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LACS 280: Latinx Popular Culture (Dr. Matousek)

Popular Culture Sources

Quick Tips for Latinx Searching

As you know, there are many terms used to describe the people and culture of Latin America - Latin American, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Latine. When searching in OneSearch, here's an easy trick to search for all of these terms at once!

An asterisk (* - above the number 8 on your keyboard) can be put at the end of any word to tell the computer that any combination of letters can appear where the asterisk is. So, typing Latin*, as shown below, will find sources that use the words Latin, Latino, Latinx, and so on.

OneSearch search box with the phase "latin* music" in the keyword search bar.

 

 

Here are some of the results this search found. In addition to finding the word Latin, the search also pulled up a book with Latinos and Latinas in the title.

Search results page from OneSearch with book titles including Latin, Latinos, and Latinos highlighted.

 

We can also use the "OR" feature in OneSearch to search for two similar terms at the same time. For example, we might want to be inclusive of both Latinx and Chicanx culture, and we can create a single search by using the OR drop down and two search lines.

Search string in Wofford OneSearch. "Latin* music" is in the first search box. In the line below, the drop down has been changed to "OR" and the search string is "chican* music".

 

You can see that we have used the same asterisk trick to open our search to Chicano, Chicanx, and even Chican@ as possible keywords, along with variations of Latinx.

OneSearch search result page showing book with Latin and Chican@ in the titles.