A friend was sharing this in Facebook.
“Chinito” means “Little Chinese man.” And yes, If he looks oriental, Hispanics will tag him with the chino or chinito name. Former President Alberto Fujimori is o Japanese background, but even he ran his elections under the moniker everybody gave him: “El Chino Fujimori.”
For blacks? Negro. If used in the diminutive (negrito or negrita) it denotes close friendship or romantic involvement. Yes there are insulting terms and they are attached as adjectives to the word.
In Venezuela back when I was growing up, anybody from the Middle East was a “turco” (Turkish) and unidentified foreigners in general are called “Musiu” which is a bastardization of the word monsieur. Every Latin country has its own names and words for people according to race, color and other things.
I do want to warn my fellow Gringos (see what I did there?) to refrain to apply the word Mexican to any Hispanic as they will take it as a personal insult. The same applies if you ask somebody if they are Argentinians (somebody from Chile will probably stab you on the spot).
Just call me American.
Hat Tip Manny L
I know several hispanic folks, some from New Mexico, or Arizona tracing their families back to colonial Spanish times, often with royal land grants. If one was ignorant enough to refer to them as “Mexican” one would be politely (mostly) educated on the inappropriateness of that appellation. A second offense would be dealt with much less politely.