of 
Latinidad, without having to complete a systematic review of research 
like I did!

Jessica Trejos was born and raised in New York City. She received 
her Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University, with 
a concentration in Advanced Generalist Practice & Programming, a 
specialization in Family, Youth & Children’s Services, and a minor in 
International Social Welfare & Services to Immigrants and Refugees. 
Her research interests draw greatly from her personal and professional 
experiences.

JESSICA
TREJOS



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WHAT’S IN A “LATINX?”

ABSTRACT

People of Latin American origin use many different terms to self-identify 
their ethnicity. To date, there are very few scholarly articles that have 
investigated the growing use (and potential outcomes) of the term 
“Latinx.” Over the past decade, this pan-ethnic identifier has been 
wholly ascribed to a group of people who do not all identify with it. The 
dearth of empirical understanding on this topic is especially concerning 
given its significant implications on one’s positive identity development 
and overall psychosocial functioning. This conceptual essay is meant 
to introduce readers to the role that U.S. colleges and universities 
played in the promulgation of the word “Latinx.” It also aims to stimulate 
discussion amongst readers who may question how “Latinx” came to 
be the pan-ethnic identifier for this community as well as those who may 
question whether they should adopt or reject the label. To address the 
aforementioned inquiries, this composition includes a brief history of the 
most commonly used pan-ethnic terms for the Latin American diaspora. 
The implications of ascribing gender-inclusive vs. gender-neutral labels 
on positive identity development, as well as recommendations and 
best practices for social work researchers, practitioners, and other 
stakeholders, are also discussed.

JESSICA TREJOS

T he first time I heard the word “Latinx” was on September 6, 
2011. It was my first day of classes in pursuit of a graduate 
degree at the Columbia University School of Social Work. 
While a fellow first-year student was describing what brought 

them to the field of social work, I heard them say a phrase that sounded 
like “Latines in this country.” I mistakenly attributed the pronunciation of 
this word to their regional accent, not to an intentional effort by a non-
binary person to utilize a gender-inclusive form of Latinos.

As someone who was born and raised in New York City, I have often 
observed that people can pronounce the same words in different ways. 
However, my new colleague informed me that, although they were from 
Boston and spoke with a distinctive accent, they had indeed intended 
to say Latines, not Latinos. Moreover, even though the word was 
pronounced with an E, it was spelled “Latinx,” with an “X.” They also 
told me it was understandable if I had never heard the word “Latinx” 
before; they had only ever heard it used amongst genderqueer people.

Over time, I heard more of my social work peers utilizing the word 
“Latinx,” but enunciating it more like “Latin Ex.” This was distinct from 
the way I first heard my associate from Boston pronounce it as someone 
who was a heritage speaker of Spanish. Moreover, I did not hear anyone 
besides other social workers using “Latinx” until December of 2015 
– when I began working at a university in the Midwest. Through my 
academic and vocational networks, I learned that “Latinx” was quickly 
being adopted at institutions of higher education across the country at 
that time. However, I did not observe its usage in any other contexts, 
and I sought to comprehend why.



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AUTHOR’S POSITIONALITY

The lens through which I examine the usage of “Latinx” is informed by 
my background in Social Work as a practitioner specializing in Immigrant 
and Refugee Issues in addition to my background in Education as both 
a scholar of psychosocial development and as an adolescent educator. I 
also carry the perspectives and biases that come as a result of over two 
decades of experience working with Latina/e/o/x youth in both formal 
and informal learning environments. I self-identify as a cis-gender, 
heterosexual woman whose parents migrated to the U.S. as children 
after forced displacement from their homeland. My own process of 
self-identifying as a Nicaraguan-American first, a Central American 
second, and a Latina third was shaped by having resided in six different 
cities across the U.S. (as well as in Nicaragua) and the impact that 
interacting with other Latinas in each of those places had on my own 
self-perception. In my personal and professional experiences, I have 
seen how my many intersectional identities frame not only how I have 
come to understand ethnic identity development but also how I continue 
to learn about labels of Latinidad (which I translate as “Latineity” – the 
quality or state of being Latina/Latine/Latino/Latinx).

