To join the Latine Book Club, please contact Adriana Alba aalba@mines.edu or Dari Roybal darianaroybal@mines.edu.

Spring 2025 

• Chicano Frankenstein, Daniel Olivas

Spring and Summer 2024 

• When I was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda Santiago
• Motherland: A Memoir, Paula Ramón
• My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education, Jennine Capó Crucet
• A Dream Called Home: A Memoir, Reyna Grande
• A House of My Own: Stories from My Life, Sandra Cisneros
• A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir, Daisy Hernández
• My Beloved World, Sonia Sotomayor
• Borderlands/La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldúa
• The Prince of Los Cocuyos, Richard Blanco
• First Gen, Alejandra Campoverdi

Fall 2023 

• Songs for the Flames, Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Spring 2023 

• Poetry
  • The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo
  • How to Love a Country, Richard Blanco
  • Floaters, Martin Espada
• Bilingual
  • Martita, I Remember You/Martita, Te Recuerdo, Sandra Cisneros
  • Paraíso Portátil/Portable Paradise, Mario Bencastro
  • The Immortal Boy/El Inmortal, Francisco Montaña Ibáñez
• Modern Classics
  • In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
  • The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz
  • Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya
• Historical Fiction
  • The Taste of Sugar, Marisel Vera
  • Of Women and Salt, Gabriela Garcia
  • The Hummingbird’s Daughter, Luis Alberto
• Short Stories
  • Things we Lost in the Fire, Mariana Enriquez
  • Sabrina y Corina, Kali Fajardo-Anstine
  • Songs for the Flames, Juan Gabriel Vásquez

Fall 2022

• Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora, Sandra Saco

• Community Resources for students, faculty, staff, and their families. Includes community centers, legal resources, and resources for DREAMers, 
• Racial and Equity Read, Watch, Listen Recommendations from DI&A

For additional questions, or to request a presentation on identities in our community, please contact Stepheny Beauchamp at sbeauchamp@mines.edu.

WHERE TO START

• Race: Ascribed by physical and biological characteristics.
• Ethnicity: Individually chosen through cultural characteristics, including shared ancestral origins, language, behavior, food, traditions, etc. Can be a general label, or can be an association with the family’s country of origin.
• Nationality: Country of Origin/Where someone was born.

QUICK GUIDE

• Racial and ethnic identities are complex because meanings of words change over time.
• There is cultural history (both good and bad) associated with ethnicity.
• Research what is regionally used in general contexts, but it is always best practice to ask how someone prefers to identify.

IDENTITIES IN OUR OWN COMMUNITY

• Hispanic: Native of, or ancestral heritage from a Spanish-speaking country
  • Originates from the Latin term for “Spanish,” Hispanicus, adapted to Hispania, then Hispano. Used to describe people who descended from Spanish settlers in the southwest before it was annexed to the US.
  • Does not include Brazil, Portugal, or Indigenous
  • 1970s: Hispanic members of an ad hoc committee under Nixon advocate for a common term on the US Census to better track social and economic progress
  • Direct conflict with the Chicano movement (assimilation v anti-assimilation) – “It’s a government term”
  • Regional uses – New Mexico and Texas ( and those with strong ties to Spain)
• Latino, Latina, Latin@, Latine, Latinx: Native of, or ancestral heritage from a Latin American Country
  • Does not outwardly include US or people who can trace descendancy to the US
  • Term coined in France in the mid 1800s to describe areas colonized by Latin-Europeans
  • Adopted by US media in 1980s, and added to US Census in 2000s (still classify Brazilians as a separate ancestry group)
  • Direct conflict with imposed official terms by colonizers of the Americas
  • Regional uses – California and Colorado
• Chicano, Chicana, Chican@, Chicane, Chicanx: Native of, or ancestral heritage from Mexico and lives in the US
  • Roots traced back to Aztecs and other indigenous groups. Both the conqueror and conquered
  • El movimiento  –Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) gave the right to property, language, and culture, and this gave roots to a new identity of people in the west and southwest
  • Civil rights movement for Chicano nationalism. (Corky Gonzalez) Assimilation isn’t working, so collectivism under a different name
  • Farmer rights, land rights, Aztlán, bilingual/bicultural programs
  • “The border crossed me”. Strong use in the west and southwest
• Mestizo, Mestiza, Mestiz@, Mestize, Mestizx: Having mixed European and Indigenous racial/ethnic ancestry
  • Used by Europeans to classify those who were mixed with indigenous in official documents
  • Strong roots in social structure
  • Mestizaje: noun in the 20th century readopted by scholars for positive unity of those who are racially mixed (Gloria Anzaldúa)
  • People who are mixed and do not have tribal affiliation, most likely from the colonized Americans and imposed assimilation culture
  • Each country has it’s own variation of the word – some in Latin and South American have adopted it as an officially recognized identity
• Afro-Latino, Afro-Latina, Afro-Latin@, Afro-Latine, Afro-Latinx: Having mixed racial/ethnicity of Spaniard and Black or African ancestry
  • 15th and 16th century slavery and Black explorers (Juan Garrido, Pedro Alonso Niño)
  • Not widely used outside of US and academic circles; gaining traction
  • Historical denial of African roots depending on the general attitude of the region
  • New movements affirming skin colors: Palenquero, Creole, Santería, Vodou, salsa, merengue, cumbia, capoeira (Miriam Jiménez Román)
  • Mexico and Chile: only countries yet to formally recognize Afro-Latinos in their constitutions
• National Identities: Association with country of origin, or ancestral country of origin
  • Mexican, Mexican-American, Cuban, Columbian, etc.
  • Upwards of 4th and 5th generational ties with nationality and main identity
  • Largely depend on cultural values and traditions that are shared generationally
  • Over 50% of the population in the US prefer to identify this way

