We South Americans make a good reputation for "latinos" in the US. Because having to go there by getting a visa & travelling by plane, makes it almost impossible for a person with no assets or study to cross the same border.
I'm proud of being Peruvian and if someone calls me "Mexican" it might be because I'm acting according to the image that was built around this appellative and not because of my skin colour or accent.
Maybe they think most latin amaericans in the US are Mexican, so any latino/a is likely to be Mexican or they don't know of any other Latin American country. My wife is a latina and we live in the UK, a lot of people think she is Indian as there are not many latinas here and she has brown skin, black hair and dark eyes like most Indian people and there are lots of Indian people here. So what i am saying is that they probably going for the most likely option.
I would dispute what you are saying as not being correct for the most part. Sure, there are those who cannot tell the difference, but I don't think the represent the majority (at least in my experience). Even the accent tends to be different.
I live on the east coast. Mexicans here are Latinos. I once saw a Spanish-speaking woman on the subway. I guessed she might be Mexican because she was wearing color of turquoise and color of malachite. But she was accompanied so I said nothing
i'm Mexican-American with my mom born in Guadalajara and my dad born in Ciudad Juarez and i have lived in Los Angeles all my life...
Look i get it, i know Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Cubans, Guatemalans, Peruvians, Costa Ricans and ETC hates being called a "Mexican".. And trust me i get pissed off also, not with being called a mexican because i am but because they are putting my ethnicity to another and it makes me want to punch their face so ******* hard till they open their eyes and see that mexico isn't the only Latin country..
There's Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Cuba, Colombia, Chile, Peru, panama, Honduras, Uraguay ETC. and trust me i get the exact hate you guys are feeling well actually 70% of mexicans, Mexican/Americans hates when our ethnicity gets onto the wrong one and even my mom and dad hates it And i'm sorry that that is happening but it isn't our fault you guys are being called "Mexicans".. don't blame us, Blame the United States thinking every Latino is mexican, even in New York when there's more Puerto ricans than Mexicans.. I'm really sorry that your people are being called by the wrong thing and i respect one another and i have a Colombian friend that one day some guy in school called him a dumbass mexican and my colombian friend was going to do something and i pushed him back and dropped the guy that called him a dumb mexican to the floor because
1) my friend isn't mexican
2) because he disused my race in a bad way
Please no racist replies :)