UNDERSTANDING “LATINX”

Numerous studies have observed a correlation between one’s ethnic or 
gender identity development and many aspects of well-being. Positive 
identity development is characterized as forming a healthy self-identity 
and a secure sense of self. This can be achieved at both the personal 
and the social level with beneficial outcomes such as high self-esteem, 
successfully engaging with others and developing/maintaining healthy 
relationships, and a positive sense of agency to accomplish goals 
(Brandon-Friedman, 2019). According to Erikson’s (1963) theory of 
psychosocial development, which describes how an individual’s 
personality develops and how their social skills are learned, adolescents 
must confront the challenge of ego identity vs. role confusion. During 
this stage of development, the main tasks that need to be resolved 

for healthy outcomes include constructing one’s own unique sense 
of identity, finding social environments where one feels a sense of 
belonging, and establishing a confident sense of where one fits into 
society.

One way that adolescents accomplish these tasks is by developing 
their ethnic identity which includes adopting an ethnic–or pan-ethnic–
identifier. For example, “Latinx” is a pan-ethnicity, a term that refers 
to the organization of ethnic subgroups perceived by outsiders to 
be homogenous under an umbrella category of collective interests 
and shared socio-political goals (Espiritu, 2019). Under this umbrella 
category, there are dozens of other ethnicities, such as Central American 
and Nuyorican. Notably, there are very few scholarly articles that have 
investigated the growing use (and potential outcomes) of the term 
“Latinx” as an ethnic identifier. This dearth of empirical understanding 
is especially alarming given the significant implications for one’s sense 
of self and ability to engage with others on identity development and 
overall psychosocial functioning (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2002). 

Young people from across the Latin American diaspora make up the 
second largest racial/ethnic group enrolled in K-12 schools (KidsData, 
2021) and post-secondary institutions (Institute of Education Sciences, 
2022) in the U.S. today. In addition, research demonstrates that students 
of Latin American origin more often rely on schools than other systems 
as their primary provider of mental health services (Franco, 2018). This 
should be of particular concern to social workers who make up the 
country’s largest group of mental health services providers according to 
the National Association of Social Workers (NASW, n.d.).

This conceptual essay is meant to introduce readers to the influential 
role that U.S. colleges and universities played in the promulgation of 
the word “Latinx.” Schools, as sites of socialization, are influential in the 
psychosocial development of students, including their racial identity, 
ethnic identity, gender identity, and sexual identity development. 
Subsequently, the staff and other students at one’s school have 
the potential to support or hinder psychosocial functioning and 

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development outcomes (Verhoeven et al., 2019). It is therefore possible 
that the usage of “Latinx” may have a developmental effect that we do 
not yet fully understand on students of Latin American origin.

I also aim to speak to readers who may question how “Latinx” came 
to be the pan-ethnic identifier for this community as well as those who 
may question whether they should adopt or reject the label–which may 
be utilized by individuals or groups in different contexts and for different 
reasons. For example, in the past decade, I have spoken to dozens 
of people (whose heritage traces back to what is now called Latin 
America) from all walks of life about their decision to use “Latinx” or not. 
Although the majority of them expressed that it would be ideal to have 
a unanimously-accepted identifier of Latinidad that is non-patriarchal 
and inclusive of everyone in the community regardless of national 
origin, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and sociolinguistic 
background, they felt that the umbrella of Latinindad encompasses 
so much diversity that there may never be one term that is truly 
inclusive of all. Ultimately, whenever they decided to utilize “Latinx,” it 
was often based on the same strategies they usually employed while 
code-switching–they adjusted their word choice based on what they 
perceived their audience would find acceptable.

My exploration of the propagation, and by whom, of the term “Latinx” 
is not an argument against using it (see Scharrón-del Río & Aja, 2020; 
Milian, 2019; and Guidotti- Hernández, 2017 for further reading on the 
significance of the term). I wholeheartedly believe that gender-inclusive 
language is absolutely necessary not only in the field of social work 
but whenever the Latin American diaspora is referenced. It is not at all 
my intention to argue otherwise. Rather, I caution against the usage 
of “Latinx” without critical self-reflection, particularly in a color-blind, 
gender-blind, and sexuality-blind fashion. I also call on and encourage 
my fellow social workers in particular, in accordance with our Code of 
Ethics (NASW, 2021), to not only seek out a nuanced understanding 
of the adoption and rejection of pan-ethnic labels of Latinidad, but 
to advocate for practices that highlight our ethical obligation to 

both promote social justice and respect our clients’ right to self-
determination. This includes enhancing each of our clients’ capacities 
to set their own boundaries regarding which, if any, pan-ethnic term we 
should use when referencing their identity. With that charge in mind, 
the following section offers a brief history of the most commonly used 
terms.

