Nobody exports bland food, ergo all American interaction with foreign food is with that of the more spicy stuff.
Tell you how non-spice-oriented the Panamenos are (how do you make an 'n' with a tilde ('~') above it, btw? The 'n' in Panameno should have one, but I don't know how to do it.). Every Christmas season, I make a lot of old-fashioned gingerbread cookies. First batch I made this year were well-received (Panamenos LOVE sweets, period), but I received several comments along the lines of 'are all Americano galletas (cookies) so spicy?' Somewhat ironic, in that I already had reduced the amount of ginger and nutmeg in the recipe and had omitted the cloves entirely, for just that reason: Panamanian non-love of spices. Go figure, eh?