Why is it that many working class hispanic people in the US are embarrased to listen to American/foreign music?

People like what they know, what they already like. This has nothing to do with shame or embarrassment; they like what they grew up with. Rock on.

Probably for the same reason that adults tend to listen to the music from their high school years. It’s what they’re comfortable with.

Nostalgia. I was born in the US but my family is mexican and i love music in spanish. i feel more comfortable def. I feel more at home. They probably listen to it because they feel closer to home.

If you moved to Japan and didn’t speak much Japanese, would you immediately begin listening to Japanese pop and rock?

American music is introspective and depressing, aggressive, or cheesy.

I didn’t know this was the case – sometimes, in immigrant communities, people both want to assimilate and to reject the culture that they are assimilating to.

I think people stick with what they’re used to for the most part – as @CyanoticWasp said. I imagine I’d listen to the same music, more or less, no matter where I lived. I really don’t care for some music from around the world because I’m not used to it – Music is very much an acquired taste – you can try this, for example – try listening to a song of a style you really don’t like, and listen to it 3 times a day for a week… you’ll start to like it, at least a little, and gain more appreciation for the once disliked genre.

@JeanPaulSartre i do feel that music has a capacity to affect you differently in different places, i warm to music i hear abroad over a period of time, that i probably wouldn’t engage with back home.

This is my opinion ONLY! Everybody I know that is mexican is closed minded, they are in america, but they manage to create their little Mexico, like a neighborhood where everybody speaks spanish, all the stores are mexican and all the music you hear is hispanic, I really try to enjoy america and try everything it offers, of course i miss my country and recently when I bought this computer the first thing i did was to download my favorite music in spanish that i didn’t listen to for like 6 years but, I’ve learned english, I listen to american radio stations and my life is smoother than the people (hispanic) i feel at home and I’m not afraid to get out there, just saying… ;)

@Ludy Every culture tends to do that initially after immigration – living in Brooklyn I can tell you where just about any country’s ex-patriots live… It’s perfectly understandable to want to create a home where you live, and make it as comfortable as possible, especially when your culture is marginalized elsewhere. It took a long time even back when the Irish first came to America, for example for them to be accepted and normalized by America as a whole.

I understand that, I went trough that phase, the hispanic comunity here is not developing and/or using all their potential because the don’t want to get out of their bubble, not even for the rest of their families that have grown up or been born here, how can they support them, and understand them if they don’t share the same backgrounds and traditions, Like my family, they been here for more than 10 years and they have not achieve absolutly nothing. Why do they want to come here ‘The land of opportunity’ if they’re missing on’em?

@Ludy Yeah, it’s really hard, especially for older immigrants to assimilate or be assimilated, it’s usually their kids or grandkids that do it. With a few exceptions