I am proud to be an American, but like most 3rd or 4th generation Americans I still identify myself with the hyphen Hungarian-American. This is no worse than saying someone is African-American or "Scotts-Irish," or "Sicilian." I THINK WE WANT TO COMMUNICATE WHERE OUR PEOPLE CAME FROM to this nation of immigrants.
How many generations does it take to feel oneself to be "American" when to be American is usually to be a mutt? My "aunt" Hilda, here for fifty years and with excellent English but for the Accent used to say "and still a Greenhorn."
(I know of one person whose family seems to have remained "Irish" by only marrying other Irish for five generations!)
To communicate "I'm Hungarian," is to communicate that while there is pride in being an American, there is also no shame in being from this background!
