You might also be surprised to know that there are countries in South America where the official language is French, Dutch and even English.
Dogboy I dont own any encyclopedias, but just so you know...
Belize-english
Suriname-Dutch
French Guiana-French
Brazil-Portuguese
*to my knowledge* the other 17 countries in central and south america are spanish speaking.

And here in Texas, (btw Pravit your "texas accent" is more of a tidewater/back woods/po-dunk hick thing, not a whole lot of texans actually have that southern drawl. ) spanish is taught in nearly every elelmentary, middle and high school there is. simply because we border Mexico. Whether its laziness or their inability to learn english we take some initiative and learn spanish. Besides your salary will at the very least double if you are bilingual. My dad speaks spanish because the majority of his clients dont speak english, but he's not going to say he cant represent them because they cant speak english. Thats anything but fair.
Really to get by with spanish in a high school here, just put buey (pronounce it "way")on the end of every sentence

I doubt anyone will get that, where are all the native spanish speakers??

Plus, I barely count Alaska as America. Too far away, and too "Canada".