I’m quite sure there are significant differences between various Spanish-speaking cultures (in the Western hemisphere) but I’d like to know specific differences. Are any so extreme that they have difficulty understanding each other’s Spanish, for example? Are there any names (given or surnames) that would be typical of one country but very rare in another?
Anything of this sort would be educational for me to know, since all I really know about Spanish-speaking natives is that they speak Spanish, but I’m quite sure there are some obvious distinctions in the various cultures that I’ve just been too oblivious to notice.
Once, when my dad owned a restaurant, he casually referred to a Dominican working in his kitchen as a Puerto Rican, and apparantly (and surprisingly to us Anglos) no graver insult was ever offered, so I know there’s some serious educating out there for me.
I think that the name Juanita, fairly common in Mexico and among Latinas in the US, is uncommon in Spain. I got this impression from a Madrileno I was dating who repeated the name as if it was something new and hilarious when I mentioned to him that my parents briefly considered giving it to me (after my great-aunt who was from an old New Mexico Hispanic family).
While I am not a native Spanish speaker, the Spanish spoken in different Latin American countries does differ pretty drastically, and some accents are much easier to understand than others (in my experience). The clearest Spanish (IMO) is spoken in the Andean region and Guatemala. Caribbean accents (Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Panamanian, coastal Colombian) can be quite difficult to understand - very rapidly spoken, with many consonants slurred or dropped. Argentinean Spanish is also very distinctive, with some unusual grammatical forms (vos) and a strong influence of Italian (from the many immigrants from that country).
The countries also differ a great deal in ethnic/racial makeup. Some countries have a heavy Indian influence (Guatemala, Bolivia), some are mainly European (Costa Rica, Argentina), while African heritage is strong in the Caribbean region. Although neighbors, Costa Rica and Panama could hardly be more different in accent, culture, racial composition, and history.
Panamanians are known for having very grandiose given names, often classically derived. I have known people (often poor laborers or campesinos ) called Baltisar, Alcibiades, Nefertaris, Baldomiro, Anibal (Hannibal), Aladino (Aladdin), etc.