Xicanx

rdf:langString Xicanx

rdf:langString Xicanx (/ˈtʃiːkæŋks, ˈʃiː-/ CHEE-kanks, SHEE-, /ʃɪˈkænʃ/ shih-KANSH) is an English-language gender-neutral neologism and identity referring to people of Mexican and Latin American descent in the United States. The ⟨-x⟩ suffix replaces the ⟨-o/-a⟩ ending of Chicano and Chicana that are typical of grammatical gender in Spanish. The term references a connection to Indigeneity, decolonial consciousness, inclusion of genders outside the Western gender binary imposed through colonialism, and transnationality. In contrast, most Hispanics tend to define themselves in nationalist terms, such as by a Latin American country of origin (i.e. "Mexican-American"). Xicanx started to emerge in the 2010s and media outlets started using the term in 2016. Its emergence has been described as reflecting a shift within the Chicano Movement. The term has been used to encompass all related identifiers of Latino/a, Latin@, Latinx, Chicano/a, Chican@, Latin American, or Hispanic, and to replace what have been called colonizing and assimilationist terms, like Latino/a, Mexican American, Mestizo, and Hispanic. Xicanx is sometimes used to include colonized people outside of just Mexican descent, such as people from Central and South America.