Front Burner - Can Bad Bunny save Puerto Rico?

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

Bad Bunny, one of the most-streamed artists on the planet, is in the middle of his 30-concert residency in San Juan, Puerto Rico titled No me Querio Ir de Aqui, or "I don't want to leave here". Much like his latest album Debí Tirar Más Fotos, it is both a celebration of Puerto Rican culture and heritage but also a statement against the political and economic forces that have worked against the well-being and livelihoods of people on the island.With Petra Rivera Rodeau, Associate Professor of American Studies at Wellesley College and the author of Remixing Reggaeton: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico, we take a look at the message of Bad Bunny's album and concert residency, the political and historical context behind the work and how he fits into a generation of young Puerto Ricans hungry for change.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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Regatant artist Bad Bunny is by all. measures a global superstar. He's the second most streamed artist on Spotify. He's the first Latin artist to have 100 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. And he's managed to do it all while still remaining true to his Puerto Rican roots and being one of the most politically outspoken artists of his stature. But no project has been more ambitious in both those goals than his most recent album, Debittir Armas Photos, or I Should Have Taken More Photos. It's a love to It's a love letter to Puerto Rico

A celebration of its heritage and a plea from a generation of Puerto Ricans to save the island from cultural erosion and gentrification. I'm a huge bad bunny fan. I've seen Benito multiple times in concerts across the U.S. in Puerto Rico. And so I was actually on vacation with my family in Portugal

when I was added via Instagram by three people that I didn't know. This is Jorel Melendez Badijo. He's an assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of Puerto Rico, a national history. He was asked by Bad Bunny's team

to write a series of historical texts to go with the YouTube visualizers for each of the songs on the album. Part of what Benito wanted was to use his platform, not for the students at the University of Puerto Rico, but he wanted to have this history accessible for people in the projects

and in working-class neighborhoods, in Los Caserios and the Barriadas. But Benito was very adamant. You know, at first they asked me if I could write sort of the unknown history of Puerto Rico. He said that he wanted to include the history of surveillance and repression throughout the 20th century,

the history of colonial governors, the history of regettone, and how it connected to Bomba Amplena and other Afro-Caribbean rhythms. Jorrell was asked to write a series of excerpts for Bad Bunny's current residency in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's called No Me Quiero Ir De Aki, or I don't want to leave here. A series of 30 concerts, all out of the Coliseo de Puerto Rico, which started in mid-July and run until mid-September. The first chunk of shows were reserved for residents of the island.

Starting this past week, they're open to people from everywhere. And they're serving as an opportunity for visitors to see Puerto Rico for the first time through the eyes of one of its biggest cultural exports. For members of the Puerto Rican diaspora, it's also an opportunity to come home and revel in the moment. After many have had to leave for reasons beyond their control, like Jarrell. I was actually born in a military base. in Forbending Georgia, but I was brought back to Puerto Rico by my parents two weeks after I was born.

There were both military working class folks that joined the military to escape their working class realities in Puerto Rico. And so I always say that my life has been crossed by empire since I was born. But I was racing Puerto Rico by my grandparents from week two all the way to graduate school. And then I left Puerto Rico in 2013 to pursue my Ph.T. I thought that I was going to go back and serve my country. But that's the moment when the crisis exacerbated. So I feel that I'm part of that generation that Benito talks about in Devi Tira, Mahfodo, of those Puerto Ricans that left but didn't want to leave, right?

And that the conditions pushed us out. So all that to say that I am part of that generation of Puerto Ricans that left hoping to return. So we thought we'd take a look at Bad Bunny's residency, and it's intent to bring attention to the political and structural forces that have ravaged the territory over more than a century, and how Bad Bunny's art and activism is part of a generation of Puerto Ricans hungry for change. To unpack all of that, I'm talking to Petra Rivera-Ridoux. She's an associate professor of American Studies at Wellesley College and the author of Remixing Regaton, the Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico. Hi, Petra. Thanks so much for being here. Oh, thanks for having me. So just to start off, I want to talk about this latest album,

Dibitira, Mas Photos. And for a lot of people, you know, this project really resonates on a deeply personal level. And can you talk to me a bit about how it does that for you and for your family? Yeah. Well, I grew up in the United States, but I am Puerto Rican. My grandfather migrated to the U.S. in the 1940s as part of the Operation Bootstrap, which brought Puerto Rican laborers to the United States to work in agriculture and manufacturing. And then eventually my father and grandmother joined him. So I grew up in a family that was very proud of being Puerto Rican. and with a father who really taught us a lot about Puerto Rican culture and Puerto Rican music. And so one of the things that I think is very cool about this record in particular is the way, and it's been talked about so much, but the way that Bad Bunny blends traditional Puerto Rican sounds with urban music, La Musica Urbana or Regettone, I have seen many interviews with him where he talks about that as, you know,

