SOLVED - I was editing the files in the wrong place. The .po and .mo edits worked. I was working from a user folder in ubuntu where another limesurver folder existed, whereas the actual server files resided in var/www directory. That is why my changes never pushed to the front-end.
I have tried to change the language files per the manual (.po and .mo). The issue I am having is removing the text (Mexico) or "mexicano" from all selections in the application. I have edited the es-MX language file using PoEdit. Does that text get populated via the .mo, or is it hard coded somewhere else? I also tried to edit the en.mo file to remove the text on the site without success.
I also edited the surveytranslator_helper.php file with this code: