What country would have the most generic Spanish?

Question

I'm programming with a software program that has built in messages in various languages. I have the options have these messages display in several country specific versions of Spanish. They are:

Spanish – Argentina
Spanish – Bolivia
Spanish – Chile
Spanish – Colombia
Spanish – Costa Rica
Spanish – Dominican Republic
Spanish – Ecuador
Spanish – El Salvador
Spanish – Guatemala
Spanish – Honduras
Spanish – Mexico
Spanish – Nicaragua
Spanish – Panama
Spanish – Paraguay
Spanish – Peru
Spanish – Puerto Rico
Spanish – Uruguay
Spanish – Venezuela

The target audience is Hispanics living in the US. What version of Spanish should I use? I'm thinking that I should use which ever would be the most generic but I don't know what that would be.

Any thoughts?

Thanks nmaria for the imput. For the record the program is going to run in 50 markets in the US. Also, these are error messages that have already been translated. I'm not using translation software. (I know that's shakey at best).

Answer 1

Colombia or Costa Rica use the most neutral Spanish, other countries use a lot of slang and a lot of regular words can be bad words. It is true that there are a lot of Mexicans living in the US, but so are Cubans, Colombians, Nicaraguans etc, it just depends on the region of the country. Spanish from Mexico is not very neutral. Anyway a computerized translation may not be the best either, try using a professional translator or post the messages here, you'll get better results for what you actually want to say.

Answer 2

The best Spanish spoken outside of Spain is: Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Uruguay.
Use Castillion Spanish and definitely not Mexican Spanish since it is full of slang and Native Indian words

Answer 3

I disagree with the previous answers, most Latinos in the USA do not come from Mexico . Latinos are of diverse cultures and the meaning of a word for one country does not mean the same for the other, in some cases the same words can be an insult in another country. good luck and be careful what you decide.

Answer 4

I'd say Mexico, as that's where over 50% of Spanish-speaking immigrants come from.

Answer 5

Most of the Hispanics living in the US come from Mexico, so I guess, that version would the right one to use in this case.

Answer 6

Mexico............