If you want to know why, in the US, we call someone an "X-American", whether that is a German-American, Latin-American, Hispanic-American, African-American, the

If you want to know why, in the US, we call someone an "X-American", whether that is a German-American, Latin-American, Hispanic-American, African-American, then you need to know where these terms come from. Words always have a historical, rather than a logical, explanation.