Is "gringo" the equivalent to the words "spic, wetback, greaser" or is it a term of endearment?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gringo
excerpt from wikipedia "gringo"
The Spanish etymologist Joan Corominas states that it was a variation of griego[1] ("Greek language"), the proverbial name for an unintelligible language (a usage found also in the Shakesperean "That's all Greek to me"). From the language, it was extended to people speaking foreign tongues and to their usual physical features.
A recurring fake etymology for the derivation of gringo states that it originated during the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. It has been claimed that Gringo comes from "green go" and used in reference to the American soldiers and the color of their uniforms. This is an example of an invented explanation, because gringo was used in Spanish long before the war and during the Mexican-American War, the US Army did not use green uniforms, but blue ones.
Yet another story, from Mexico, holds that Mexicans with knowledge of the English language used to write "greens go home" on street walls referring to the color of the uniforms of the invading army; subsequently, it became a common habitual action for the rest of the population to yell "green go" whenever US soldiers passed by.
Another legend maintains that one of two songs – either "Green Grow the Lilacs" or "Green Grow the Rushes, O" – was popular at the time, and that Mexicans heard the invading US troops singing "Green grow..." and contracted this into gringo.
Another version, heard in Brazil, refers to the United States Air Force base near Natal, Brazil during World War II. The American soldiers, wearing green uniforms, would be commanded "green, go!" by their sergeants during training.
The story of "Green Go" can also be heard in most other Latin American countries, with numerous variations. Some stories have the term originating as recently as the Vietnam war. Other stories attribute the term to other conflicts, all of which occurred too late in history to account for the earliest usages of the word.
Yet another version, also heard in Brazil, claims that when the British were building the railroads in Brazil in the beginning of the century, they would instruct the locals on how semaphores worked: Red, Stop. Green, Go. The British were thereafter known as "gringo".
Gringo is not a particularly friendly term in Mexico, but becomes generally less perjorative the further south you go. In Chile it's a term of endearment for North Americans and Europeans alike.
My understanding of the term GRINGO is that it originated from a misunderstanding of a song. Mexicans on the south side of the Rio Grande were listening to some Cowboys on the north side of the river as they sang around an evening campfire. They were singing the song, Green Grow the Lilacs, and the Mexicans just started calling them gringos. It is not a term of slander nor a term of endearment, just a term of misunderstanding. If my understanding is mistaken, I welcome enlightenment.