[ut1992]

You are absolutely correct. A few years ago I attended work-related meetings in Madrid. I can only speak "spring break" Spanish, but I can tell the huge difference between Castilian Spanish and the Spanish from our neighbors to the south. One of the guys from our Madrid office told me that it makes his "toes curl" when he speaks Spanish with his counterparts in our Mexico City; he says they spoke "gutter" Spanish.

[spintreebob]

People in Mexico City think that people from the hills of Mexico speak "hillbilly Spanish". I learned from speakers from the hills of Zacatecas, Michoacan, Durango, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, etc.

It's comparable to the attitude of Londoners to Bostonians who in turn look down on New Yorkers, who in turn look down on New Joisey, who in turn look down on Kentucky.

I recently attended presentations of IT gurus from England and Australia. They do talk funny. And in meetings with Indian immigrants whose first language is English, I tell them "email me".

[Wallace T.]

The attitude of the Spaniards to their fellow Spanish speakers in Latin America is analogous to that of the British to Americans. I may not be a fan of unrestricted immigration from Latin America, but as an American, I sympathize with the Latin Americans on this one. The Spaniards, like the British, have not really reconciled their loss of their old colonies.

[R. Scott]

That has been my experience.