Who Identifies as “Latinx”? The Generational Politics of Ethnoracial Labels

Abstract

Over the past 5 years, the “Latinx” label has become increasingly popular within academia, politics, and social media. Yet, little is known about who has adopted the term at this relatively early stage and how it might be interpreted. Drawing on a unique data set of US-born Californians, as well as Latina/o/x Studies insight, this paper provides the first academic survey results on “Latinx” identification. We find that close to 25 percent of respondents identify with the term regularly, and that its early adoption varies across groups. Specifically, political ideology, especially progressive politics, is strongly correlated with use of the label. We also find that both immigrant generation and birth cohort matter considerably, with second generation immigrants and people born in Generation Z (since 1995) most likely to identify with the term. Finally, our findings show that “Latinx” is largely understood as complementary to, not mutually exclusive of, other panethnic labels like “Hispanic” and “Latino.” Taken together, our results suggest that generational politics matter for understanding early label diffusion and that Latinos adopt a variety of panethnic labels that they likely use in different contexts. We discuss these findings in terms of our broader understanding of Latinidad, racialization, and the symbolic power of ethnoracial labels.