Florida U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar introduced a bill on Wednesday, April 26, that would ban the use of the term “Latinx” in public and executive branch documents. 

Latinx is the gender-inclusive variation of the Spanish terms Latino and Latina, and Salazar’s bill is the first federal attempt to ban the word by way of legislation. 

This past February, several Latino Democratic lawmakers in Connecticut proposed a similar bill that was in the same vein as that of the-newly inaugurated Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), who signed several executive actions, including one to ban the term on official state communications, on her first day in office.

“‘Latinx’ is a woke invention of the neo-Marxist left and as such should never be used to refer to someone of Latin American or Hispanic ancestry. Far-left professors in universities introduced the term in 2004 with the sole purpose of infiltrating the Hispanic community with gender ideology. Despite the push by college campuses to use the word, the public continues to reject it,” reads a statement from Salazar in a release about the bill.

The Florida Congresswoman is joined by fellow Republican Reps. Byron Donalds (FL), Alex Mooney (WV), Jeff Van Drew (NJ), Tony Gonzales (TX), Carlos Giménez (FL), and Burgess Owens (UT) on the legislation.

“Far-left professors in universities introduced the term in 2004 with the sole purpose of infiltrating the Hispanic community with gender ideology. Despite the push by college campuses to use the word, the public continues to reject it,” Salazar added. 

She argues that the term is rejected by the Latino population in the U.S., as many, in her eyes, find the term offensive and cites polls conducted in the last four years that reveal most Latinos have never even heard of ‘Latinx,’ or have ever used it. 

Salazar goes on to cite three different polls that support her argument. 

1. A November 2021 Bendixen and Amandi poll found that only 2% of Latinos used the term “Latinx.”

2. A June-July 2021 Gallup poll found that 4% of Latinos used the term.

3. A December 2019 Pew poll found that 76% of Latinos had never even heard of the term Latinx, 20% had and did not use the term and only 3% used it.

Even while the word has gained popularity among progressive groups, Spanish speakers themselves have begun to push back as it is not even a truly pronounceable term in the Spanish language. 

For the Biden Administration, it would be prohibited from using ‘Latinx’ in official, public-facing documents despite there being various examples in which official communications from the White House used the term. 

Salazar’s bill would also prohibit its use by the legislative branch, the judicial branch, or by the President in a speech or any agency official in routine email communications, signatures, or any other private communications.

According to Salazar, the bill is designed to prevent Latinx from being “forced on Latinos by the federal bureaucracy,” and not to limit freedom of speech.

“The Biden Administration is waging a woke crusade on Latino identity and the Spanish language,” Salazar said in a statement. “We cannot allow the Biden Administration to use White House communications to attack our language and impose progressive ideology on our people.”

“I can guarantee that the priority issue for them isn’t whether or not they are being called Latinx, Latino, Latine or Hispanic,” she added, saying those who do use the word only do so “to be more inclusive of our LGBTQ siblings.”