Originally Posted by: Ish.RiveraIs this a matter of different philosofies in the music world.[/quote]
Yes, it is a matter of different schools of thought on the matter. This is all covered in depth on that wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solfege

It sounds like you were taught Fixed Do system; as opposed to Movable Do.

I find it more useful to use the movable system because the solfege is mostly valuable as a means of concretizing the sounds of any major scale regardless of root note. This means you can use the solfege to conceptually relate to scale degrees.
[QUOTE=Ish.Rivera]
Any documentation I find for spanish composers always talk in terms of Do Re Mi, not A B C. Yet when you look at the notes Do Re Mi they are C D E.

It's apparently all the Romance languages, not only Spanish. The movable system is more Germanic in origin & historical usage.

Anyway, if you start the movable do system on the note A, you never get A-B-C. You would get:

A (do) 1st
B (re) 2nd
C# (mi) major 3rd
D (fa) 4th
E (so) 5th
F# (la) major 6th
G# (ti) major 7th
A (do) 8th

FWIW, when Julie Andrews sings it in the movie The Sound Of Music, it is in B-flat. :)

Hope that helps clarify the issue!