U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Ted Cruz, R-Tex., recently teamed up on a proposal that “would ban the use of the wholly-invented term ‘Latinx’ in any official government communication by a federal agency or employee.
Cruz introduced the “Respect for Hispanic Americans Act” at last week with Rubio as a co-sponsor.
“Hispanic Americans overwhelmingly oppose the term ‘Latinx,’ and I want to make sure our government does not bow to woke activists in our federal departments or agencies by insisting on ridiculous terminology like this. It has no place in official government communication, and I’m proud to work with Sen. Rubio to keep it out,” Cruz said at the end of last week.
“Hispanic Americans don’t need fabricated woke terminology imposed on us. The term ‘Latinx’ has no place in our federal agency’s official communication as it’s a degradation tossed around by progressive elites,” said Rubio.
The bill was sent to the U.S. Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
While there is no companion measure in the U.S. House yet, at the end of April, U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., introduced the“Reject Latinx Act.”
Salazar’s measure would “prevent the Biden administration from referring to Latinos and Hispanics as ‘Latinx’ in public, executive branch documents,” and the congresswoman listed her objections to that term.
“The Biden administration is waging a woke crusade on Latino identity and the Spanish language,” said Salazar at the end of April. “We cannot allow the Biden Administration to use White House communications to attack our language and impose progressive ideology on our people.”
“‘Latinx’ is a woke invention of the neo-Marxist left and as such should never be used to refer to someone of Latin American or Hispanic ancestry. Far-left professors in universities introduced the term in 2004 with the sole purpose of infiltrating the Hispanic community with gender ideology. Despite the push by college campuses to use the word, the public continues to reject it,” the congresswoman’s office noted. “Latinx is overwhelmingly rejected by the Hispanic population in the United States. Many find the term extremely offensive and patronizing. Polls conducted in the last four years all show us that most Latinos have never even heard of ‘Latinx,’ let alone use it.”
Salazar’s office insisted the bill “is designed to prevent the term from being forced on Latinos by the federal bureaucracy, and not to limit freedom of speech.”
Eight fellow House Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Carlos Giménez, R-Fla., are backing the proposal. The bill has been before the U.S. House Oversight and Accountability since Salazar introduced it.
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