My Spanish professor (a professor of comparative linguistics from Spain) told me that New Mexican Spanish is similar to 18th century Spanish as it was spoken in Spain (which is reasonable, but a topic for another thread). My first-year class had people in it from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica and Mexico, as well as "native" New Mexicans, all seeking a firmer grounding in basic, grammatical, Spanish (well, a couple were after an easy A, but were in the wrong place).   I'd suggest going to your local community college and taking a Spanish 101 class as the first step. Or are you already in "I'm retired now, and don't understand how I ever found time to work" mode?