BACKGROUND ON PAN-ETHNIC LABELS OF LATINIDAD 
HISPANIC

Although “Latino” and “Hispanic” are often used interchangeably in 
the literature, there are significant differences between the two. Grace 
Flores-Hughes (1996), a self-identified Mexican American who is 
credited with introducing the term “Hispanic” to U.S. public policy, has 
said herself that it is not at all synonymous with “Latino” (Flores-Hughes, 
2006). The identifier “Hispanic” was set in 1976 as the government term 
for anyone living in the U.S. whose origins can be traced to a country 
or territory where Spanish is an official language (U.S. Pub. L. No. 94-
311, 1976), including Spain itself. At the time, that also included the 
Philippines. However, a focus on Spain makes this term Eurocentric 
(Mora, 2014), and people who are of African (Gonzalez-Barrera, 2022), 
Asian (UnidosUS, 2021), and/or Native American (Parker et al., 2015) 
descent may not identify with “Hispanic” (Taylor et al., 2012) even if they 
are native Spanish speakers (Lopez et al., 2023). It is also important 
to note that many people do self-identify as Hispanic even if they do 
not speak Spanish; most adults who identify as Hispanic say it is not 
necessary to speak Spanish to be considered Hispanic (Mora & Lopez, 
2023). 

With the institutionalization of “Hispanic” as a pan-ethnic identifier, both 
widespread adoption and resistance to the term developed soon after. 
Many argued that the term represented an attachment to the Spanish 
legacy of colonialism and genocide in the Americas, and the utilization 
of the term “Latino” (short for latinoamericano) as a more progressive 
alternative quickly grew in popularity. It is important to note that people 

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of Latin American origin living in the U.S. had been calling themselves 
Latino since the years following the wars of independence in Spain’s 
former colonies, and also in response to being sociopolitically ascribed 
an ethnic label that they did not identify with (Gutiérrez, 2016).

LATINO

The identifier “Latino” refers to any person whose origins can be traced 
to any country or territory in Latin America. It was later added as a 
government term to “Hispanic” (62 FR 58782, 1997), but the two terms 
have since been used interchangeably. As a result, in government 
directives (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022), “Latino” also does not include 
anyone living in the U.S. with roots in countries or territories where 
Spanish is not an official language. Therefore, people who are from 
Brazil, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Saint-Barthelemy, 
and Saint-Martin are not considered “Latino” by the U.S. government, 
even if people from these countries self-identify as such. 

Pushback against the term “Latino” also began in the 1970s from 
feminist communities in the U.S. who called for a less patriarchal, 
more gender-inclusive term. This opposition included the emergence 
of various new expressions such as “Latin@” as alternatives, although 
widespread adoption would not take place for several decades. 
However, the specific origin of these alternatives are unknown. 
Nonetheless, scholars agree that–with the advent of replacing Spanish 
morphemes “o” and “a” with “e” or “x”–the initial usages of Latine and 
“Latinx” likely came soon afterward (Papadopoulos, 2022). 

LATINE

Álvaro García Meseguer (1976) argued that Spanish–as a gendered 
language that defaulted to the usage of masculine terms even when 
referring to mixed-gender groups–was sexist, and there was a need for 
greater gender-inclusive usage. García Meseguer further posited that, 
since “e” morphemes in Spanish are already gender-inclusive, people 
should replace “o” and “a” morphemes with “e”s when referring to 

mixed groups as well as those who do not want their gender identified. 
Morpheme replacements in words that refer to people (e.g. los niños/
las niñas ! les niñes; see Lemus Sandoval, 2001 and Lamas, 2005 as 
scholarly examples from El Salvador and Mexico, respectively) have 
remained in use throughout Latin America since the 1980s as well as the 
use of gender-inclusive ethnic identifiers such as Latines (Politi, 2020; 
Vidal-Ortiz & Martínez, 2018). However, there is no definitive explanation 
for why, in the U.S., “Latinx” was propagated instead.

