Latinos Born Outside U.S. Tend Toward Old Favorites

Many Latinos come to this country with tastes that are, shall we say, un-American. They love soccer more than baseball. They’d rather listen to rancheras than rock ‘n’ roll. And they prefer other family activities than going out to the movies.

One might expect those tastes to change as newcomers become assimilated--learning English and gaining citizenship at rapid rates in recent years. But now, a UCLA researcher has found that Latino immigrants in Los Angeles County tend to stick to their entertainment preferences no matter how long they stay here or how established they get.

“Immigrants have immigrant tastes all their lives, even as they move up [into the middle class],” said David E. Hayes-Bautista, director of UCLA’s Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture. “They still prefer the things they liked back home.”

The findings were part of a larger public opinion survey completed last summer by Hayes-Bautista, who revealed his yet unpublished findings during a recent interview at his Westwood office.

The random phone survey of 750 Latino households in the Los Angeles area asked open-ended questions about preferences in music, sports and recreation activities. The responses were then sorted by income and country of origin.

The analysis showed that Latinos who were born outside the U.S.--mostly from Mexico--shared similar tastes, regardless of economic status. The same was true of U.S.-born Latinos, whether blue-collar or middle-class.

Though limited in scope, this snapshot of Latino cultural preferences provides another clue to the complexity of the Latino consumer market, one of the fastest-growing segments of the economy with purchasing power well over $100 billion in Los Angeles County alone.

“You cannot put us in a box,” said Hayes-Bautista, a Los Angeles native and aficionado of Mexican baroque music from the 18th century. “You have to know your market. The question is, which segment do you want to go after?”

Latinos born on this side of the border tend to prefer baseball, rock ‘n’ roll and going to movies, an Americanization you might expect of generations raised here. Foreign-born respondents, on the other hand, find it harder to let go of old-country ways.

Strikingly, the immigrants in the survey tended to be better off than their U.S.-born counterparts. Of all middle-class Latinos surveyed--defined as adults earning at least $35,000 per year--almost two-thirds are foreign-born immigrants. They make more money, even though they have less education than U.S.-born Latinos in the survey.

How do they do it?

“They just rolled up their sleeves and worked their way into the middle class,” said Hayes-Bautista, who holds a doctorate in medical sociology.

The survey highlighted a wide divergence in some areas. Fewer than 2% of middle-class, U.S.-born Latinos expressed a preference for soccer or ranchera music, both favorites of many foreign-born Latinos. On the other extreme, blue-collar, foreign-born Latinos don’t care much for rock and rap, preferred by less than 5% of respondents in that socioeconomic category compared to about 20% of U.S. Latinos overall.

The choice of favorite family activity also varied widely by country of birth. Latinos born here preferred taking their families to the movies, a leisure activity favored by almost 40% of the middle class and by 30% of blue-collar, U.S.-born respondents. But fewer than 15% of immigrant Latinos chose the movies as a favorite family activity.

So where do foreign-born Latinos like to take their families once they get here? Rich or poor, almost 30% said they’d rather go to Disneyland or other amusement parks.

“With greater purchasing power, they can actually act out these tastes, they can actually do things,” said Hayes-Bautista. The researcher said this was the first academic survey of Latino pop culture inclinations, though private marketing surveys abound. The topic has long intrigued the second-generation Mexican American scholar, who added several entertainment questions to a larger survey of Latinos in Los Angeles County.

The Latino survey itself was an extension of a multiethnic demographic study of attitudes on a wide range of issues, from education to patriotism, conducted in 1999 by the UCLA research center for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles.

One area Hayes-Bautista didn’t ask about was television. At KMEX-TV in Los Angeles, the flagship affiliate of the Spanish-language Univision network, executives said their research shows a contrary trend. Spanish television, they say, is not just for the older generation or recent immigrants. Programs often appeal to several generations in Latino families, who are more likely than non-Latino families to watch the tube together.

KMEX spokeswoman Patricia Ramos cited the current soap opera starring 6-year-old Daniela Aedo in the title role of “Carita de Angel” (Little Angel Face), which airs daily at 7 p.m. The show is drawing viewers of all ages, she says, from foreign-born grandparents to U.S.-born schoolchildren.

“Everybody’s getting their entertainment needs met,” she said.