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1 topic to highlight: The growing rejection of
Latinx
Congressmen, the oldest Latino civil rights organization in the United States, and newspaper editorial pages have spoken out in recent weeks against the term
Latinx
.
Why it matters
: Rejection of this word (used primarily in English as a gender-neutral option for people of Latino descent) evidences generational and regional divisions in the Latino population in the United States as it grows in number and influence.
The debate also hints at a drive by certain community groups to define themselves rather than assume a label that comes largely from academic circles and social media.
In summary
:
Latinx
has indeed gained ground among some
millennials
and members of Generation Z, as well as academics and activists.
Yet polls conclusively show that very few in the community use it (just 3%, according to the Pew Research Center) and that many quite dislike it.
Political consultant Alex O. Díaz, who works in the state of Nevada, told Axios Latino that the term has not caught on in part because working-class communities of Latino origin are more concerned with everyday issues like their job or health. that by what label they use to self-describe.
"Some people also feel that it is being imposed on them and that it is not organic," Diaz said.
Some have also suggested that the insistence on using
Latinx
among some left-wing politicians may have contributed to making Latino voters feel they were not appealing to them in the 2020 elections, according to consultant Sisto Abeyta.
Rebecca Zisser / Axios
More details
: There have been disagreements for years around the term, but the rejection among official figures has been growing since December.
Representative Rubén Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona and campaign manager for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, announced that people who work with him should not use him in official communications.
Days later, Domingo García, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (Lulac), instructed staff and board members to remove the term from the group's official communications, as first reported by NBC Latino.
The Miami Herald newspaper also denounced the term in an editorial and urged activists who do so to stop pushing it.
The background
: The word emerged in the United States after attempts such as writing unfolded (Latin / a) or with other suffixes (such as Latin @) did not become popular either.
The purpose was to find a term that could also describe non-binary, transgender and other identities people who might be uncomfortable saying Latin, since this plural only highlights the masculine grammatical gender.
Within a few years, even university athletic companies and associations with no specific affiliation to Hispanic communities were using it in communications.
In Spanish, using the suffix -e for certain words (like
Latin
) is becoming the preferred option for those looking for a neutral gender expression, especially since the X is pronounced differently from English.
2. A new year, and the same disparities for Latin America
A persistent gap in how vaccination is progressing in Latin America and the Caribbean threatens to spread the pandemic in the region even further, the Pan American Health Organization warned.
Gabriel Boric, Chile's president-elect, received a third dose of his vaccine on December 24. Karin Pozo via Getty Images
Current situation
: 57% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean had been fully vaccinated by the end of December, according to PAHO.
In contrast, 61% of people in Europe and 62% of people in the United States had received two doses of coronavirus vaccines, according to statistics from Oxford University's Our World in Data.
In the Caribbean, most people still do not receive a first dose.
While in Chile a fourth dose of vaccination will even begin to be administered to the elderly from this month.
Only Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and Cuba have reported that more than 70% of their population is vaccinated, mainly thanks to large advance purchases of Chinese vaccines or, in Cuba, at doses that were developed on the island.
The Big Picture
: This puts those four countries ahead of the global vaccine protection targets set by the World Health Organization for mid-2022.
At the same time, more than a dozen countries in the region have not yet reached last year's goals.
Several countries in Latin America, including Mexico, Brazil, Peru and Colombia, have some of the highest rates of excess mortality (how many more people have died than the average for years past) from COVID-19.
3. Inequality in disease prognosis
Latino and black populations in the United States are more likely to develop severe cases of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) than non-Hispanic whites, according to a medical study.
It is a situation that can easily be reversed if there were better social investment, according to the report.
Photo Illustration: Sarah Grillo / Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Why it matters
: Limited access to health centers for preventive care, financial barriers to getting routine checkups, and other factors that disproportionately affect non-white people in the United States add up to such a high degree that the Latino and black communities often They are diagnosed very late with an autoimmune disease and experience delays in treatments that can alleviate symptoms.
