I'm going to be switching from latinx to latine not because latinx is wrong (because it isn't) but someone brought up that text to speech has a hard time with latinx.

language is a part of culture, shaped by worldview, enculturated into its participants, who negotiate with the culture and interact with it to keep it relevant.

it's relevant, that people are reading or having Spanish read to them on social media, it's relevant that people don't fall into the gender binary.

it is extremely important that people realize that NO culture is static and if Spanish wants to have a future, it has to meet the present, so it can be carried forward by the people who speak it and picked up by those who do not but want to

and I *get* why there is a bit of panic around the maintenance of Spanish, BELIEVE ME. I DO. There is a HUGE power differential in the United States and the world, in regards to English vs. Spanish, it's obvious.

And latines have a history with their language being supressed here in the United States that stretches till today, and the way Spanish is viewed by the dominant culture is fucking terrible, yes.

Latines in the United States, numerically, yes, we are a minority and we struggle within our OWN communities and families, who learns what language, when do we use English/Spanish/other acquired languages, how much do we need to know, etc.

But culture (like a lot of things we say are inherited) is inherited not like biological traits but like material goods. My mom says when she passes, she will leave me her jewelry. Does this mean I am going to not get any more jewelry? Or add my stuff to hers?

if I never leave the house again because of carajovirus, I may never put it on. Or I might put it on and just admire it in the mirror or only wear it to certain events. Or I might work it into my every day wear, the most practical among it, like i wear my abuelas earrings

I don't have the bandwidth to go into inter-generational stuff, on Twitter, in a calm way but I will add: language, bilingualism, , fluency and how languages change is really complicated and people who speak/understand/only cry in Spanish, we need to cut ourselves some slack

It's complicated, and we all bring our own experiences to the conversation, and to the community and being latine in the USA is FRAUGHT. Uncertainty in regards to not speaking a heritage language...it....aaaah.

It is disorienting because many of us are raised in the culture, which has ways of interfacing/interacting within it. And sometimes those ways are missing in an almost tangible way and some of those disconnects are in Spanish. It's...you can feel it.

Aaaand it doesn't feel good. It is isolating.

It sucks that power dynamics btwn languages play out in our bodies. As we struggle to maintain linguistic agency, we have to be careful to not exclude people. If we want to live today in Spanish, we have to have the vocab for today

because people will always try to find the right, as in the most fitting, word. And we can have them.

TWO THINGS OF NOTE:
being embarrassed of not speaking a language to a level we think we should be able to is very real, as evidence, I am a Spanish major, I am in

heritage Spanish, 3/400 lvls now and I do well in my classes and I still want to vomit when I think about translating this thread into Spanish, any kind of hesitation/doubt makes me want to scream. So everyone else feeling like shit when you are like, how do I say? I see you

it is a VERY SPECIAL kind of embarrassment and anxiety, communication breakdowns.

TWO this thread is mostly inspired by *drumroll* the MAÑANA anthology on Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/powerandmagic/manana-latinx-comics-from-the-25th-century

How? Well, first of all it deals with the future of latinidad, of which Spanish is going to play a part in, secondly the book is going to be translated INTO SPANISH which is...really important to me, to a lot of our creators I think.

thirdly, someone brought up to @powerandmagicpr about the issue with latinx and text to speech and the creator edited the language to fit the need (I am pretty sure the KS title has latinx because once stuff is launched/pledged to, some things in the campaign can't change).

THIS BEING THE CASE. Everyone who continues to use latinx is still my compa. The point of communication in any language is to be understood and I get what they are saying and some of us need to stop pretending we don't understand and admit we just don't want to.

Related, @TerryBlas did a comic about latine that addresses some of this https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/10/15/20914347/latin-latina-latino-latinx-means if you like good comics, like visuals to go with text. (Also, Terry is great, just saying)

maybe later i will talk about how people who don't speak Spanish can support Spanish speakers but like, later, it is time to eat lunch.

So yeah, the end.