I think a lot of y'all are being really disingenuous when u act like there isn't a North American cuisine that isn't just fast food. Soul food, tex-mex, cali-mex, southern barbecue, deli culture, are all uniquely American cuisines
and yes, tex-mex, calimex and other southwestern cuisines like it are American, they are vestiges of the former Spanish colonial/Mexican emperial era in the American Southwest where native American, Spaniard, and Mexican cuisines mixed together to make stuff like Santa Maria barbecue which was made by Californios in the Santa Maria Valley, and Fajitas, which was made by Tejanos in West Texas and the Rio Grande Valley