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how many regions of the US are home to a people that predominatly have a seperate cultural/ethnic identity seperate from "general American"?
i mean like the south, which is predominatly baptist, predominatly anglo-celtic (in its white communities), has its own special accent, music styles, dances and cuisine.
Kind of like Quebec in Canada, what eras in the USA have their own regional ethnic identities and could be considered a seperate "nation" based on religion, linguistics and cultural practices?
Southern Louisiana, whose Cajun dialect and Catholicism are in marked contrast to the rest of the South. New Mexico where families who've lived there for centuries, from what I've heard, still speak Spanish. The gigantic Indian Reservations in the Dakotas and in AZ - NM. The Amish area of Eastern Lancaster County PA. The Mormon belt of Utah and eastern Idaho.
Michigan's Upper Peninsula thinks of itself as a detached cultural region, not associated with either Michigan or Wisconsin. It has a very strong Yooper accent, and a number of unique foods that are part of the daily diet, such as pasties, lake fish, and Finnish cuisine.
I would agree that the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has it's own very unique culture. I've visited there many, many times and the I have made a few friends there, and they are fiercely independent. The Republic of Superior, some of them call it.
It is sort of like an ethnic homeland for people of the Scandinavian culture.
The Amish also find a homeland in northern Indiana as well as Pennsylvania
The eastcoast of North and South America is the ethnic homeland of the uniquely American mulattic people known by most as african-americans, even though the name ignores the mixed afro-european merger that created them during the middle passage/slave trade, they know no other home, but the Americas and would be out of place anywhere else in the world. They were created by the same forces that allowed the western hemisphere to rise to prominence, and are genetically intertwined with the history Americas. If there was no America there would no them, and if there was no them there would be no America. Think of it as 16th century eugenics. A people were needed that could withstand both European diseases and long extreme sun exposure, they were also bred for physical prowess, which can still be seen today, in professional sports, and they still do most of the toiling grunt work in everyday society.
Central America and the American west/southwest is the ethnic homeland of the mezo-americans for similar, yet different reasons as the afro-americans of the east.
A case could be made for the Asian Americans of the west coast, but I don't. know enough about their make-up and cultural ties.
Northern New Mexico, unique hispanic/latino majority population. Though there are mexican immigrants and mexican americans, the majority are descended from the original settlers from the Spanish Empire and call them selves "Spanish". Many of their words in their Spanish are from the Spanish language of the 17th century and have fallen out of use in the rest of the Spanish speaking world.
South Louisiana is definitely the Cajun French homeland, particularly Lafayette and Lake Charles. Baton Rouge and the Northshore are more mainstream American but has a clear Cajun influence.
New Orleans and the Creoles, a separate culture from the Cajuns. These plus Hawaii are true homegrown cultures. The ones below are foreign cultures that predominate in certain areas.
Amish country in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley are a culturally the same as Mexico and its population is almost entirely Mexican rather than American
Southern Louisiana, whose Cajun dialect and Catholicism are in marked contrast to the rest of the South. New Mexico where families who've lived there for centuries, from what I've heard, still speak Spanish.
Not only that, but they speak their own Spanish dialect that's different from mainstream Mexican Spanish, with "e" and "i" sounds at the ends of phrases, different verb conjugations, and a different "you all" pronoun (ustedes instead of vosotros).
I thought the English spoken there sounded a little different from other Mountain West states too (maybe kind of Upper Midwestern?) but there's not much written about that.
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