Glossary

Boricua – how a person from Puerto Rico identifies when speaking to another Puerto Rican, to honor their indigenous ancestry.

Hispanic – a person from a Spanish speaking country

Latina – a female that comes from Latin America

Latinas – a group of women from Latin America

Latine – gender neutral term in Latin America

Latino – a male from Latin America

Latinos – a group of men or a group of people (including women) from Latin America

Latinx – gender neutral term (not as widely accepted)

limpieza dental – dental cleaning

mi a’ma – my mom

mi a’pa – my dad

mi gente – my community

Periodoncista – Periodontist

Profilaxis – Prophylaxis

raspado y alisado radicular – scaling and root planning

Spanglish – a hybrid language combining words and idioms from both Spanish and English

Translanguaging - when a multilingual person uses their full linguistic repertoire to communicate instead of only using a single language.