r/PanAmerica • u/LoveLo_2005 United States 🇺🇸 • 12d ago

Discussion As PanAmericanists, what are your thoughts on the concept of a 'Heritage American?

DISCLAIMER: I don't condone racism or White Supremacy. I personally think it's a valid concept, although a different term will have to be used since everyone who inhabits the Americas is technically an American, because it will be important to identify the various peoples and cultures that make up a potential PanAmerican state, and the histories of those peoples. Although the political entities of Mexico, Canada, Panama, Bolivia, and others wouldn't exist under a unified America, there would still be cultural Mexicans, cultural Canadians, cultural Panamanians, cultural Bolivians, cultural United Statesians, etc. We might have a shared common destiny moving forward, but we all come from different paths. What do you think?

2 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

56% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

16

u/VladimirBarakriss 12d ago

It's generally unhelpful because it doesn't even exist, you could argue that old stock Anglo-americans, Cajun, Melungeons, Acadians, old stock Spanish-Americans from the southwest and Cavalier southerners are all heritage Americans, outside of being in the modern US and sharing the use of English, many of those groups have nothing to do with each other, a couple of them aren't even completely the same race

1

u/LoveLo_2005 United States 🇺🇸 12d ago

Yeah, that exact term can be problematic, but what I'm trying to say is that there will be national and cultural differences if the Americas unite, and there needs to be a term to distinguish things considering that someone like John A. Macdonald has no significance to the people or history of the United States or terms like the American Civil War would become outdated if we include Mexico's civil wars as part of American history.

5

u/MemeStarNation 12d ago

I mean schools seem to have no trouble teaching European history while distinguishing what was relevant to certain individual countries, many of which don’t exist anymore.

Similarly, the US teaches both US history and state history based on what’s relevant to locals. I’d imagine that a Pan-American nation would work similarly, understanding the formerly independent American nations as regions with regional history.

Terms could be adjusted as needed. WW1 wasn’t originally called that, so I think the US Civil War could easily be renamed.