One Hope being a conversation starter across generations. And that is one thing I really see in my family, Pitorro de Coco, which is my favorite song on the Ahabolm came out in December. And my dad was visiting. He's in his late 70s. and I have elementary school-age kids who love Bad Bunny. And that song, which uses a melody that from very traditional Puerto Rican Christmas music, enabled my father to start a conversation with them or to get my younger children to pay attention to this more traditional sound that they kind of think of as old-fashioned and uncool. And also just the general theme of the album around longing.

So even though I was born in the United States and raised in the United States, my grandparents, most of their siblings, remained in Puerto Rico. And so we would go there often. You know, there was always this like complex feeling of belonging there, but there was an idea of being home. And so I think that kind of diasporic experience that diasporic longing is captured really well in the album. And I think a lot of us relate to it, even if we're multiple generations,

removed. The song, De Be Tirer My Photos, I should have taken more photos. Just when you're talking about that, that sense of longing, what is kind of behind that sense of loss for people who have had to leave or who are seeing it change before their eyes now, like, you know, why have people had to leave?

while others who are till there feel like they're losing their home. So Puerto Rico, some have called it the world's oldest colony. You know, it has been a colony of the United States since 1898, and prior to that, it was colonized by the Spanish. And as a colony, you know, like other colonies in the world, the extraction of resources is important. and labor has always been one of those resources. So in the earlier parts of the 20th century, we see kind of state-sponsored migration to different places like my grandfather.

He was recruited by S.G. Friedman, who was a recruiter at a company that worked with the government to recruit Puerto Rican's to work in manufacturing. That's kind of one chapter of Puerto Rican. that continues today. We don't necessarily have state-sponsored recruitment. But because of the legacies of colonialism and the ongoing kind of Puerto Rican debt crisis, life in Puerto Rico can be very difficult. We are in the midst of this unprecedented debt crisis that has emerged out of this, you know, 100 plus years of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico.

but really came to a head in 2015. Puerto Rico has experienced severe austerity measures and life has been difficult, you know, the cutting of social services, the reduction of minimum wage and things like that. But after 2015, things became kind of more dire. One of the things about Puerto Rico being a colony is they couldn't access bankruptcy. So the Obama administration signed legislation called Promesa that would allow Puerto Rico to restructure its debt, but still prioritizing paying back bondholders over social services. So public schools are closing. The university has been cut.

Hospitals are closing, et cetera. And then there is just kind of like the everyday life on the island. So we've had natural disasters like Hurricane Maria in 2017, which decimated Puerto Rico. quickly thereafter, there were earthquakes in the southwestern part of Puerto Rico that caused quite a bit of damage. So there's its environmental impacts. And then there's just these kind of policies left over from colonialism. For example, the Jones Act, which requires anything imported to come on a U.S. ship with a U.S. crew from a U.S. port, which means that your everyday goods are very high and cost, right?

Because just to interrupt for a second, like, that could mean theoretically that you've got, like, you know, bananas from the Dominican next door would have to go to Miami and then go back to Puerto Rico. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Right. So there's all of these things that make life there difficult combined with this debt crisis, which one of the ways the government sought to infuse.

use capital into the economy was to incentivize wealthy people, generally Americans, to resettle on the island through these various types of legislation that exempt them from capital gains tax and gives them a lower income tax rate. And so we are also in the midst of a major wave of gentrification. And a lot of people are getting displaced. And so all of those things together, I think create this perfect storm that kind of pushes people out as they seek a more, like, livable place. I think, you know, that is for me the primary theme that's read throughout the entire album, you know, most explicitly in songs like Lo Que So A Hawaii. But also in parties

is like a really fun, fast-paced song but it has some pretty heavy-duty lyrics about the need to, you know, maintain Puerto Rican culture, maintain Puerto Rican life and fight for Puerto Rico. So very much on that same theme is this residency. It's no me here to hear de here. I don't want to leave here.

The July shows were just for residents of the island only. You had to buy tickets in person on the territory before. it was opened up to general sale to outside visitors. And, you know, there are these tickets now that are for everyone. But, you know, there's a lot to unpack here. But first, what do you think is the significance of making those tickets only available to local residents first? Especially given this theme. I think opening it up to Puerto Rican residents is critical.