LATINX

The origins of the usage of “Latinx” are undetermined. It was first seen 
in a published work by Elizabeth Horan (2004) where she used the 
identifier as an alternative to “Latin@” without explaining why. Although 
the intended audience of this publication were feminist scholars of 
Hispanic and Latin American Studies, Horan has stated (Rivas, 2017) 
that the term’s usage began in online forums sometime in the 1990s 
(Milian, 2017). The renowned queer scholar Gloria Anzaldúa (1990) 
has herself noted that the voices of women of color are often silenced 
in academia, and their perspectives are frequently disqualified and 
excluded from academic discourse. One can only presume that there 
may be a connection between the origins of replacing the “o” in “Latino” 
with “x,” and the origins of replacing the “a” in “woman” with “x,” a 
practice first seen in 1971 at the University of California, Davis in an 
effort to be inclusive of trans women and women of color (Salinas & 
Lozano, 2021). It is also unclear what the connection is between the 
emergence of “Latinx” in the U.S. and the emergence of replacing “a” 
and “o” endings with “x” amongst Spanish-speaking feminist circles 
in Europe (see Sau, 1998 for the earliest traced example), if there is 
any connection at all. Nonetheless, scholars have found that when “x” 
morphemes were utilized, they were still pronounced as “e” since it is 
more easily pronounceable when replacing vowels in Spanish (Vidal-
Ortiz & Martínez, 2018). In addition, throughout Latin America, utilizing 
“e” morphemes was more common than using “x,” particularly because 
plural words with “x” endings are unreadable in Spanish (Alexgaias, 
2014).

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“Latinx” was first seen in a scholarly article by Macarena Gómez-
Barris and Licia Fiol-Matta (2014) who argued for its usage “to signal 
a route out of gender binaries and normativities” (p. 504) and further 
posited that the use of “x” endings challenged the dichotomy of gender 
representations. In 2014, Columbia University became the first known 
institution in the U.S. to formally utilize “Latinx” when student members 
of the planning committee for their Latino Heritage Month celebrations 
changed the name to Latinx Heritage Month (Salinas, 2020). Student 
groups at other colleges and universities across the country swiftly 
followed suit, citing the need to use terminology that is inclusive of all 
gender identities (Logue, 2015). 

According to a Pew Research Center analysis (Noe-Bustamante et 
al., 2020) of Google Trends data, broader interest in the word “Latinx” 
began increasing in June of 2016, which coincides with a variety of 
media reporting a mass shooting during a Latin Night event at Pulse, a 
gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida (Schneider, 2016). During interviews, 
many survivors used “Latinx” to describe themselves. Soon after, 
mainstream media (Finkel, 2017) began utilizing “Latinx” as well, and 
it was also added to the Merriam-Webster (n.d.) dictionary. With wider 
usage of “Latinx” came an increase in documented reactions (de Onís, 
2017) to the word adoption, especially on college campuses (Mora et 
al., 2022). By this point, the usage of “Latinx” had become so common 
among students and faculty at academic institutions that education 
research articles and professional conference presentations usually 
utilized the term without defining it; it was implicit that anyone hearing 
or reading “Latinx” would already know what the word meant (Salinas & 
Lozano, 2019). However, Google Trends (n.d.) data also shows that the 
most common search query related to “Latinx” is still on the meaning of 
the term. 

It is therefore safe to assume that there are more people in the U.S. and 
across the world who are unsure of what “Latinx” means than there are 
people who do know (Salinas & Lozano, 2019). Lozano and colleagues 
(2023) have posited that the hasty adaptation of “Latinx” can seem 

performative given the lack of a full examination and understanding of 
the term and greater input from the Latina/e/o/x community. I agree with 
Lozano and colleagues (2023) that it is consequently imperative to ask: 
How inclusive, and of whom, is the term “Latinx?”

