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Bicultural Hispanics
I was recently watching a documentary on HBO entitled “Citizen USA,” in which the director travels across all 50 states to record naturalization ceremonies and to interview some of the new US citizens. I was not surprised to hear how many people were overjoyed to become US citizens. Many of the people interviewed mentioned how being in the United States gives them hope and provides them an opportunity that they could not get back home. Also, a number of well-recognized people who were not born in the US were also interviewed. It made you realize that whether it was Henry Kissinger, Gene Simmons or Arianna Huffington, if they had not come to the United States they would not have become the people they are today.
So how much of the American culture should Hispanics embrace? Should they change their names? From Ricardo to Ricky, from Roberto to Robert or from Francisco to Frank? Should they put soccer and baseball to the side and follow football and basketball? Should they watch NBC, ABC and CBS instead of Univision and Telemundo?
It was definitely not a surprise to me, but a new study states that biculturalism is important to Hispanics in the US; the data was very intriguing. Most Hispanics identify with either being completely Latino or a mix of both. Only 18 percent of those surveyed said that they feel completely American. As for the latter, I can’t say that I am surprised, since I have known a number of Latinos who don’t speak the Spanish language, don’t want to learn it, don’t associate themselves with the culture and do not want to be viewed as Latino, but rather as American. On the flip-side, the same can be said for Latinos who live in the US and choose not to integrate themselves into the American culture.
So what about the forgotten group of bicultural Hispanics? They are actually an advertiser’s dream. An advertiser can target them in both languages and through both cultures. The same study mentions that bicultural Hispanics watch almost 30 percent of their TV viewing in Spanish! Bicultural Hispanics watching Spanish programming at least every other day is at 43 percent. For example, I watch most sporting events in English, but when it comes to soccer, I make sure I tune into Univision or Telemundo.
This illustrates the uphill battle that those of us in Hispanic marketing face every day. We have to explain that not all Hispanics will be reached solely through general market advertising or solely through Spanish programming. Advertisers’ best bet is to reach Hispanics through all possible angles.
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