I happen to know the island quite well. Good parts and bad parts. (and not just on some 2 week vacation either) but over several long visits for over 20 years. As keen on the media as you might think you are, they are only showing you the Puerto Ricans today who can be compared to our country's "green party". Remember the Seattle riots? Otherwise, the oppinion of MPuerto Ricans regarding independence is a little under 50% want U.S. statehood and the other half want the status quo. Very few are for independence. They see what happens to latin american countries when they become independent...(it becomes a socialist/dictatorship) and they enjoy the American lifestyle that the status quo has brought them (like clean running tap water and modern luxuruies as well as a fantastic tourism economy). More importantly, they are American citizens, which lets them enter the U.S. freely. The U.S. likes to keep P.R. around for a strategic military base (rent free), And P.R. knows that if the U.S. cuts them off it'll just become another banana republic.