Summary:
The culture of the western United States, which many consider the epitome of American-ness, is in origin a synthesis of Anglo and Hispanic cultures which was created in Texas in the days of the Texas Republic and spread with the trail herds to what is now the western United States (and Canada). Major elements of the clothing, food, language and most importantly the cultural values and attitudes derive from Mexican as well as Southern American sources. There were many sources for the population of the western North America but these disparate peoples assimilated the Anglo-Hispanic culture of Texas. Although this culture is perceived as American by the rest of the United States it is a cousin culture rather than a sibling culture and it is just as much a cousin culture for Mexicans as it is for Americans of the eastern and midwestern Unitied States. The ties of the Texan culture to the culture of the southern United States, particularly that of the Scot-Irish of the southern Appalachians, are closer than those to the rest of the United States.