Technically, they're included.

In practical usage, they'd far more likely be called Spanish or European in the US context.

Technically according to what? These labels were based on implicit understanding that shifted over time and place.

Technically according to Wikipedia, at the very least.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic

No Wikipedia explicitly states that people from Spain are not included;

"The term commonly applies to Spaniards and Spanish-speaking populations and countries in Hispanic America and Hispanic Africa" I.e. not mainland Spain.

“The term commonly applies to Spaniards AND…”

This is not a complex sentence.

A friend in college from Spain had way too much fun pretending to be stereotypically hispanic and would insist that he had more a claim to it, being from Hispaniola, after all.

To be pedantic, if he was from Spain, he would be from Hispania[1] not Hispaniola[2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispania

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispaniola