“I’m curious to know if Spanish textbooks have moved from the classical language taught 40+ years ago to a mangled Mexican dialect?”
A number of years ago I was casually talking with a Central American lady in the course of business and remarked how it might have helped my Spanish while I was in college if I’d spent a summer in Mexico. She replied, saying the Mexican version of the language was horribly mangled and the place to go was somewhere in central or South America, where it was properly spoken.
The snobbery of Spaniards and South Americans toward Mexican Spanish is reminiscent of British and Commonwealth snobbery toward our version of English. I have no use for uppity Brits, and I am sure the Mexicans feel the same about their Iberian and South American counterparts.
I once worked with someone whose Spanish Army ancestor settled near Santa Fe in about 1598. The family still lives on the same land, and speaks the dialect of the Conquistors, Catalan or whatever, I don’t recall. He said he could barely communicate with Mexicans.
“...the Mexican version of the language was horribly mangled and the place to go was somewhere in central or South America, where it was properly spoken.”
My dentist immigrated from Brazil three years ago.
Being that Portuguese is spoken in Brazil I asked how they got on with their Spanish speaking neighbors.
He said that the Spanish spoken in most of SA is close to that spoken in Spain (he’s been there).
The further north you travel the more the language drifts.
The Spanish in CA is a little different but still easily understood.
The “Spanish” spoken in Mexico is an alien mish-mash that he can’t understand. According to him it barely resembles Spanish at all.
His grasp of English is excellent and his accent is barely detectable.
He immigrated because of the soaring crime rate in SA and better economic possibilities here.
He was a practicing dentist in Brazil but had to take his last two years of Dental School again, on his dime.
Best dentist I have ever had.