Practicing Latinx: queer theory and the deradicalization of Latinx

This essay traces the connections between queer theory and the term “Latinx” to argue that the widespread academic embrace of Latinx has imposed a queer anti-identitarianism onto the term. Arguing that Latinx has become too mainstream, this essay shows how Latinx’s initial gender nonconforming, nonbinary, and trans origins and radical politics have been recuperated and depoliticized to mask and preserve cis-normativity as a hegemonic structure of power in the academy. The essay contends that Latinx would benefit from avowing a selective specificity, rather than queer anti-identitarianism, and from emphasizing the need to practice Latinx politics, instead of merely invoking the term in a nominal move toward inclusivity.