What are the differences between español and hispánico?

Question

Parecía una demostración del folklore hispánico y una escena muy bonita con diferentes indumentarias de colores.

Here it´s hispánico, can I use español instead of hispánico? What are the differences between them?

Answer 1

The difference is one is Spanish and one is Spanish! Easy enough, right? haha

No, really the difference is one is referring to the Spanish language, and one refers to Spain, the country. Many people commonly use the word "Spanish" when they really mean "Hispanic."

español means Spanish as in "from Spain."

hispánico means Hispanic as in "in the Spanish language."

Just like you wouldn´t say that a man from Ecuador is "Spanish." That just wouldn´t make sense. He is an Ecuadorian hispanic. He is from Ecuador, and he speaks Spanish.

So the answer is no, you can´t say "español," because then you are limiting what you are writing about to Spanish folklore (from Spain) as opposed to hispanic folklore, which is written in the Spanish language.