I came across something from Michael Franzese of him stating Nancy Pelosi's father Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. was connected to a Boston Mafia and "that's why she acts the way she acts".

I know this is obviously giving a dig at the "left side" but how true actually is it?

Nancy Pelosi is very known for being part of the United States House of Representatives. Her father was the 41st mayor of Baltimore and he's from Baltimore. Nancy is from Baltimore too.

Honestly I don't know much of her father (or even much about her) but I think this would be a good conversation for the subreddit.

Okay so I made a post almost a month ago asking about some mafia guy and his family being in charge of the regions Latin Kings, and I made the statement that it was a lil weird because Italians don't really join those kinds of gangs like that and multiple people got on me about "Italians are Latin so why wouldn't they be?" And I just got a comment about it today that reminded me all about this so I wanted to make a post about it because a lot of people on reddit (especially those more into mafia/organized crime) don't understand how ethnic gangs work.

Were Italians considered Latin? Yeah of course, they have heavy roots from Latin American. That doesn't make them Latin nowadays though.

You aren't going to cross many Italians that are choosing "Latin" as their demographic. They're Italians, they're Europeans. Italy is in Europe. Italian has always been classified as a culture/ethnicity of white. That's why when people talk about "black on black crime only" it doesn't work because Italians, Irish, Russian, etc mafias have all been fighting among each other for decades as well.

When Italians go to prison; they don't/can't go join the Latin/Mexican/Southsider/whatever it is card because they aren't Hispanic. They are viewed as white and they even view themselves as white. Almost every time they are siding with the Aryan Brotherhood or some other white card in prison because that's how they're viewed and that's who they side with. Even though the Hispanic cards usually have connections to the white cards; neither are allowed to just join a card they aren't in. Even white Crips and Bloods might not be accepted into the black card for that reason.

They have completely different cultures. Italians speak Italian, they have an Italian culture. Most Hispanic gang members speak Spanish and have a Hispanic culture (whether it's Mexican, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, whatever). They are not the same. The culture is completely different.

So saying "yeah an Italian being the leader of a Hispanic street gang isn't a lil weird/wild" is just asinine. I could ask a number of Hispanic gang members about this and they would say it's definitely a lil weird. Does it happen? Obviously it does and the dude who I'm talking about (Chicky) is an obvious example of this. It also doesn't hurt that his family was the boss of a local/regional mafia family too so that power/connection could have most definitely played a part in how he was able to get into Latin Kings leadership.

A lot of people don't understand gangs, let alone ethnic ones. Latin Kings doesn't mean "every person with any Latin historical roots", it means Hispanic people that connect with Latin America, that's why the predominant people in those gangs are Puerto Rican and Mexican (there are a lot of black and white people in those gangs too tho, but they usually aren't leadership, just low level bangers). It's about Hispanic heritage, not just the Latin blanket in general.

A lot of people attempted to argue and clown me on this when they don't even understand what they're even arguing about. Italy's connection to Latin America centuries ago has no relation to modern day Latin America and what's considered Latin. Italians aren't considered Latin anymore, neither are the street gangs and criminals.

Again, it happens (an Italian becoming leader of a Latin Kings gang), of course, but it isn't normal like people are making it out to be. Italians have always had their own street gangs, they don't join with other ethnicities like that unless they are newer and born/raised in the ghetto (like most people from any ethnicity).

Even googling "Are Italians Latin?" I get:

"No, Italians are not typically considered Latino because the term "Latino" generally refers to people from Latin America or the Caribbean, or people who are descended from them. However, the term "Latino" can also refer to people who speak Portuguese or French, and the United States government officially adopted the term in 1997."

There's even a reddit ELI5 post from 6-7 years ago asking why aren't Italians considered Latin.

I've ONLY ever heard someone defend this here on the posts I've made. I never even heard someone talk about that.

Italians aren't considered Latin. Regardless what history book insert you want to put in there, they aren't in modern days.

Just felt the need to explain this to some people that tend to think Italians are Latin and run in with the Latin card; they don't. That's why you don't see Italian Hispanic gangs and why even Latins aren't accepted in Italian-based gangs and organizations. They're completely different.