Hispanics from one country get mistaken for Hispanics from another country all the time.
As a rule, Anglos on the West Coast assume every Hispanic they meet is from Mexico.
Anglos on the East Coast assume all Hispanics are from Puerto Rico, except for Miami Anglos, who think they are all from Cuba.
There are exceptions: in the 1990s, an Ecuadoran immigrant in Brooklyn, New York, was beaten up by Anglo youths calling him a “Mexican.”
Hispanic Americans spend a lot of time simply explaining what they are not.
