The creation of the Latine identity has long been written about. An identifier that is more often used in the United States than across Latin America and the Caribbean, “Latino” was first coined in the 19th century as a pan-national, pan-ethnic term to express the similarities of nations once colonized by Spain and Portugal. In the 20th century, “Hispanic” and later “Latino” were categories used by the U.S. census and the marketing industry to count and target a growing population of migrants from the area. In recent years, queer communities in Latin America and Latine U.S.A. developed words like “Latinx” and “Latine” to ensure that this category aimed at lumping people of diverse cultures, races, languages, and histories together also includes people of various genders. But despite the intention to merge people together, many feel like these categories really erase key aspects of their identities, and they reject identifying as Latine altogether, especially Indigenous peoples who descend from this region.
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