Related, but inversely. It was interesting for me living in PR, a very poor country, and having the American education system imposed on us. What did we say about ourselves? How did we justify our predicament?

We've never been anything but a colony. So our political framework exists entirely in the colonialist mindset and status related issues. Except for brief periods of economic prosperity, we've always been poor. And a big part of why we're poor is colonialism.

American propaganda is a very very strong force. When you're poor as shit and the cheques you get from the government have a big ol american flag, that seeps into your subconscious. When you can't afford to feed your family and the Army offers you the chance to move up in society, you start to revere them. Our slang tells stories. We used the word cangri (derived from congressman) to describe a really really cool and legit person who had it all together, because we saw US congresspeople come down in their tailored suits and thought they looked so well put together and like total bosses with their fancy clothes. We were pretty poor.

And then all you have to do is convince the people who already think you're cool and good that if you went away, all that aid would disappear and we'd be poorer and even more fucked. People aren't necessarily super vested into political "what ifs" and abstract laws, good luck telling them that getting rid of the USA would mean we wouldn't have to pay completely absurd US shipping taxes because we'd be free of the JONES Act, good luck telling them that it means we could trade with other countries. They see that they're poor, they see the monthly cheque, they see the US passport that enables them to move to Kissimmee so they can do hurricanes in English. They trust the US, and they don't trust in themselves.

It's also a lot of self hate. The "lazy islander" stereotype persists and is validated by a lot of people here honestly. A lot of Puerto Ricans think we're fundamentally incapable of running our own country. That we'd descend into chaos, that we'd be like Cuba and Venezuela (more American propaganda there). That we're simply too corrupt to function without the US. It's a weird codependency mentality.

Of course that's not literally everyone in PR. We have people who want independence and people who want to be a Spanish colony instead again (lol). But that's just the prevailing mindset for why we justify being the way we are.