Why do most Americans think that Mexican and Spanish are the same race?

Question

They are two different races!

Answer 1

Because Americans are a Race that ignore the difference between Culture, Ethnicity and Nationality.

Answer 2

The mexicans only speak spanish because they were invaded/conquered/colonised by the Spanish some 500+ years ago.

Answer 3

Because they both speak Spanish.

BTW, Mexicans are not a separate race, neither are Spanish nor Americans. These are nations.

Answer 4

Spanish people from Spain are considered caucasian.  People from Latin America are mixed with Spaniards, native indian and african...they are considered hispanic or latino.

Answer 5

that obviously stems from the language.

Answer 6

cuz most americans are ignorant, they also think:

all white people are racist

all black people are criminals, hate education, and like hiphop

all asians are smart and are chinese

bottom line know one wants to spent time researching this stuff, not even smart people. It's alot more convenient to group a whole bunch of people together soley based on their appearance

Answer 7

I really don't think most Americans think that...that's just silly.  They both speak Spanish so obviously they have that in common, but the countries are on two different continents, you'd have to be really stupid to think they were the same race.

Answer 8

How do you figure that they are 2 different races? Please elaborate.

Answer 9

Most Americans don't think that.  I agree with the above poster who pointed out that these are nationalities, not races.

In the part of New Mexico where I live, the hispanic people consider themselves to be "Spanish."  Clearly they are of Mexican descent but their forebears with names like Jaramillo, C'deBaca, and Velasquez were from Spain.  "Spanish" differentiates them from Native Americans (although they are certainly of that lineage, too).  The ones around here don't call themselves "Mexican" because they aren't from Mexico (the U.S. annexed this area) and they don't self-identify with any of the other terms, so "Spanish" is kind of a default term.