re: Why do so many southern areas refer to themselves as americans on ancestry surveys?

quote:

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I'll answer your question with more questions.

Why do people from Cuba refer themselves as Cuban? Many of their families came from Europe and only stayed in Cuba for 2 or 3 generations.

Why do people from Mexico refer to themselves as Mexican?

Having considered those two questions, why is it odd to refer to yourself as American if your family has been in America for 7+ generations?

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Because racial mixing in those countries was/is a lot more prominent than in the U.S. For example, the large majority of Mexicans are Mestizo, which means they are a mixture of native ancestry and European Hispanic ancestry.