On October 9, 2020, the Cornell Latino Alumni Association (CLAA) and Latina/o Studies Program hosted "What's in a Name? Hispanic/Latino/Latinx" as part of a series of events during Latino Heritage Month. Vilma Santiago-Irizarry, Director of the Latina/o Studies Program and Associate Professor of Anthropology, discussed these different ethnic identifiers and the meaning behind them followed by a Q&A.
Santiago-Irizarry spoke to more than 110 alumni, students, staff and faculty about the history of these terms and why they were created. She elaborated on the paradox that is created by these terms for the community. These identifiers "establish terms of inclusion while also creating terms of exclusion". Some of these terms were adopted for governmental purposes and for the census, but it is important to keep in mind that they are terms of choice. We choose how we want to identify, but, she cautioned, within the parameters that a society or a community has developed.An alumni brought up the point about "policing on who can use the term Latino or not" and the discussion led to speaking of people of mixed races. "This speaks to the politics of identity and recognition. It is inevitable as people want to start limiting certain resources and in a way they want to create exclusion", responded Santiago-Irizarry. Another alumni asked if she was surprised to see how fast the term Latinx started to spread. "In these times of social media she was not". However, she is seeing how some are rejecting the term mainly for linguistic reasons and thus are coming up with terms like "latine". Her concluding thought was, "just remember that labels can intersect and it is all about adopting what you feel is the best way you identify and the rest is all contextual or how you present yourself." To close out Latino Heritage Month, CLAA and the Latina/o Studies Program will be hosting "The Power of the Latino/a/x Vote " on October 15th at 7Pm EST.