A SPECIAL NOTE ON THE @, E, and X: 

• O and A: Spanish is a gendered language, so the majority of Spanish-speaking folks identify using the “o” to denote male, or “a” to denote female.
• @: While grammatically an “os”, such as in Latinos, is inclusive of both men and women, this prioritizes male identification in words, so some may prefer to use @ as a marker of both men and women.
• X: The “x” in Latinx was first used online in 2004, but literature suggests it was first published by a “Puerto Rican psychological periodical to challenge the gender binaries encoded in the Spanish language” (Salinas & Lozano, 2021). Academia quickly adopted the “x” as a way to be inclusive of all gender identities, and so the “x” replaced the o, a, and @. It is important to note that the letter “x” is rooted in Greek and Arabic language, and is therefore not a natural sound in the Spanish language. As such, some from our community reject “Latinx” as a linguistic irregularity, particularly those from older generations and those who work outside of academia.
• E: As language is fluid, the “e” has most recently replaced the “x” as a gender-inclusive and gender non-conforming way to identify as an individual. “E” historically exists in the Spanish language as a gender-neutral ending to a word, such as “estudiante” for student, and as such, has been more widely accepted in our community as a way to identify. The “e” is also easier to pronounce in the Spanish language, and can be used in the singular or plural.

MLCA affirms that Black Lives Matter 

The Mines Latinx Community Alliance is deeply saddened by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, as well as all others who have lost their lives as a direct result of widespread racism in our country. One piece of our mission is to support the Colorado School of Mines in its pursuit of a culture of inclusion and equality; we address it directly through our program offerings, community-building events, and in our engagement with the broader campus community. We are in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

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MLCA stands in solidarity with the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander American community

The Mines Latinx Community Alliance stands in solidarity with the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander American community and will continue to work to end racism and hate in all its forms. Racist and violent behavior against the Asian, Asian American, and the Pacific Islander community must stop. Scapegoating must stop, harassment must stop, and hate must stop.  We urge our Mines colleagues to denounce acts of racism and hate on our campus and within their own communities.

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Solidarity with LGBTQIA2S+ Orediggers

In the wake of governmental actions to undermine equality and representation of LGBTQ+ people, Mines Community Alliances (MCAs) stand in support of LGBTQ+ Orediggers. As the leaders of the Mines Asian, Black, Latinx, LGBTQ, and Women Community Alliances, we embrace the pursuit of a culture of inclusion and equality. The MCAs believe inclusivity is essential, which means that everyone, regardless of gender expression, identity, or sexual orientation, deserves to live free from fear and that individual differences should be celebrated.

Mines Asian, Black, Latinx, LGBTQ, and Women Community Alliances stand in solidarity with LGBTQ+ Orediggers

• Interested in the Women of Color group on campus for faculty and staff? Please email Sheena Martinez at smartinez1@mines.edu to be added to the distribution list.
• Click here if interested in the Mines Parents group on campus for faculty and staff.