Now their paisano Texas governor Rick Perry is doing a little bit of trash talking against the U.S. Congress while on the other side of the border in Mexico

Just what is the above comment supposed to mean? Governor Perry is not Italian-American; according to every source that I consulted, including his web site, he is a fifth generation Texan, and with a last name like Perry I am guessing that he is of Anglo-Saxon extraction. Is there some kind of negative connotation that is associated with being Italian or Italian-American? Did the writer of that comment spend too much watching “The Soprano’s”? I don’t have the answers to those questions, but I really don’t like the ring of that comment! By the way, the word is “paesano”, if you are going to use it, get it right.

I am with you Luis. People forget to understand that words have a meaning regardless of what language they are spoken in. If I say ‘gato’ or cat, they both mean the same thing. Just because Italians go around saying ‘hey paison’ to each other doesn’t mean that everytime the word is used it has to refer to a person of Italian extraction.

Mario, you identified a state of being that haunts every person of mixed heritage in this country and maybe throught out the Americas. Most of the ‘Hispanics’ (as people with spanish surnames are identified) are a mixture of spanish and indian blood. There are those who are half and half while others tilt to one race other the other. I hold alligence (sp) to both sides and sometimes don’t know which side to jump into although I’m more spanish than indian. Don’t want to get off the subject here. I would think twice about open borders—60 percent of Mexico/central america/northern SA would be here. How in the world could we put all of them to work, provide medical care, housing, and education. With that many people coming to the US, assemilation (sp) would not occur and prety soon the US would slowly swing to the conditions from which they came from. I