Cast your minds back, if you will, to last year’s congressional hearing during which American congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grilled Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook’s policies at a congressional hearing.

As you may remember, Ocasio-Cortez – or AOC as she is universally known – began gesticulating with her hands during the heated exchange. 

That moment was caught on camera and swiftly spawned a wave of Italian memes, mainly referencing traditional Italian foods and The Godfather.

Sometimes, hands speak louder than words, especially when they’re Italian hands – a group of people as passionate as their espressos are strong.

Find me a string of words that does a bowl of mouth-watering pasta al dente more justice than a chef’s kiss? Or an expression that tells someone to shove off better than moving your hand from under your chin?

This particular gesture is often associated with Italians speaking adamantly and loudly, such as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather or The Sopranos.

So universal is this hand gesture that it has been named as one of the 117 new emojis for 2020.

The “pinched fingers” emoji – otherwise known as the Italian hand gesture ma che vuoi – is set to drop later this year, and the excitement on Twitter is palpable, with AOC herself retweeting the announcement with a smiley emoji.

We’ve long thought that Ocasio-Cortez deserved her own emoji.

And now she has one. Well, kind of.

Image: Getty