¡Bienvenidos, amigos y amigas!  Después de a tasty lunch of tostadas made from ingredients paid for con los gringos' money, I suddenly realized que yo haven't written anything for you in many months.  No puede ser an excuse for this, other than the old phrase "monkeys on the highway tend to fertilize."  There is still much to be taught en la lengua de inglés, so let us begin radpidamente!

I have a couple of questions for which I'd appreciate your thoughtful responses:  1. In its current usage, does the term "gringo" come with a disparaging connotation when it is used by Central and South Americans to refer to a (United States of) Americans, or is it simply a common label without ~racist feel when spoken by most Mejicanos or other Latinos?  (Or how about this:  Today, is "gringo" more similar to "Latino" or "spic"?)  2.   Can you explain why it is not considered acceptable to place a sentence-ending period AFTER a quotation, especially when using quotation marks to denote an idiom or when quoting just a single word or short phrase?  Mil gracias, mi amigo.

Gringaso Shunsho

Hola muchacho.  To answer your preguntas (not "quesionitas"), "gringo" would be the equivalent of "spic" though it has toned down over los años.  Please try to remember, "spic" does not merely mean "hispanic" but specifically refers to los puerto riqueños, who are of course lowly puercas but still better than los gringos.

As for your pregunta segunda, the reason is because that is the rule.  Punctuation siempre goes inside the quotation marks.

Gracias, bandito.  Your reply was interesting and amusing, but I would like further input from you, if you don't mind, by responding to these more specific questions:  1.  If "gringo" was originally meant as an ethnic slur, but the belittling connotation of the term "has toned down over [the years]," would you say that, CURRENTLY, most Hispanics use the term without any insulting intent (when used in matter-of-fact, mundane conversation)?  2.  I recall that I was taught that when colons, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points are not part of a quotation, they are to be placed outside the quotation marks (e.g., What do you think about the term "gringo"?  vs.  He asked, "What do you think about 'gringos', bandito?").  Why should periods not be treated equivalently?  If it is "because that is the rule," then I'll accept that as your answer again.  However, certainly punctuation does not always go inside quotation marks.

Thanks for the Spanish vocabulary lessons in your e-letter and your posts online.  My use of "questionitas" was tongue-in-cheek "spanglish" meaning "little questions," but I did not know the Spanish word equivalent to "question" until you told me.

El gringo con muchas preguntas

Gracias for another letter.  Yes, I would say that most people use the term "gringo" without any malice, but not I.

Also, punctuation should indeed go inside the quotation mark.  It is simply the way it is.  No sé why this is, it's just the way the language was invented.  Aquí está some examples to help you study:

WRONG:  Did he just call me "gringo"?
RIGHT:  It was fun when that gringo yelled "please stop stabbing my eyeballs!"
WRONG:  I believe the correct word is "questionitas".
RIGHT:  The correct word is "preguntas," gringo.  Now hand over your wallet so I do not have to shoot you several times.

This doesn't have anything to do with talking/writing English correctly or whatever since it's not my first language. I just want to ask why "gringos" are so ignorant that they think everyone that speaks Spanish or Portuguese is from Mexico? GEEEZ!

I only wish I had las respuestas for you.  My only guess is that since gringos have two defining traits:  one a smaller than walnut sized brain and the other being a total and complete intolerance for anyone unlike themselves that they just lump all Hispanics into the same category.  They probably couldn't even tell the differenc betwen Spanish, Portuguese, and German.  Ja, ja, gringos son muy estupidos.

The next carta que I received seemed muy inteligente at first, but then I saw que es porque much of it contained quotes de mi last lesson.

"Considering that we invented el nombre del país, we would know how to spell it.  Remember, if one group of people spells a word one way and los gringos spell it another, it is siempre verdád que the first group is correct."

Well, then is it Japan or Nihon? Or Nippon? It would seem that el nombre de una país can vary from lengua to lengua, ¿no?

Also, consider:

"Many rounds of tequilla..."

Ay ay ay! Has your time away from reprimanding los gringos caused you to soften with regard to spelling? Or maybe it is the 'tequilla!'

Sí, amigo, even I am prone to the occasional typographical error.  Me gusta que you took the time to tell me.  As for your question about país names, please try to remember that inglés y español have virtually the same alphabet, while Japan tiene one which is quite different and can at times inspire laughter at its sheer silliness.  That causes a problem in how to correctly spell it since we aren't spelling it con the correct letters.

Gracias por writing, amigo, you seem to have the mind of un mejicano, and that is a compliment beyond the dreams of ten housecats.

Por favór, notice that even though las preguntas are getting más inteligente as far as content goes, the inglés contained within them is still lacking.  As a simple refresher, recuerden ustedes que there are always two spaces después de the period (or other punctuation which ends a sentence); when quoting a word or frase you should always use the double quotation marks, not the single apostrophe as this is used to quote within a quote; and most importantly, la frase es "ay yi yi," no "ay ay ay," which would sound more like a stuttering mule eating a shepard's fleece.  ¡Hasta la vista, muchachos!

- Señor Palabras