IDENTIFICATION VS. ASCRIPTION, AND THE EXCLUSIVITY 
OF INCLUSIVITY

A number of scholars have observed that in spite of its initial intentions 
to be gender-inclusive (i.e., affirming of all gender identities), “Latinx” 
has come to be utilized more often as a gender-neutral (i.e. neutralizing 
or disassociating any reference to gender) term. This can perpetuate 
overlooking or even invalidating gender identity-based oppressions 
(Contreras, 2017). For example, trans women–such as Latina 
transgender rights activist Silvia Rivera–are women, and calling them 
“Latinx” solely because they are transgender potentially ignores and 
denies their sociopolitical struggles and right to self-determination. 
When “Latinx” is ascribed in such a way that neutralizes all gender 
identities and expressions, it may serve to further obscure the very 
people that “Latinx” originally sought to give greater visibility and 
recognition (del Río-González, 2021; Lozano et al., 2023). 

Scholars posit that this shift in intentionality is a consequence of 
how “Latinx” has been increasingly adopted over the past decade to 
categorize all peoples who identify with Latinidad but without a thorough 
analysis of how “Latinx” has been defined, used, or perceived and by 
whom (del Río-González, 2021; Lozano et al., 2023). Trujillo-Pagán 
(2018) found that many people were utilizing “Latinx” merely because 
they heard others doing so or because it is what “other universities do” 
(p. 400), and that her colleagues at other institutions felt obliged to utilize 
“Latinx.” In addition, Trujillo-Pagán (2018) found multiple instances 
where the label had been applied to the scholarly work of others who 
had not employed the term, such as a book review that utilized “Latinx” 
but the book’s authors did not, as well as other book advertisements 
that utilized “Latinx” even though the authors themselves had not. 

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Trujillo-Pagán (2018) argues that crossing out self-chosen gendered 
identifiers serves to perpetuate patriarchy at the expense of cis- and 
trans women of color in particular; much like color-blind ideologies 
can operate to obscure systemic racism, gender-blind ideologies can 
operate to obscure structural sexism. 

Even those who view “Latinx” as a gender-inclusive term may still 
perceive it as excluding other social identities that are salient to them. 
In his study on how Latina/e/o/x undergraduate students understand, 
relate to, and identify with the word “Latinx,” Salinas (2020) found that 
most participants used “Latinx” within their school environment but not 
at all within their home communities. Participants felt that since the word 
originated in academic and activist spaces of privilege, it might seem 
like they were imposing an agenda on family and friends who did not 
have the same access to those spaces or privileges. Some participants 
also stated that they utilized “Latinx” at their institutions because they 
felt compelled or pressured to do so (Salinas, 2020). Others may find 
“Latinx” to be a term that excludes their racial or sociolinguistic identity. 
For example, the letter “x” does not exist in the Quechua language, 
spoken by Indigenous people of South America, nor in the Garífuna 
language, spoken by Afro-Indigenous people of Central America (Salinas 
& Lozano, 2021). 

Furthermore, “Latinx” has been utilized to be inclusive of queer identities 
but in a way that synonymizes gender with sexuality (Contreras, 
2017). This has the potential to lead to misunderstandings about 
gender nonconformity and sexual orientation, including the misguided 
assumption that all genderqueer people are inherently non-heterosexual 
(Vidal-Ortiz & Martínez, 2018). Interchanging gender with sexuality could 
result in further marginalization of people with gender identities and 
sexual identities that have been minoritized and oppressed. Studies 
have shown that the more often an individual’s membership in the 
gender and sexuality group with which they identify is invalidated, the 
higher their risk of experiencing negative outcomes such as low self-
esteem, anxiety and stress, and impacted health (Howansky et al., 
2022). 

Self-concept, and consequently self-expression, can change over 
time and through experience. It is understandable that the terms 
one uses to self-identify can change over time as well. For instance, 
U.S. public policy and institutionalized definitions of ethnic and racial 
identifiers, in addition to mainstream media usage, can impact the 
acceptance or rejection of identifier terms, which in turn affect the 
ethnic and gender identity development of individuals. Pew Research 
Center analysis (Lopez et al., 2023) shows that significant changes 
can be seen in demographic data from one Census count to the next, 
depending on how respondents’ understanding of the terms on the 
survey have changed within that particular decade. It is possible that 
even generational identity may play a role in how, for instance, members 
of the Gen Z cohort choose to self-identify racio-ethnically, compared 
with members of the Gen X population–who were born and/or came of 
age during the rise of LGBT+ activism. Similarly, scholars have shown 
that first-generation Americans are more likely to self-identify with their 
national origin compared with their second-generation children who 
are more likely to self-identify with racial and pan-ethnic terms that 
have been institutionalized in the U.S. given their greater experience 
navigating U.S. institutions such as public schools (Santos, 2017).

