sabre:

I'm reluctant to agree with our country being founded on those three principles: language, culture & borders. In the Constitution, especially those 10 things they tacked at the end called the Bill of Rights, I never saw those things mentioned. In fact, if we look back, we'll find that many of our ancestors (including yours, unless they were English) were speaking Gallic, Italian, Polish, whatever) for at least a generation or two (mine spoke Danish & German) after they came here, yet they enjoyed the freedoms that our country was founded upon.

I think my favorite microcosm of America is the city of San Antonio, in the state where I was born and raised. Most of those founders and their descendents who live in San Antonio speak Spanish (and English), are of Mexican descent, and preceded my family tree in this country we live in by a hundred years. So who's more American? Just glad those Mexican Americans didn't close those borders on my grandpa when he came over from Denmark, because they beat him here by many decades.

Not sure if either of our comments are appropriate here, but more appropriate for OFF TOPIC.