"Spiggoty" explained

 I encountered the word in Rex Stout's Fer-de-Lance (the first Nero Wolfe mystery):

"All I have to say is, he's a dirty spiggoty."

"No Archie.  Mr. Manuel Kimball is an Argentinian."

"Spiggoty to me.  I want a glass of milk.  Can I bring you some beer?"

I had no clue, perhaps because of my suburban Minnesota upbringing or becaise pf growing up a generation later than the popularity of the word.  I found the explanation at Wordorigins:

Spic is a derogatory and offensive name for a Latin American or Hispanic person. The term arose out of the US acquisition and occupation of Puerto Rico following the 1898 Spanish-American War. It is probably a clipping of an older, now largely obsolete term, spiggoty, which was applied to immigrants from Central and South America because they did not spikka da English. 

The form spiggoty and an explanation for the term’s origin appears in the New York Times of 20 May 1900:

The American designation of the native is Spiggoty, accented on the first syllable. Its origin is indefinite, but it may have come from the native ambition to speak English and to inform all comers of that desire. The native tongue, accustomed to soft letters, struggles hard with the k in “speak,” and makes it sound like g cut off short. English is Ingles. When “speak English” encounters a Porto Ricon, the result may be not unlike “spiggely,” which some Anglo-Saxon mind roughened into “spiggoty.” Whatever the origin, one hears everywhere of spiggoty people, spiggoty money, and all else spiggoty. Everybody uses the term, the natives having almost accepted it as a proper designation. If into some official document sent to Washington it should slip, the public may know that it has come to stay, and that a fresh coin has enriched the language.

Despite what the Times said, it’s hard to believe that Puerto Ricans accepted the term graciously. When you’re under military occupation, you pretend to like what the occupiers call you.

I had heard the term "spic" in books and movies, but never the original "spiggoty."  And it's interesting that Nero Wolfe/Rex Stout would not apply the term to an Argentinian, as Archie does. [regarding this, see also the comment by Snowshine and my reply about "spic" also being used to refer to Italians]

One other interesting tidbit from the book:

"I took my time at breakfast, and told Fritz to keep the bolt on while I was bgone, and then with a light raincoat and a rubber hat went whistling along on my way to the garage."

Maybe in the 1930s the dominant plastics were inflexible ones like bakelite.  Don't know.  Too busy to look this up.