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Becuase, its a part of your families history and your beliefs sometimes as well and where you came from..everyone in this country has roots to another country thats all there is to it, heritage in New Mexico is important to those who live here. My heritage is Hispanic-Spanish from Spain, and i do have sum Italian in meh too!
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"Pickleball-Free American"
(set 7 days ago)
Location: St Simons Island, GA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948
american culture is 500 years old (predates the declaration of independence) everybody in the world is clear on what is american culture except us.
americans dont like each other very much do they.
always trying to emphasize that they are not really americans they are from somewhere else.
until they find out what somewhere else is really like.
So, an interest in our ancestry indicates a self-loathing as Americans?
And the rest of the world has a better handle on what our culture is than we do?
Time to cap the vodka bottle.
Americans are certainly hyphenated because it's not a nation-state. Hence the feeling patriotism instead of nationalism. Americans are rarely of one ethnicity and tend to only know stereotypical things of say Italy or Ireland, which are even outdated as the countries have changed a lot since some of their ancestors emigrated.
Moose1234, a lot of Europeans didn't escape. Europeans kind of got rid of these people. A lot of people emigrated because they were poor looking for a better life - such as the Swedes that emigrated to Minnesota (read Vilhelm Moberg's The Emigrants). Many of the Europeans that came to the U.S were religious minorities like the christian fundamentalists we see today. They weren't crème de la crème of their respective societies. Europe as a whole was quite developed.
The groups most "into" their heritage seem to be the ones who were the most discriminated against in 19th and early 20th century America, for example, the Irish Catholics. The disconnect is while almost no one publicly discriminates against them now, Irish Catholic hyper-identity-politics and culture still exists as a defense mechanism. I think it'll disappear over the next generation or at least become more subtle.
My mother's family is Scottish. We enjoy baking shortbread at Christmastime and I love a good single-malt scotch whiskey, but that it the extent of our cultural identification with Scotland.
While I enjoy looking at where my family history started, I am more interested in the legacy I am going to leave.
Respectable sons who hopefully turn into respectable men that love their families, and are honest in their dealings. Real men, who stick up for who and what they believe in and are willing to fight if need be to keep that safe, but who also can appreciate the beauty of a simple flower or enjoy the music of the wind in treetops. Well rounded individuals who are "hardcases" when they need to be, "softys" when they need to be, and intelligent enough to know when each extreme needs to be applied.
My mother's family is Scottish. We enjoy baking shortbread at Christmastime and I love a good single-malt scotch whiskey, but that it the extent of our cultural identification with Scotland.
Which is probably the same for most Americans. The world is made up of potential Americans.
People of all kinds of ethnic groups eat shortbread and single-malt Scotch whiskey. I like Glenlivet.
I actually believe more in the importance of American influence through popular culture that have been great the last 50 years or so. So if an American travelling abroad feels familiar with a place it's most likely because of popular culture, and not something traditional.
Well personally for me, I was amongst the first generation in my family born here, so for myself and a lot others like me our foreign heritage is still very much relevant. I still have quite a bit of family in the Dominican Republic.
I think people should be proud of their heritage, it is after all part of what makes you. But of course you should never forget that if you were born in this country and/or live here you should be proud of the U.S.A. as well, if not more proud. Personally I consider myself American first before anything.
i get awful sick and tired of people braggin and talkin about their heritage and askin me what mine is and ****, i always answer "American". when they dont know what im talking about, i tell them that being American is the only thing that matters, my ancestors escaped some ****hole in europe hundreds of years ago, who gives a **** which one it was?
America rules, and everywhere else sucks. so i dont give a **** what mine is
Ancestry is interesting. If you look in the right places, you can clearly see social trends in America based on one's ancestry. You might even learn something.
They want to find something special and unique to them. Besides, we are nothing without our history. It is because of our heritage that we are who we are today.
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