An interesting question came up during a class on Mexican business culture, one that should be of particular importance to San Diego businesses offering products or services to the Hispanic ethnic community: Should advertising and promotional campaigns in San Diego be in Spanish or English?

Spanish-language television, radio and print media produce impressive numbers indicating Spanish is the best bet. But is it?

To better decide, a clear understanding is needed of the targeted audience and the makeup of the San Diego-Baja Hispanic and Mexican communities. For discussion purposes, “Hispanic” is used to identify the U.S. Hispanic community and “Mexican” is used to mean the south of the border residents and San Diego’s immigrant community. Also, since by far the largest percentage of the region’s Hispanics are Mexican-American, an understanding of that sector is also needed.

San Diego is a mixture: legal and undocumented Mexican nationals; first, second and later generation American citizens of Mexican heritage; visitors from Baja California; and to a lesser degree wealthy visitors from the interior of Mexico.

Perceptions are key. By and large, non-Hispanic Americans visualize Mexican-Americans as Mexicans, and economically poor at that. They perceive the success stories, the men and women who are business executives and professionals as exceptions and a small percentage of the overall Mexican-American community. This perception is wrong.

Driving this perception is the high media attention given to the undocumented border crossers as a majority made up of Mexico’s lowest income sectors. In Mexico, two economic sectors make up the majority of the population – the extreme poverty sector, those who are either unemployed or whose wages are not sufficient to meet basic needs; and the poverty sector, those whose earnings are barely sufficient to meet basic needs, but not enough for upward economic mobility.

While this is a business, not an immigration discussion, it is important to note that those belonging to the above sectors are not eligible to obtain U.S. work or even visitors’ visas. So they enter the United States illegally, causing the political friction that in turn drives the media coverage, which in turn paints Mexican-Americans with the same brush distorting the business marketing possibilities.

First generation American is defined in the United States as the immigrant while second generation is their U.S.-born children. The third generation are children of the second generation and so on. Note that those in the U.S. illegally are not considered first generation because they have no legal status in the country, nor do their children brought with them from Mexico. However, this sector, while in the U.S. are consumers of goods and services and their preferred language is Spanish, with radio and television far ahead of print media. But their buying power runs from limited to severely limited, at least for the first three to five years they are in the United States.

Among this undocumented sector is an important number who had jobs or careers in Mexico providing better than average (for Mexico) wages, but with very limited or nonexistent possibilities for further advancement commensurate with their education and experience. This sector is highly ambitious and entrepreneurial and bring those traits with them. They sacrifice, and if undetected will eventually break through, becoming business owners. But for life, Spanish will remain their language of choice.

First generation Mexicans who immigrated in their late teens (with their parents) or as adults also prefer Spanish over English. Their U.S. family income and social standing determines what they watch and listen to on television and radio, and what they read. It is highly unlikely that they depend on the local community Spanish language newspapers for news.

The higher educated among Mexican immigrants typically speak fair to excellent English, although their speech may be accented. Their legal residency status allows them to freely travel to and from the United States. Children, if brought here at an early age, quickly Americanize. If their friends speak only English, the preferred language becomes English. They also will speak Spanish, but mainly at home. These children, if they remain in the United States, eventually will become U.S. citizens and in time English will be their preferred language.

The Baja California and seasonal Mexican visitors are Spanish speakers, although many do speak English. Marketing to Baja Californians is best in Spanish through their local media. In these cases, economic demographics plays the important role, not language. The seasonal visitors from the interior of Mexico, typically wealthy, own a condo or house in the San Diego region as a second home. Also many wealthy Baja Californians own condos or houses as either primary residence or second homes. Advertising to these markets is highly specialized and can be successful in either language, but if in Spanish the proper medium must be used.

By far the greatest and biggest market is the Mexican-American community that is spread throughout San Diego County with higher density in some areas. In this market, Mexican-Americans beginning with the second generation are inclined to prefer English over Spanish. The third and subsequent generations by better than 70 percent prefer English, and the children of these generations have difficulties with Spanish — understanding more than they speak — and are poor readers in Spanish.

Members of these generations include generous numbers of doctors, dentists, scientists, accountants, attorneys, engineers, architects, senior and mid-level executives, business owners, professors, teachers and technicians in all fields. They are white and blue collar workers, no different from most other long-standing ethnic U.S. communities. What sets Mexican-Americans apart is their unwillingness to forget their culture.

So to the language question: If the audience is recently from Mexico or Mexican immigrants in the United States, Spanish is the preferred language. If it is second and subsequent generation Mexican-American, the best bet is English.

Patrick Osio Jr. can be reached at posiojr@sandiegometro.com. The veteran consultant also has issued The Mexican Perspective, an intensive primer on business culture and protocol. Copies are available at http://www.hispanicvista.com/sales/book_sale.htm.