Asklemmy

Check your local community colleges, you might be able to audit Spanish classes for a small fee. IIRC this means you won’t do tests, but learning from someone who actually speaks the language you’re interested in is a huge advantage.

Duolingo is okay, IME many other language learning apps don’t distinguish between Latin American Spanish and Spain Spanish. But as others said, there’s a LOT of regional variation even within Latin America. So even if you’re able to comprehend and speak it well you may still run into a lot of “wtf do you mean” when trying to talk to people, lol. Like learning British English and trying to understand wtf a Texan is saying: not impossible, just with a very different usage of vocab.

So, this really depends on where in the US you are going to speak Spanish. It's going to vary based on the community's make up. A place with higher Porto Rican people is going to have a different Spanish than a Guatemalan community or a Peruvian one.

So try and do a Latin American Spanish focused class and be prepared to be wrong when you actually talk with folks.