Latino musician and Texas Democratic congressional candidate Bobby Pulido appeared on “CNN This Morning” Wednesday, where he called out Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her use of the term “Latinx.” The term, pronounced “Latin-X,” has been pushed into the mainstream in recent years by academics, activists, and entertainers as an alternative to the gendered words “Latino” and “Latina,” but it has failed to catch on.
Pulido said that while some in New York City and California may use the term to describe Latino individuals, “people down here don’t speak that way.”
Host Audie Cornish noted that during the 2024 election, one issue that was brought to the forefront of discussion was the “backlash to progressive policy language,” and more specifically, in the Latino community, the conversation surrounding the term “Latinx.”
Cornish then played a video clip of Ocasio-Cortez criticizing politicians, including Democrats, who’ve claimed that encouraging the use of the term was “bad for the party.” The host noted that many lawmakers have come out and stated that they will not use the term, and asked Pulido where he stood on the issue.
“Well, I mean, I don’t speak like that. And the people down here don’t speak that way, and that’s not anything offensive to her,” he responded. “But let’s be honest, you know, New York is the East Coast…. And maybe those areas, they do talk like that, but not down here.”
“Nobody in their average everyday life speaks like that. That’s just a fact,” Pulido added.
The congressional hopeful noted that while the term is not offensive to him personally, he chooses not to use “Latinx” in his vocabulary.
“I do think that a lot of people felt like there was a lot of change going on [with] the language. And, you know, a lot of issues too, like oil and gas. My district is pretty much all oil and gas, and these are jobs that in many cases in these rural areas are the best paying jobs that people have seen in years.
“And so, you know, I think you got to have a candidate that represents the district. And my district is very different than New York, extremely different,” Pulido contended.
Closing out his thoughts on the subject, Pulido said that while he would never tell Ocasio-Cortez how to represent her district, his district is “a little different,” and that those differences should be respected.
Ocasio-Cortez’s press office did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
According to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey, only 47% of Latino participants were aware of the term “Latinx.” That number has nearly doubled compared to 2019, when just 23% of Latino and Hispanic poll participants recognized the term.
Only a tiny fraction of those surveyed (4%) actually use the term “Latinx” to describe themselves, according to Pew.
That number hasn’t changed much since 2019, when 3% said they referred to themselves as “Latinx.” Pew Research Center found in their survey of Latinos that 75% actively contend that “Latinx” should not be used at all.
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