For example, Los Angeles and San Diego are filled with Mexican people, so lunch is called "lonche," when the universal word is "almuerzo." "Carro" means car in Spanish, while the universal term is "coche." Why is this? It is because the provinces and states closer to the United States se mezclan (they mix) English and Spanish, creating a new language, "Spanglish." While in the regions farther out from the U.S., they use the more universal, or "proper" Spanish, or just have a different word for car. This applies to many other words, and you won't know until you travel to different regions or speak to someone from a different region.
My family in Mexico comes from Oaxaca, a province farther down south, and Mazatlan, a province more on the northwestern coast of Mexico, so the Spanish that I have been surrounded by in my family sounds completely different from the Spanish my Ecuadorian grandmother spoke in her childhood before meeting my Mexican grandfather in the United States. Being in Argentina has been a whole other Spanish language experience. It was like jumping into a pool of ice-cold water and hearing the people speak. Not only is their accent hard for me to understand being attuned to the Mexican accent, but the words are all over the place. They call cake "tortas" (which I had for my birthday), but a very specific type of cake. I know avocados as "aguacates," but in Argentina, they call them "paltas." This has led to a bit of a language barrier, as I am so used to my "Mexican" Spanish.