Key
Finding: There is thus an increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica (NMOSD), and that these autoimmune disorders progress faster than non-Hispanic whites, according to research.
The review also found that less than 10% of clinical trials related to MS and NMOSD treatments included black or Latino participants, and that "access to neurology specialists is very rare," says neurologist Lilyana Amezcua of the University from Southern California and co-author of the study.
Overview
: The study highlights how the social determinants of health (SDOH, for its acronym in English) --as if someone has access to a decent transportation system or what neighborhood doctor vive-- affect prognosis of a person.
"Before considering biological factors as the cause of the disparities we see in health outcomes, we must first assess the role of SDOH and how we might modify them to make a difference," said Amezcua.
4. A dark secret among tortillas made in Guatemala
Indigenous girls and adolescents are being exploited in tortillerías in Guatemala in a more systematic way than previously believed, according to a report.
General panorama
: Indigenous peoples make up almost half of the population of Guatemala, where they suffer strong discrimination on issues such as health or access to other public systems.
The report shows how this is exacerbated for girls who are also abused in the labor market.
Tortillerías de Guatemala: the businesses where thousands of indigenous girls are exploited
Oct. 7, 202102: 14
Details
: An NGO report talks about how young women who work making tortillas have working hours of up to 15 hours at a time, with extremely low wages or without pay, and that they suffer physical abuse and develop health problems.
Guatemala has one of the highest rates of child labor in Latin America and the Caribbean: 17% of minors are economically active, according to the government.
79% of the indigenous population of the Central American country lives in poverty, compared to 47% of the general population.
What to watch
: The coronavirus pandemic reversed several of the efforts to eradicate child labor and exploitation in Latin America and the Caribbean, warns a report by UNICEF and the International Labor Organization.
The report explains how many children became breadwinners for their families as poverty increased and schools closed.
Child labor in the region could increase by 3% this year after five years of sustained decline, according to the report.
5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
Violent
infighting between Colombian guerrillas in Arauca, in the northeast of the country, has broken out with the new year.
Members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) are mainly confronting members of the former FARC who refused to hand over their weapons when the group disbanded five years ago.
At least 23 people are feared to have died in the crossfire so far.
Local authorities estimate that up to 2,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
Clashes between guerrillas leave 20 dead in Colombia
Jan. 3, 202200: 29
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was hospitalized on Monday
to treat a bowel obstruction, without having an established discharge date.
Bolsonaro had already been transferred to the hospital in July for the same problem.
He has had six surgeries since 2018, when he was stabbed in the abdomen during his presidential campaign.
At the end of this year he will seek reelection.
6. 🐡 To the rescue of an almost lost species
Mexican scientists have returned to its natural habitat a fish that had become extinct in its wild conditions more than two decades ago.
Details
: The splitfin tequila fish disappeared from the Teuchitlán River in west-central Mexico in the 1990s due to pollution and invasive species introduced for fishing.
But some specimens were kept in captivity.
With this, a team of researchers was able to breed them to recover their numbers and then try to reintroduce them into the river starting in 2017, after also carrying out decontamination and water cleaning campaigns.
By last December, tequila had successfully reproduced in the part of the river where the species was reintroduced and even began to spread to other areas of Teuchitlán, reports the Associated Press agency.
The Big Picture
: Scientists hope to have similar success to regain the numbers of the axolotl, or axolotl, a critically endangered amphibian that can regenerate its limbs and even organs like the brain.
This is how Mexican farmers work to save the axolotl
Dec. 20, 202102: 23
It only lives in the waters of Xochimilco, a wetland area in Mexico City that is a World Heritage Site but is under threat from pollution and agricultural overexploitation.
Conservation groups are collaborating with local farmers to help raise the axolotl in inflatable ponds and swimming pools, so that they can then be reintroduced into the waters of Xochimilco.
Thanks for reading, we'll be back on Thursday.
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