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I really can't say much about William Walker but personally if he did espouse the doctrine of Manifest Destiny it never bothered me much, Latin America in general has always pretty much been a fief of the U.S. so there's not much to say... I actually got together with my Somocista family on Saturday and we were supposed to get together again today but this week my brother is getting married so I'm going to get first-hand accounts from my Uncle the patriarch of my family and see what's happening right now.  We're pretty damn close to the Aleman-Lacayo-Chamorro machine and also the Ortega-Pastora contigent as well so arguing semantics about William Walker in a group of close-minded patriotic Nicaraguans on both sides of the major social-gubernatorial ideologies of the world would be a moot point but since this is your site I am enjoying your thoughts on Nicaragua.  I kinda did think your interest was on a social level, an interest which I am sorry to say is neo-Utopian in it's outlook and although it would be a great day indeed when the average Nicaraguan can break his cycle of poverty it's not likely ever going to happen.  Nicaragua has a plantation mentality, much like Walker would have seen in Tennesee or other parts of the South in his day, haven't you noticed that?  Maids, workers, field hands, etc... get my point?  You're either born with some sort of spoon in your hand or no food at all and that's the only way it's ever been down there and I don't know anything about Costa Rica, Honduras or El Salvador but Nicaragua only knows how to be run by dicatators, strongmen and powerful caudillo families who don't care about the average person.  I know this firsthand, my brother and I have gone down to Nicaragua and since he has a much more defined social compass than I have he often mentions to me how he dislikes how the workers and chaffeurs sit at different tables than the family members, how the staff eats at a different time... he's lived in the egalitarian United States ever since he was 2 years old and has no concept of social class or it's constructs especially since he's never studied Sociology or taken any History courses.  He is your average American do-gooder who wants to make the world a better place and is naive enough to think he can.  I know I could do without being so jaded and cynical but I think reality makes you that way and you can't go through life in a purple haze thinking everything is alright and hunky dory just because you want it to be and therefore it will be.  He's getting married this week and maybe one day he'll grow up and try to see the world in a more realistic way but we'll see.  When I come back I'll talk some more and see what the family says about the old country.  Have a nice week Peter.