Epistemics, Interactional Identities, and Language Ideologies in Debates About Latinx and Latine on Social Media: How Spanish and “Latino” Identity Construction Are Leveraged to Challenge Gender-Inclusive Identity Labels

Abstract

The current study analyzes disalignment strategies in social media users’ metapragmatic discussions centering on the panethnic gender-inclusive terms Latinx and Latine. Data included 70 comments and replies responding to two posts by the media companies Remezcla and Netflix on Facebook and Instagram, respectively. The study's findings indicate that most users responded negatively to the terms, in many cases reproducing harmful language ideologies. Through careful epistemic management, these users constructed identities as “legitimate” members of the “Latino” speech community. One of the primary discourse strategies identified for doing so was codeswitching between English and Spanish. In this particular context, the strategic deployment of Spanish allowed users to position themselves against gender-inclusive panethnic labels. Speakers also engaged in aggressive othering strategies to attribute Latinx/e to socially progressive imagined communities. Finally, the study's findings demonstrate how social media users established their authority through tactics of intersubjectivity and, in doing so, policed the language of others.