These threads have a way of rambling, and since the Gringo Imperialistas are ganging up on me it is time to change the subject.
While surfing I found the following which I thought was interesting about the orgin of the term "gringo":
"We had always assumed that it was simply a Spanish word meaning "a pesky European settler," but once we looked into the matter, it turned out that things weren't quite so cut and dried.
After entering the phrase "gringo origin" into the Yahoo! search box and clicking on some of the web page matches, we uncovered a controversy over the word's history.
"It seems that many amateur etymologists believe the term comes from a song sung by American frontiersmen ("Green Grow the Rushes" or possibly "Green Grow the Lilacs") during the Mexican-American War. You can find details of this theory at a page hosted by Clan Sinclair, along with the lyrics to both songs.
"A second theory postulates that American troops, during that same war, wore green uniforms and were taunted with cries of "Green go!" Frankly, we found that one hard to swallow. Thankfully, most of the sites we consulted viewed this idea with a healthy dose of skepticism.
"One such site, a question-and-answer column called The Word Detective, offers a more compelling explanation of "gringo" and its origin. The detective says, "The most likely source of 'gringo' is the Spanish word 'gringo' itself, which means 'foreigner' or 'unintelligible gibberish.' The root of 'gringo,' in turn, is thought to have been 'griego,' Spanish for 'Greek,' often applied as slang to any foreigner."
"Further research led us to conclude that this last theory is the most likely. The Word Wizard concurs wholeheartedly with the Word Detective, offering "griego" as the immediate root of "gringo."
"Finally, we located a comprehensive article from Honduras This Week that outlines the long history of the term predating the Mexican-Amercian conflict. As far as we're concerned, it firmly places the far-fetched theories of overheard singing and anti-American sloganeering into the category of "urban myth," where they surely belong."
I liked the part about "unintelligble gibberish".