I laughed when he made the feeble attempt to speak Spanish-——in an area of the US filled with Portugese-Americans.
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The Greater Providence-Fall River-New Bedford area is home to the largest Portuguese-American community in the United States.
When I was in the USAF, a guy I was stationed with in California was from New Bedford and laughed when I got orders to the Azores. He said that the Portuguese immigrants were laughed at and ridiculed by the rest of the population back in New Bedford. He had French heritage from a couple of generations back. A few months later I was his sponsor when he got orders to the Azores. We all had a great time there and he may have been more socialized with the Portuguese because there was no culture shock for him. The irony was not lost on him then being the outsider and not waited on in stores, etc. As grandmothers used to say, what goes around comes around.