Friday, June 27, 2003
Young Latinos ? strong believers
If you want to know why Hispanics are driving pollsters crazy, according to political studies professor Harry P. Pachon, go figure this one out: the very young are religious and ethically as conservative as the first generation of immigrants; yet they identify predominantly with the Democratic Party.
In Pachon's survey, for example, 53 percent of a representative group of the original immigrants stated they relied "a great deal" on religion for day-to-day living. Of their children's generation, only 46 percent affirmed this level of faith, and among Latino Catholics the share had dropped even further - to 38.2 percent, whereas 70.3 of Hispanic evangelicals stressed the importance of faith. This is, by the way, the only instance where the two Christian communities differ considerably; on most other issues they show similar patterns.
But remarkably, the grandchildren show even more religious fervor than the original immigrants themselves. Of this "third generation," 53.6 percent told the pollsters that they relied heavily on their faith. The same goes for church attendance. Of the first generation, 52.2 percent went to a service at least once a week; with the second generation that figure slipped to 50 percent. However, of the third generation, a whopping 57 percent go to church every Sunday.
The young are almost a supportive of school prayers (72.3 percent) as the immigrant generation (72.8 percent), and significantly more so than their own parents (62.6 percent). Though 32.5 percent of the third generation support unrestricted abortion right, this figure is still below that of their parents' generation (35.2 percent); of the grandparents, a mere 18.1 favored this.
A 56.4 percent majority opposes homosexuality as "always wrong," thus edging back to the grandparents' position on this issue (63.9), and proving to be considerably more conservative than the second generation (50.9 percent). According to Pachon, all indications suggest that the next generation - the fourth - will continue this movement toward a more traditionalist set of values.
And yet, young Hispanics identify more with the Democratic Party (53.1 percent) than the first (34.2) and second (51.4) generations. The reason for this is, Pachon said, that Latinos feel strongly about issues such as gun control and public health insurance.
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