Who are they talking about and what are they calling us? Hispanic, Latino/a/e/x or something else?

Abstract

There has been a push recently to alter the terms used in the Library of Congress Subject headings to better reflect the peoples who are being described by the terms. These terms change over time, and some have been changed in the database, a task that has become far less daunting with the advent of online catalogs in which global updates are possible. Despite this, it is often difficult to demonstrate the need for specific changes. I will explain why I have been having problems with the heading “Hispanic Americans” and why I feel that it needs to be modified. Many Latin American and Indigenous Peoples of the Americas (LAIPA) Funnel Project participants had the same concern, and as we struggled with the possible heading changes, we decided that one of the things we needed to do was to get a better sense as to how the people being included in that term self-identified. We created and disseminated a survey to that effect and are in the process of evaluating it and seeing how the information can have an impact on the suggestions we make to the Library of Congress.