Very few studies have explored the intersection of social identities, and 
fewer have studied the intersectionality of racial identity development, 
ethnic identity development, gender identity development, and sexual 
identity development. The limited scholarship available demonstrates 
that, in alignment with intersectionality theory, our social identities work 
in concert with each other–we see our experiences of one social identity 
through the combined lenses of our other social identities (Cerezo et 
al., 2020; Rogers et al., 2015; Veenstra, 2011). The very definition of 
the term “inclusive language” is that it does not exclude identities, 
and intentional efforts need to be made by practitioners, researchers, 
and affiliates of academic institutions from all fields to ensure that 
if and when “Latinx” is utilized, it is done so in a way that clearly 
defines its usage as a gender-inclusive term, as well as its meaning 
and significance, with input from the Latin a/e/o/x population and 
community.

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CONCLUDING THOUGHTS 

None of these terms–Hispanic, Latino, Latinx, Latine–should be 
considered the (in)correct pan-ethnic identifier. Instead, consideration 
should be taken to explicitly learn which term each individual prefers to 
utilize. Social workers cannot assume that their understanding of the 
meaning of “Latinx” is the same as that of their clients, and we cannot 
ascribe the term to any individual without knowing if they want to be 
referred to as such.

Adolescence is a critical period for identity development and is a phase 
when our self-concepts are flexible and impressionable. Therefore, 
adolescence is also a critical period where caretakers, peers, educators, 
and practitioners can impact our perceptions and understandings of our 
intersectional social identities. Research has already shown that positive 
identity development can lead to improved outcomes in physiological 
and psychological well-being which, in turn, can also lead to higher 
self-esteem. For ethnically minoritized groups in particular, healthy 
psychosocial functioning can strengthen one’s sense of agency in the 
face of adverse experiences such as discrimination. More research is 
needed to better understand the implications of ascribing an ethnic 
identifier to over 60 million people living in the U.S. and in such a way 
that potentially excludes the intersectionality of their multiple identities.

It is imperative not only for social workers, but all stakeholders of all 
fields to understand why–and how–pan-ethnic identifiers of Latinidad are 
used and promoted. A critical self-examination of the utilization of these 
terms is necessary to ensure that they are being used intentionally and 
not simply as a performative act. In other words, “Latinx” should not be 
the only term you use to refer to people of the Latin American diaspora, 
every time you reference them; Latina(s), Latino(s), Latine(s), and other 
identifiers of Latinidad can be the more accurate and appropriate 
term to utilize depending on the person/people being referenced. 
Accordingly, I invite you to take some time to reflect on your responses 
to the following questions:

• Why have/do I use the word “Latinx?” Is it because I felt compelled 
to do so simply for the sake of political correctness? 

• How am I using the word “Latinx?” Am I using it to reference all 
Latines or only the ones whose gender I don’t know? 

• When and where am I using the word “Latinx?” Am I using it in all 
social contexts or only in my academic/professional spaces?

• Most importantly–have I asked my Latina/e/o/x clients how they 
would prefer to be called? 

Utilizing gender-inclusive language is not only the ethical thing to do, 
but is necessary–and doing so appropriately requires that we each 
grapple with our own intersectional and privileged identities, our roles 
in dismantling social injustice, and gaining a deeper understanding of 
the complexities of pan-ethnic identifiers for a community with immense 
intra-group diversity. In sum, simply using “Latinx” does not confront 
and eradicate the institutionalized oppressions that genderqueer 
people confront daily. What are you doing to challenge and address 
cisnormativity in your teaching, research, and/or practice?

REFERENCES

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Anzaldúa, G. (1990). Haciendo caras, una entrada. In G. Anzaldúa (Ed.), Making face, 
making soul: Haciendo caras: Creative and critical perspectives by feminists of color (pp. 
xv-xxvii). Aunt Lute Books.

Brandon-Friedman, R. A. (2019). Youth sexual development: A primer for social workers. 
Social Work, 64(4), 356-364. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swz027 

Cerezo, A., Cummings, M., Holmes, M., & Williams, C. (2020). Identity as 
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Contreras, R. (2017). The X factor: The struggle to get Latinos in US news stories amid a 
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