It looks like I should know better than to pronounce the names with what I learned from my southwestern up bringing near Mexico. For instance I would pronounce “Ximena” – “He-mane-ah,” since “X” has an “H” sound as spoken in Mexico. I have learned and heard enough Iberian Spanish to know that it is as different or more so from American Spanish as British English is from American English. I still remember a Hispanic girlfriend I had, who had visited Europe, and told me how easy it was to understand German, because it was so much like English.
It looks like I should know better than to pronounce the names with what I learned from my southwestern up bringing near Mexico. For instance I would pronounce “Ximena” – “He-mane-ah,” since “X” has an “H” sound as spoken in Mexico. I have learned and heard enough Iberian Spanish to know that it is as different or more so from American Spanish as British English is from American English. I still remember a Hispanic girlfriend I had, who had visited Europe, and told me how easy it was to understand German, because it was so much like English.