It shows his ongoing commitment, I think, to Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans, which is something he's had for. for his entire career. It's like a wave. It's different. We haven't had anything like this before. He's gone global, and this last album is a love poem to Puerto Rico and our history, our culture, and who we really are. It feels like you can get closer to home, even if we're in the States. It's one of those things that you feel that you never left. At Desjardin Insurance, we put the care in taking care of business.

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I talked yesterday to Miguel Arturo Garcia-Gonzalez, who's the tourism director for Bad Bunny's hometown, Vega, Baja. And he's actually designed these tourists there. They're almost like a bad bunny pilgrimage. Like, you visit the church where he was an altar boy. You go to his school. You even go to the specific cash register at the supermarket that he was working at when he hit it big in 2016. And, I mean, can you speak a bit to how important this residency is not just for San Juan, but for other communities throughout the island? Yeah.

Well, I think like a lot of other Caribbean places, you know, Puerto Rico is. a tourist economy. And so bringing people to the island and the kind of economic impact that will make is really significant, particularly in August and September, which is, of course, hurricane season and a time when many people are not traveling there. You know, it's a period of time that I generally do not go there, but I am going there because I want to see a bad bunny. Puerto Rico is a small island, it's only, it's, you know, 35 by 100 miles. And so, but San Juan in the metro area is sort of the center of things. And I think the ability to do something like what you're describing in Vega, Baja,

kind of helps people get out of this kind of touristy bubble in San Juan and explore other parts of the island. there is though like at some level kind of tension here too though right like in the sense that you know people have kind of pointed out this contradiction that you're attracting tens of thousands of people to Puerto Rico at a time when tourism is contributing to gentrification contributing to rising a cost of living um i mean do you think that he's doing enough to address those concerns you know i think that that that's a criticism that i've seen quite a bit And I definitely understand it. I have two thoughts about it. The first is, you know, the way that they arranged the rollout of these tickets included the ability to buy tickets with a hotel package and partnering with different hotels around the northeast of Puerto Rico. And I think that's, you know, encouraging people to stay at hotels is trying to get people away from Airbnb's. But of course, you know, the statistics coming out of Puerto Rico is that, you know, there's like a huge number of people coming. and stay in Airbnb and vacation homes and things like that.

So that certainly is a contradiction. What I think is that the root of that contradiction is, again, this colonial relationship, right, between Puerto Rico and the United States. And I think one artist is not going to eliminate that problem or have the capacity to do so. So, I mean, this is, I think in some ways for me, a little bit of a metaphor for the Puerto issue, which is the kinds of constraints that happen as a result of this colonial relationship and how much autonomy does the island really have. This is obviously not, like this album did not start his sort of traditional.

of talking implicitly and explicitly about politics and about the kind of social issues facing Puerto Rico. And, you know, this is really something that's been happening for a long time. I mean, one example that really stands out to me is a few years ago he put out this video for his song El Apagon, which means the blackout. And like smack in the middle of this music video is this like nearly 20-minute documentary about gentrification in Puerto Rico. But could you talk to me But could you talk to me a few of the examples of where he's kind of done this explosion

left all Puerto Rico's curate in April. In August, one of the hospitals of the principales of the country was almost 20 hours in electricity. But could you talk to me just briefly about a few of the examples of where he's kind of done

this throughout his career? One example I like to point out is his first appearance on television in the United States in 2018 was on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He is nominated for five Latin American Music Awards and is making his TV debut with us tonight. We're honored, buddy.

Performing Estamos bien. Give it up for bad, buddy! And at that time, also, you know, his English was a little bit labored, you know. But he gets on the stage and makes a very short comment in English about Hurricane Maria, which had happened in. 2017. After one year of the Uyrieking, there's still people without ecstity and their homes. More than 3,000 people die and Trump is still in denial. But you know what? Saying that, you know, thousands of people died, much of the island is still suffering, and President Donald Trump doesn't care.

