I disagree mightily. I've had some bad meat-filled empanadas in my time, but few capable of being used for door stoppers, the best fate for some Cornish pasties of my kin. I suspect that most fruit filled empanadas of North America owe their origin to Cuban cuisine, and indirectly to some Spanish ancestor. I've seen a couple of sources which claim that the SAmerican meat empanadas are not even of legitimate Spanish heritage, actually fomented by "Other" immigrants from Europe installing vestiges of their own cuisine.

Call'em pasties, empenadas, samosas, whatever, similar styles of "finger food" are found around the world, stuffed with everything from the noble to the noxious...