American to leave, cuddling one Hispanic friend (5)
I believe the answer is:
amigo
'hispanic friend' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'american to leave cuddling one' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'am' (abbreviation in some contexts).
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'leave' becomes 'go' (**).
'cuddling' indicates putting letters inside.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'am'+'go'='amgo'
'amgo' enclosing 'i' is 'AMIGO'.
(Other definitions for amigo that I've seen before include "buddy abroad?" , "Hispanic friend" , "Mexican friend" , "Spanish word meaning friend" , "China (in Spain's view)" .)