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El American’s Idiot of the Week award goes to Jean Guerrero, a columnist for the LA Times, who makes a point of calling Latinos “Latinxs” and wonders why they don’t vote in California.
Jean Guerrero wrote a tweet last August 23 in which she was very concerned about the fact that “Democratic outreach to Latino voters on the California recall election is not working. I’ve been speaking to young Latinxs [sic] and almost none of them have any idea what is going on. This is really, really bad.”
Two minutes later she wrote one of those tweets that begin with an asterisk, a code used to correct what has been misspelled in the original publication since Twitter doesn’t allow editing messages once they have been published. That asterisk made us hope that he had written Latinxs by mistake and was going to correct it, but no. It was to clarify that it was about Latinxs. It was to clarify that it was about “almost none of the ones I’ve spoken to have any idea what’s going on.”
Funny that she qualified that he was not referring to all Latinxs, but only to the Latinxs she has spoken to. It is funny because by using the term Latinxs she shows that she does not talk much with Latinos, since, according to Pew Research Center, only 1 in 4 admits to having heard the word in question; and of that 23% only 3% say they use it.
It is very likely that the 20% who do not use it deeply hate the term, and many have let you know this in the responses to your publication. Despite all the feedback she has had at her disposal, Guerrero posted a third tweet where she mocked, saying that “I have never faced such a wave of right-wing hysteria as when I used the word “Latinx” [sic] this afternoon.”
Obviously, all Latinos who resent the term are not right-wingers. If they were, the right would sweep America. But it’s easier for Jean Guerrero to think that anyone who refuses to be called whatever the Democrat and Woke intellectual elite fancy is a right-winger and possibly a dangerous domestic terrorist.
Jean Guerrero and the left’s determination to use latinxs
The problem with her tweets is not just the use of the tawdry term Latinxs. It’s not even the condescension that transpires from his tweet, typical of leftists with the minorities they claim to represent and defend, which could be translated as follows:
“I don’t understand why the ignorant Latino populace thinks I’m arrogant and condescending. They have no idea what is going on with the voting, and they are not going to vote, or worse, they are not going to vote well. I sometimes consider not showing these assholes the way to enlightenment, but I can’t. My big heart, and a humility that makes me superior, prevents me from abandoning them, since, after all, they don’t have as much brains as I do and they don’t understand my ideas, they don’t even understand me when I tell them Latinxs! Yes, that must be it. Either that for sure, or they are right-wingers.”
The real problem is that the effort to change the language is due to the fact that it is a way to show your adherence to their ideology. A tool for detecting allies and enemies. It is enough not to speak the language they try to impose to become a suspect.
What we have no doubt about is that Jean Guerrero’s use of Latinxs has helped us to detect and award the idiot of the week.
Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.
Social Networks: @ignaciomgm
Seems so bizarre that a Latina would think Latinix is even correct or remotely usable. I’ve been studying Spanish and even beginners learn the language is made up of femine and masculine which, btw, is sometimes confusing. I mean how to remember if bread or tea, etc, are masculine or not? And how to reconcile mucking up your own language just to appear woke? That, to me, is insane although that might explain the woke crowd. Hmmm.
“how to explain the ‘woke’ crowd: how about those working within the constraints of paternalist [sic] Romance languages to express gender equity, for a start? come back in 25 years to inform me that “23%” of the Latinx population are ignorant of the term.
now, shall we proceed to explaining the venomous Jasuit response anit- wokeness… and what you’re so terrified of losing?