And then he goes into a song called Estamos Bien, which is a song that lyrically is a lot about kind of resilience and we're doing well even with or without money and things like that. But to use your platform, the very first time on American television, to make that statement, also not in your native language, I think kind of set the tone for a lot of his career moving forward. So another thing he did shortly after that in 2019, there were a massive protest to oust then-governor Ricardo Rossejo, who came from the pro-statehood party and who had implemented all kinds of austerity measures and sort of the straw that broke the camel's back was a series of private chats that got released and those chats revealed a lot of massageny. a lot of homophobia. They even mocked the dead from Hurricane Maria, you know, over 4,500 people passed away

as a result of the hurricane. These were like some of the biggest protests in Puerto Rican history take place in July of 2019. And at the time, Bad Bunny was in Europe touring and he left his European tour to join the protest over multiple days. Joining the thousands in protest, Puerto Rican superstars, Residente, Bad Bunny,

and Ricky Martin. And he also released a song on YouTube with Residente and Ile. That was a kind of call to arms for the Puerto Rican people to come to the streets. So it's another very tangible example of him using his platform and also participating in this political process. And then another area where he has made a lot of kind of statement is around questions of LGBT and equality, gender-based violence and things of that nature. So again, he was back on Jimmy Fallon in 2020. He famously wore a black skirt and he wore a T-shirt that said, Mattarona Alexa no a man with a skirt. And this was a reference to the brutal murder of a trans woman named Alexa in Puerto Rico officials and also media outlets often misgendered Alexa. And so this t-shirt that he wore on Jimmy Fallon really spoke back.

at those Puerto Rican authorities and at the Puerto Rican media who were misgendering her. He's always kind of spoken up about a lot of these issues. And I think in a way that's very natural. You know, there are also issues that I think are important to people of his generation, you know, Puerto Ricans in their 20s and 30s who have grown up in these kind of debt crisis times and witnessed Maria and, you know, their schools closing and their universities getting destroyed and having them, like, he is part of that generation. And so I think also a lot of the things he speaks about resonate with a lot of people. Yeah, I've heard it described as the

crisis generation in Puerto Rico. Yeah. Yesterday, I also spoke to Arturo Masold Deja, who runs this project in the community of Edjuntas called Casa Pueblo. And they have these very extensive solar microgrids that are kind of like aiming to, I mean, it's a project about self-sufficiency in a lot of ways, but they have a big part of this is these solar microgrids that are, you know, aiming to help Puerto Ricans get to a place where they don't have to be plagued by blackouts all the time and where they, you know, ideally where they don't have to leave. So I wanted to just play for you a part of what he said.

said to me. We have the main facility, a radio station, a solar cinema. We are managing two forest lands. Yeah, we have our own grant of coffee, Cafe Madre Isla, to break the model of dependency so we don't rely on government funding. Think about Puerto Rico being a U.S. colony and self-determination have been denied to the people of Puerto Rico because the narrative is, that Puerto Rico lack natural resources. We don't have gas, we don't have coal, we don't have petroleum. So we have to depend upon the U.S. or someone else. And what we're saying is that Puerto Rico should build energy independence

regardless of the political destiny of the island. We have done over 400 projects already. All of a sudden, you are exercising tough determination at the community level, and as you decolonize your reality, this is a beautiful island. This is a beautiful country that we, as Barboni and many, keep resistant. La Resistia cultural. We're here, and we don't want to go away. I just wanted to get your reaction to that, and, you know, to what extent do you see a kind of common thread

between what Arturo is talking about there and what Bad Bunny is trying to do, you know, at least symbolically with this residency. Yeah, I mean, I think they're very interconnected, as he said at the end of that clip. I mean, I think for me that one of the things that makes this particular album so moving is that there is a kind of, on the one hand, longing and sadness about missing the eye. and fear about what could happen if things keep going the way they're going.

But I think there's also messages of hope in this record that there are things people can do, that people are, you know, holding on to their culture, to their land, and doing these kinds of projects that could offer self-determination and protect Puerto Rican culture, Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican land. And so I think they're completely interrelated. But I think that we need to think about this album as like an invitation for people who may not know anything about this situation or this place that are really into Bad Bunny that they can come and see what life is like there and, again, think critically

about why things are the way they are. And shed light on projects like Arturo's, right, which are very well known amongst Puerto Ricans and the Puerto Rican diaspora, but perhaps less well known in other parts of the world. And so I think it really gives a platform, a global platform, to really shed light on these issues

that I think is really critical. All right, Petra, we'll leave it there. Thank you so much. for this conversation. Yes, thank you. All right, that's all for today. Front Burner was produced this week by Matthew Amha, Joyita Shangupta, McKenzie Cameron, Matt Mews, Lauren Donnelly, and Courtney Dorington.

Our YouTube producer is John Lee. Music by Joseph Chavison. Our executive producer this week is Elaine Chow. The show was hosted this week by Elaine and by me, Ali James. Thanks for listening to Frontburner, and we'll talk to you Monday.