You know just enough about Latin countries and their laws to be mislead. There are some puzzling rules and laws indeed, but there's this cultural notion that it

You know just enough about Latin countries and their laws to be mislead. There are some puzzling rules and laws indeed, but there's this cultural notion that it's OK to flout inconvenient laws, rather than fighting them frontally to repel them. Among others, the laws intended to protect the French language from English (or more accurately Globish) are widely perceived as not-really-meant-to-be-enforced. I know it's stupid, but that's the way it is, and it sort-of works. And before going all French-bashing about this, go and check the anti-sodomy laws that still exist in some bible-belt US states...