I might be about to get controversial but...
I don’t know how other latinx might feel, but this is a personal opinion that I as a latina have been pondering for quite some time.
It’s a consensus to say latinx people are an ethnicity. In fancasts and roleplays I have often seen people calling out other saying “ x faceclaim can’t be related to y faceclaim because x is latinx even though they look white”. That, added to the general image of the latinx portrayed in media (tanned, dark hair and eyes, curvy or muscular, etc), I believe shows just how little other societies know about latinx reality. They preach about correct casting, ethnic accuracy and what not, but seemingly for the sake of being “woke”, without actually getting to know Latin America. A very simple consequence of this, for example, is that latinx representation is usually limited to: Mexico, Colombia, some Caribbean countries and, at the most, Brazil. I am from Chile, and while living in the States, whenever I told someone where I came from, they looked at me as if I had just made the country up.
The conclusion I have come about latinx is this:
Being Latinx is not an ethnicity. It is a CULTURAL IDENTITY.
There is no such thing as a latinx ethnicity. You need to keep in mind, in Latin America, populations are heavily mixed raced. What is more, most of us descend in some form from immigrants, mainly (but not exclusively) african and european immigrants/slave/whatever. Plus, there are also de descendants from native latin american people.
You can, for example, select to latinx, and one of them can be white, and the other black. Clearly, they do not have the same ethnicity. But they are both latinx. Because, as I said, it is a cultural identity. The white person selected can come from full german parents, can even have been born in Germany themselves, but suppose they came to Latin America as a baby and grew up in here: they are latinx and most propbably will identify as such.
Being latinx, I believe, is about having a cultural identity built highly of bits and pieces of many other cultures. Think of it as latinx being the “bastard children” of the world. Countries constructed via people who had no place in their original community. Constructed via people who were brought here against their will. It’s a culture of outcasts that is beyond the specific ethnic background of each and every one of us. Each individual has their own ethnic background (and THAT you should keep in mind when casting) but we are all latinx. Some countries have more native american populations, some have africanamerican populations, some have white populations. They are all latinx.
I think saying that latinx is an ethnicity is excluding many individuals from their cultural identity. So please stop saying “x faceclaim is os latinx ethnicity so they can’t be casted as a relative to y faceclaim who is white”. Wrong. Depending on x’s ethnic background, they might be perfectly white. Which does not mean they are not latinx. Being latinx should have no influence in casting because is a cultural thing, not a physical one. It’s like casting actors to specific roles only if they have the same personality.
* [ just to be clear, I’m using the examples with white ethnicity situations mainly because they are the cases I most often see here on tumblr, but this applies to all ethnic backgrounds found in Latin America ]
So that’s the thing. Of course, this is a personal opinion that I have been giving thought for quite some time as a latinx girl. I was always bothered when I saw “x is latinx so they can’t be cast as white” when x is completely white, and that does not mean they are not latinx. Maybe other latinx might disagree with this. Maybe they are more informed. I don’t know. I just wanted to get this possibility out there.
You are not latinx by genes. You are latinx by experience. By life, by essence. The essence of an identity built collectively, but we were done having others building it for us.
