Why do Americans call Spanish speakers and Latinos "Spanish?"

Tuvatuva said:
It gets confusing when talking to Americans about the Spanish. Once I was told an American guy that I the girl was seeing was Spanish and he asks me, "Oh where is she from?"

Or if I say, "I have some Spanish friends. I can bring them to the party." Americans will ask, "Which countries are they from?"

Of if I may hear some guy say he met a sexy Spanish girl, but it turns out she's Dominican or Colombian or something.

It's obviously Spain. Spanish in terms of nationality = from Spain.

We don't say Canadians, Saffas, Aussies, Kiwis, and Americans are English because they speak English. If you hear someone is English, nobody would ask which country he is from; they just assume he's from England.

I can imagine how confusing it must be for Spanish people to tell Americans that they are Spanish and Americans ask them which country they are from.

Spanish people are from Spain.
Click to expand...

Are you aware that Spain was a major colonial power that established colonies around the world which is the reason that there are many Spanish speaking countries? People can be Spanish citizens and live in other countries.
 
I just know them as Spanish speakers, if it's not obvious they're Mexican at first.

Never heard them called Spanish tbh and I live in California where they're basically everywhere.

seinfeld-george-costanza.gif
 
Makes sense because Americans are used to only meeting Central and South Americans. Actual Spaniards are rare on this side of the ocean. They're already happy in Spain, they feel no need to move to North America.
 
ralphc1 said:
Are you aware that Spain was a major colonial power that established colonies around the world which is the reason that there are many Spanish speaking countries? People can be Spanish citizens and live in other countries.
Click to expand...
Well, you are technically not wrong, but there are not as many as you might think. In fact, there are less than 3 million Spanish citizens living abroad. And this is an all time high for the non-colonizing days!
https://www.epdata.es/datos/poblaci...úmero de personas con,en el Extranjero (PERE).
 
I've heard hispanic and Latino, never heard Americans referring to Spanish speakers as Spanish.
 
But as you said... they say Latin or Latina...

That's not Spanish. That's Latin American. Makes sense.

I know what you're saying, and I'm not from America so I don't really know but I see/hear Americans say Latin/Latinas, or Hispanic... not Spanish.
 
Busgosu said:
yeah, I'm Spanish from Spain
I honestly don't care. Once you understand that the States are incredibly obsessed with race, ethnicities and classifying and fitting people into subgroups the best you can do is sit back and enjoy the ridiculousness.
Click to expand...

Yeah, America is obsessed with that.

I lived in Australia for 10 years and they are similarly obsessed too, and have more racial problems than say the UK where I'm from.

The solution is to stop focusing on race and grouping each other because it's fucking stupid and tribal and doesn't matter. But the radical left and much of America mainstream seem to think the solution is to focus MORE on it. Aye aye aye.
 
The average American has a very poor command of language, it prevents us from communicating with precise wording and nuance.
 
I've been referred to as "Chino" from more Mexican's then ever hearing anyone call a Spanish speaking person "Spanish."
 
Cariñito said:
It's more of an East Coast thing.
Like "Who was it?"
"I don't know it was that Spanish Cat."
Or
"The Spanish kid."
It basically means someone of Central or Latin America.

You go to the West coast and it's changed to Mexican.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's almost entirely an East Coast thing. Pretty dumb imo.

West of the Mississippi it's starting to change a little bit because there's a bit more variety in the type of Latinos. Especially in the big cities. For decades, it used to be that 95%+ were Mexican, but now it's "only" in the 70-80% range.
 
It's an east coast thing. Everyone that speaks spanish gets lumped into spanish because no one cares if you're Dominican or Puerto Rican. East coast didn't even have good tacos 15 years ago.
 
I don't know anyone that calls them Spanish. I call them all mezcans.
 
That may happen only in small cities, in big multi cultural cities well americans are more used to the idea of other cultures living in the US
 
Tuvatuva said:
Why not just say "Mexican friend" or "Peruvian friend?" If you have a Canadian friend, you won't call him "English friend" or "French friend" if he speaks French.
Or you just say Latino if you still want to be general but get the wrong country.


I have a Taiwanese girl.
Which part of China is she from?
o_O
Click to expand...
Most people do. The only times I've heard anyone refer to someone not from Spain as Spanish are when it's someone they don't know, and don't know what country they're from but know they speak Spanish.

The Amish call non Amish rest of the country "English" even though they're American, people refer to Russian speakers who aren't from Russia as Russians, and if you go to a non English speaking country, they probably refer to you as English as well.

I just refer to everyone from outside the US as Mexicans.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,459
Messages
55,492,613
Members
174,789
Latest member
Jahmaltheknight

Share this page

Back
Top