14 Bad Language: Multiethnic, Latinx Identity in Chicago and the United States

Jose Olivarez opens his poem “Mexican American Disambiguation” with “my parents are Mexican who are not / to be confused with Mexican Americans / or Chicanos” (41). This barrage of identity markers, three overlapping labels, unlocks the poem’s central theme as the Chicagoan poet attempts to parse his identity out from underneath a barrage cultural, national, and familial voices telling him who and what he is racially and ethnically. Though these words reference seemingly innocuous labels, each carries a nuance that leaves the narrator angry and confused, revealing the reality of identity negotiation experienced by Latinx individuals, those “of, relating to, or marked by Latin American heritage,”  living in the United States who are multi-ethnic with ties ranging from country of origin to friends, community, and potentially multi-racial families (Merriam-Webster). Moreover, it highlights a gap in the language used when addressing multi-cultural communities that aggravates difficulties surrounding self-identification by creating artificial, sociological borders within political and social discourse. Beginning with data from the United States Census Bureau about the Latinx population of Chicago, this essay argues that, though there is some incentive to better understand the ever-growing, multi-cultural demographics of the city so as to better serve similarly composed populations in other large cities within the United States, the primary objective in pursuing said data should stem from the positive impact recognizing complex diversity has on a personal and interpersonal level between Latinx individuals and their communities.

The problems surrounding identification terminology is reflected in and exacerbated by the United States’ approach to census data because the country lacks the proper means of collecting and analyzing information about multi-cultural, Latinx identities. While the United States Census Bureau posits that of the estimated 2,705, 994 people living in Chicago as of July 1, 2018, 29.0% fall within the “Hispanic or Latino” category, further digging into their methodology reveals grey areas which work against recognizing specific cultural identities and negate the census’ usefulness (Census.gov, Chicago). Leah Donnella, researching mixed racial identities for NPR submits that, “[in] the United States, when it comes to describing – or even acknowledging – people who identify with more than one race or ethnicity, the official track record is pretty spotty.” She tracks the steady and troublesome evolution of multi-racial markers used on the Census overtime as they transformed from “mixed” in 1790 to “‘M’ for mulatto” in 1850 before becoming “‘amalgamation’” and ‘“miscegenation’” in the 1860s (Donnella). She found that it was not “until the 2000 survey” for the millennium census that Americans could select more than one race due, in large part, to activists attempting to address the growing multicultural demographics of the United States (Donnella).

The millennium census paired the multiracial identification opportunity with the option to designate oneself as being of “Latino or Hispanic Origins,” a category which first appeared in 1980 census (Parker). In a handout explaining the bureau’s decision to continue the question, the group argues that “People of Hispanic origin may be of any race” and “can choose one or more race categories” after completing the primary question about their “origin” (RACE 1-2). The necessity for all racial and ethnic questions, the bureau proposes, is to support “public and private organizations…to find areas where groups may need special services and to plan and implement education, housing, health, and other programs” (1). However, the result of the combined multi-racial option, ethnic designation, and shifting language from year to year is a stratification that allocates Latinx populations into what Olivarez refers to as “what the government calls / NON-WHITE, HISPANIC or WHITE, HISPANIC,” categories that which reshuffle Latinx identities into other, historically acknowledged racial categories such as White, Black, etc. (42). The result is a sieve through which identity is strained and transformed depending on the questions asked and their order. In fact, data from the 2010 census revealed that, due to a change in question order, “2.5 million Americans who said they were Hispanic and ‘some other race’ in 2000…told the census they were Hispanic and white” while “[another] 1.3 million people made the switch in the other direction” (Cohn).

The web of terminology demonstrated by the US Census Bureau echoes the hostile world of identity politics for the “One-in-seven U.S. infants (14%) [who] were [born] multiracial or multiethnic in 2015,” a number “nearly triple the share in 1980,” which results in negative psychological and social conditions that layer atop of America’s race relations (Livingston). These conditions force adolescents and adults alike to navigate through terms that they are told to self-assign even though each is as ill-fitting as the last. 19-year-old, Afro-Latino Tyson Hernandez, interviewed in 2018 for the Chicago Tribune, discusses the “convoluted nature of identity hanging on the Latinx population” (Rodriguez). He describes an environment in which he and his twin would alter their appearance “‘just to try to fit in’” because they “‘never felt a part of the black community or even the Mexican community’” (Rodriguez). Being caught on the fence between racial/ethnic groups forces him to bear the weight of both though he cannot access the full community of either. Hernandez’ story demonstrates the complexity of multi-ethnic identity in Chicago and the greater United States. It also highlights an inherent colorism present in the minority communities of which Hernandez is a member, echoing Olivarez’ reflection that “my mom was white in Mexico & my dad was mestizo & and after they crossed the border they became / diverse. & minorities. & ethnic. & exotic” (41). Given these subtle nuances, the statistical data obtained about Chicago and its Latinx community falls short of properly describing the multi-facetted identities present within the city and thus cannot hope to fulfill its goal of addressing each adequately as it fundamentally cannot account for the evolving demographics.

The erasure present in the statistical analysis of the Latinx community and the social contexts of its individuals demonstrates the necessity for the creation of a language which moves away from the simplistic definitions of race present on government forms. Speaking with Dylan Marron and a panel to “dispel myths about the ‘other’ box,” one interviewee named Ari highlights this lack of language, asking, “What’s troublesome about it is that [Natasha] chose other. I chose other…We don’t have the same backgrounds. So…how in the world can you lump us together? What is it saying on these government documents that we are other?” (SHUT 1:57- 2:08). Within a political system like the United States’ which routinely marginalizes minorities, the lack of language surrounding people who, like Olivarez, Tyson Hernandez, and Ari, identify with more than one ethnicity or racial category effectively erases the expanding demographic of those with intersectional identities, eliminating opportunities for safe-spaces, race discourse, and resource allotment.

Ultimately, the absence of appropriate language in the United States regarding the multi-faceted nature of Latinx identity causes rifts not just between social groups but within the very psyches of those caught at the crossroads between multiple identities. Jose Olivarez finds no path out from within his seemingly incompatible identities, refraining that each is “in me” but “should not be confused with” the other (4). Evolving the language would eliminate such trauma and erasure, paving the way for better, integrated, and open communities filled with educated individuals willing to address race not as narrow, segregated boxes but as a complex network of interlocking facets. For cities like Chicago filled with others like Olivarez who are trapped between identities, this evolution could spell the difference between a community of tattered individuals and a thriving, evolving metropolis.

Works Cited

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Census to the Next.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 5 May 2014, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/05/millions-of-americans-changed-their-racial-or-ethnic-identity-from-one-census-to-the-next/.

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“Race, Hispanic Origin, and Ancestry.” Census.gov, U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration, BUREAU OF THE CENSUS, 2000, www.census.gov/dmd/www/pdf/d3249c.pdf. – (RACE)

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Afro-Latinx Community in Chicago.” Chicagotribune.com, Chicago Tribune, 14 May 2019, www.chicagotribune.com/voice-it/ct-hoy-bringing-attention-to-what-s-between-the-lines-the-afro-latinx-community-in-chicago-20180507-story.html.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYt_XQg4i3Q. – (SHUT)

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