Pop stars tend to attract fans in their own images. For Britney and Christina, it's young girls. Linkin Park appeals to adolescent males. So how do you figure that Morrissey, a 45-year-old British sad sack with Irish-Catholic roots who sings melodramatically of loneliness, isolation and unrequited love, would find an audience among young Latinos?

The Latin following for Morrissey, the elusive, eccentric ex-frontman for '80s English cult-pop band The Smiths, has been documented by magazines such as Spin and is the subject of Moz Angeles, a documentary being filmed by Bill Levy, a New York-based producer and filmmaker who's worked for MTV. Mr. Levy will shoot footage of fans during Morrissey's tour for his new CD, You Are the Quarry, a tour that hits Will Rogers Auditorium in Fort Worth on Wednesday.

His appeal to a young Latin audience has nearly given him a second life, even as songs by The Smiths such as "How Soon Is Now" and "Girlfriend in a Coma" are still in regular rotation on rock stations such as "The Edge" KDGE-FM (102.1).

"He has this really bizarre thing going where he's got a major fan base of Mexican-Americans all over the Southwest," Mr. Levy says. "Some of the scholarly explanations have been that his crooning voice and fatalistic lyrics reminded them of ranchero music or Mexican folk music sung in a similar way. But as a Morrissey fan, I couldn't make that connection. So I decided to find out for myself, to see what the real reason is."

Victor Cornejo, 28, an advertising account executive from Grand Prairie, is one such Morrissey fan. His parents are from Peru, but he was born in New York and grew up outside Houston. He listens to Spanish rock such as Molotov and Café Tacuba, right next to Coldplay and Morrissey, whom he discovered in high school.

"I think in Latin America, not everyone listens to regional Mexican or the music you might assume they listen to," he says. "Morrissey has a voice you don't hear every day. ... You get hold of the lyrics, which at first seem so strange, but have narrative and depth."

Mr. Cornejo was also initially attracted to Morrissey's notorious attitude, which some read as arrogance.

"I think maybe the nonapologetic attitude was attractive," he says. "He didn't offer a whole lot of explanations. You had to accept it on its own terms. In the interviews I've read, he was so unabashedly cocky."

The Latin fan base is even more noticeable in border towns, says Marina Monsisvais, 27, promotions director for KHRO-FM (94.7), a modern rock radio station in El Paso.

"We had Morrissey here a year or two ago," she says. "We're a border town, and we had tons of people driving from all over Mexico. El Paso is 80 percent Hispanic, but that show probably had an even higher proportion of Mexicans. It's a big deal."

Morrissey seems fully aware of this audience, even cultivates it. He named his 2000 DVD Oye Esteban. Last year, he toured with Latin rock band Jaguares, who served as his opening act. He just released an EP with a new song called "Mexico," which is being considered for his next single.

Locally, ads for Morrissey's show include spots on KTCY-FM (101.7), a Spanish-language radio station whose programming nudges the edge of mainstream pop.

Despite the superficial cultural differences between the star and his fans, they share an outsider's perspective, Ms. Monsisvais says.

"If you walk around here, you see a ton of boys walking around with the Morrissey pompadour and the pants rolled up," she says. "I think it has to do with the fact that he caters to the misfit. With just not fitting in. With feeling like you're on the outskirts, but not quite in the punk rock way, not angry, more sad – a theme that young Latinos take to heart."

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DETAILS: Morrissey with opening act Damien Dempsey, Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Will Rogers Auditorium, Fort Worth. $49.50; tickets for Oct. 29 show will be honored. Ticketmaster, 214-373-8000, metro 972-647-5700, www.ticketmaster.com.

Latin fans aren't the only ones who love Morrissey:

Chloe Sevigny, stalker. Online accounts say that during the mopey star's swing through the Northeast, actress Chloe Sevigny was spotted at nearly every tour stop, from Boston to New York to Philadelphia, even climbing onstage at his New Jersey appearance to embrace him like a star-struck fan.

Nancy Sinatra, mentee. Meanwhile, Morrissey has a friend in Nancy Sinatra. She joins him on his new CD, in a duet on "Let Me Kiss You," and has called him her mentor, saying that he reminds her of her father, Old Blue Eyes himself.