The effects of Americanized Latin America

I agree on this point. However, there is this from Chile:

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It seems stupid to most of us now, because nobody in Chile celebrates it, period (they've got the Fiesta Patrias for that, but that's not until September!), but in an Americanized Latin America, if the US pushed it, it could be a possibility as some sort of "pan-Western Hemisphere" holiday (except in Canada and those areas under the British, French, and Dutch empires, no doubt).

That's weird! I'm frankly amazed Chile doesn't hate our guts because of Pinochet. . .

Latin American culture is too strong to be easily assimilated like the OP wants, and geographical barriers would be a major obstacle to subduing the region. After throwing off one colonial master, they wouldn't want another one: "¡Viva Bolívar!"
 
It's more about getting the upper class and the elites of Latin America to answer to DC as their superiors and to Americanize. The upper class has alway held the true power in the regions where Spain's empire fell apart.

Yes and no. Yes, IOTL the upper class did get to hold power after independence, but that doesn't mean their control of power wasn't challenged OTL. The first Mexican independence movement in 1810 was a popular uprising, after all. Many Latinamerican leaders, like Bolivar himself, thought that if independence wars had escalated even more, a radical change of societal structure might have happened, and the poor blacks and Indians could have taken control, as it happened with the black population in Haiti.

IOTL, when the Hispanic population tried to modernize and secularize their countries (for their own benefit) without relinquishing formal control of it to a foriegn power like the US or Great Britain, they faced serious resistance from more traditional peasants and communities. You had the various gaucho revelions in Argentina, for example, who defeated many times the armies of the Europenized porteños in the first half of the XIX century, or the Cristeros movements in early XX century Mexico, for example. Imagine how more serious this revelions of peasants or gauchos would have been if they had seen their leaders not only were changing the country in ways that went against tradition, but also were given the country to Angloamericans, who had a different religion and were a totaly alien culture.

So, even if the US manages to make a deal with, let's say, the government in Santo Domingo or Managua, that doesn't mean the population would accept the deal. A few years before 1820 some porteños tried to make a deal with an European house that would imply crowning and European French monarch in Argentina. When that was found out, it fueled native resistance to the government, and was one of the reasons why the Directorate was defeated in 1820. Had a willing European monarch been found and crown, you'd have have a similar scenario than in 1850 Mexico.
 
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Yes and no. Yes, IOTL the upper class did get to hold power after independence, but that doesn't mean their control of power wasn't challenged OTL. The firs Mexican independent movement in 1810 was a popular uprising, after all. Many leaders, like Bolivar himself, thought that if independence wars escalated even more, a radical change of societal structure might happen, and the poor blacks and Indians could take control, as it happened with the black population in Haiti.

IOTL, when the Hispanic population try to modernize their country without relinquishing formal control of it to a foriegn power like the US or Great Britain, they faced serious resistance. You had the verious gaucho revelions in Argentina, for example, who defeated many times the armies of the europenized porteños in the first half of the XIX century, or the Cristeros movements in early XX century Mexico, for example. Imagine how more serious this revelions of peasants or gauchos would have been if they had seen their leaders not only were changing the country in ways that went against tradition, but also were given the country to Angloamericans, who had a different religion and were a totaly alien culture

Keep in mind that you should treat this source with skepticism because of the author's VERY anti-Catholic viewpoint, but the missionary memoir "Through Five Republics on Horseback" seems to confirm the idea that South Americans treated Protestantism as a grave heresy as late as the early 20th century. The author often mentions being attacked, and Protestant Bibles being burned.

Good to see a South American stating his viewpoint on the topic, Admiral Brown!
 
That's weird! I'm frankly amazed Chile doesn't hate our guts because of Pinochet. . .

Latin American culture is too strong to be easily assimilated like the OP wants, and geographical barriers would be a major obstacle to subduing the region. After throwing off one colonial master, they wouldn't want another one: "¡Viva Bolívar!"

I think Chile is the more pro American country in the South Cone. But that picture may just be of an imported American product, destined to the Hispanic American population, not something designed for the Chilenean market, let alone produced locally.

In any case, we mustn't mistake superficial cultural influences with deep-rooted ones. Puerto Rico might be the country where American influence is grater in terms of world loans and other stuff, but this doesn't stop the culture from being quite different from the mainland US in issues that matter more: the rol of the extended family, the distribution of rols between the sexes, the influence of religion, the approach to life, etc.

In Buenos aires there are some young people who celebrate Haloween (other American days like the 4th July or Thanksgiving days seem to "American" to be exported). That doesn't mean that tha way an averege porteño things of issues like gun control, death penalty or US meddling in the Middle East is similar to what the averege American thinks (though there might be some transnational similarities between people living in great and open population centers accross the golbe, but that's for another discussions)
 
I think Chile is the more pro American country in the South Cone. But that picture may just be of an imported American product, destined to the Hispanic American population, not something designed for the Chilenean market, let alone produced locally.

That is most likely the case here, which obviously got Chileans perplexed.
 
The only TL I know here that treats US successfully annexing a very large part of Latin America is Decades of Darkness.
'nuff said.
 
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