Spain — I'm sorry to say this, considering Spaniards' enormous sensitivity around it, but most Americans are going to conflate the Spanish with Mexicans. They're going to assume Spain is poor, the people eat tacos and burritos, and they pay with worthless pesos. They're going to assume Madrid is a suburb of Mexico City, and Barcelona is an island near Cancun. If they have fantastic memory, they might remember the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, those famous Mexican ships sailed by that Mexican explorer, Hernan Cortes.
Portugal — Part of Puerto Rico.
—Daily Candor, What Americans think of Europeans
Customer: I want someone who isn't Mexican to help me. You already took enough jobs, thank you very much.
Employee: Ma'am, I'm not Mexican.
Customer: Yes, yes you are! (reads name tag) Maria is such a Mexican name!
Employee: Ma'am, I'm Portuguese.
Customer: Oh, Mexico, Portugal, Costa Rica. It's all the same. You come into our country and steal all of our jobs. Just because you've hopped the fence doesn't give you the right to be here!
Employee: Ma'am, Portugal is in Europe. It's located next to Spain. We speak Portuguese there. It is impossible to hop across an ocean and into the US.
Customer: Go back to Castro then, communist!
Officinist: Hello, may I help you?
Customer: Hello. You don't sound American. Where are you from?
Officinist: Oh, I'm Spanish.
Customer: Oh, from Mexico.
Officinist: No, ma'am, I'm Spanish.
Customer: You're from Puerto Rico?
Officinist: No, I'm Spanish. I'm from Spain.
Customer: Oh, do they still have that country?
—Not Always Right, "I Deign That Spain Stays Mainly in the Brain"
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