What US Latinos Say About Machismo and What It Means to Them

While ‘machismo’ has multiple meanings to Hispanics, most view it negatively

Pew Research Center conducted this study to explore Hispanic Americans’ views of and experiences with the concept of machismo.

The analysis in this report is based on Pew Research Center’s National Survey of Latinos, a survey of 5,078 Hispanic adults, conducted Nov. 6 to 19, 2023. This includes 1,524 respondents from the Center’s American Trends Panel and an additional 3,554 from Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.

Respondents on both panels are recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. Recruiting panelists by mail ensures that nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. This gives us confidence that any sample can represent the whole population. (For more information, watch our Methods 101 explainer on random sampling.)

In this survey, respondents were asked an open-ended question about what machismo means to them, and some quotations from those responses are used in this report. Quotations were selected for illustrative purposes and may have been edited for grammar, spelling and clarity. For more information on this survey, refer to its methodology and topline.

The terms Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably in this report.

Immigrant refers to people born outside of the 50 U.S. states or the District of Columbia. For the purposes of this report, immigrant also refers to those born in Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories. Although individuals born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens by birth, they are grouped with immigrants because they are born into a Spanish-dominant culture and because on many points their attitudes, views and beliefs are much closer to those of Hispanics born outside the U.S. than to Hispanics born in the 50 states or D.C., even those who identify themselves as being of Puerto Rican origin.

U.S. born refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states or D.C.

Second generation refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states or D.C. with at least one immigrant parent.

Third or higher generation refers to people born in the 50 U.S. states or D.C., with both parents born in the 50 U.S. states or D.C.

Language dominance is a composite measure based on self-described assessments of speaking and reading abilities. Spanish-dominant people are more proficient in Spanish than in English (i.e., they speak and read Spanish “very well” or “pretty well” but rate their English-speaking and reading ability lower). Bilingual refers to people who are proficient in both English and Spanish. English-dominant people are more proficient in English than in Spanish.

Democrats and Democratic leaners are respondents who identify politically with the Democratic Party or who identify politically as independent or with some other party but lean toward the Democratic Party. Republicans and Republican leaners are respondents who identify politically with the Republican Party or who identify politically as independent or with some other party but lean toward the Republican Party.

For Hispanics living in the United States, conversations about gender can include discussions of “machismo,” a concept that generally captures ideas, behaviors and expectations related to men and masculinity that is sometimes attributed to Spanish-speaking cultures.

A November 2023 Pew Research Center survey finds that a large majority of Latino adults in the U.S. (83%) have heard of machismo. And among those who have heard of it, 73% say machismo among Latinos is a bad thing.

Overall, 60% of all Latino adults – including those who have not heard of machismo – see it negatively.

For decades, conversations about machismo have taken place among Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike in American popular culture, higher education and politics. In the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump’s campaign was sometimes seen as displaying traits linked to machismo in an effort to appeal to men of all backgrounds.

In Latin America, conversations about machismo often focus on gender relations, including its links to toxic masculinity, sexism and gender-based violence. In recent years, governments across the region have launched campaigns against machismo to address some of these attitudes and behaviors.