An oxymoron used to describe an American who is from or ancestors were from Mexico. Mexican is a nationality and colonial identity, but not an ethnicity. One cannot be a citizen of Mexico and a citizen of the United States at the same time. One can be from one of the ethnic groups indigenous to Mexico and be a citizen of the United States.

One can be Mayan-American, Nahuatl-American, Zapotec-American, etc., but not Mexican-American.

Many so called Mexican-Americans are descendants of the Spanish colonial population. They cannot be called Spanish-American as Spanish is not a distinct ethnicity but a national and colonial identity as well. They fall under the category of "White".

A person of Mexican descent born and raised in the United States of America.