Did you have a nickname in school or college, or even one that has stayed with you to the present day?
In Peru people are very fond of using nicknames which will often follow them throughout life, not just at school or college. Known as 'apodos' or 'motes', nicknames may be based on where someone is from, a physical characteristic, a play on their name, a term of affection or any other number of sources.
Oy, Fatty!
Some nicknames based on physical characteristics may be seen as derogatory or even offensive in the west, but in Latin America it is often just a case of "say what you see".
Therefore nicknames such as "gordo" (fatty or chubby), "flaco" (skinny), "negro" (black), "chino" (Chinese), "Chancho" (piggy) and "peludo" (hairy), are fairly commonplace, and do not have the same negative connotations as elsewhere. Another common example is that someone with green eyes will often be known as "El gato" meaning "The cat" due to the fact that green eyes are unusual in Latin America.
These nicknames are also often softened by using the diminutive which is done by adding "ito" or "ita" depending on whether the target is male or female, so gordo becomes gordito, flaco becomes flaquito, and so on.
Eeey, Gringo!
There are a number of nicknames based on where someone comes from in wide use in Latin America, and these can be derogatory or not. Some of these relate to people from a certain country, others for people from a certain city. Probably the best known of these is the term originally used by Mexicans for North Americans, but now widely used throughout Latin America for almost anyone from both North America and Europe which is of course "Gringo", or the feminine version "Gringa".