Full Description
"Aquí mataron gente por sacar la bandera / Por eso es que ahora yo la llevo donde quiera. (Here they killed people for taking out the flag / that's why I bring it anywhere I want now.)"—LA MuDANZA
Global superstar Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, like many other Puerto Ricans, has lived a life marked by public crises—blackouts, hurricanes, political corruption and oppression, among others—that have exposed the ongoing impacts of colonialism in Puerto Rico. Offering a portrait of the past and future of Puerto Rican resistance through one of its loudest and proudest voices, P FKN R draws on interviews with musicians, politicians, and journalists as well as ethnographic research to set Bad Bunny and Puerto Rican resistance in an historical, political, and cultural context. Authors Vanessa Díaz and Petra Rivera-Rideau—creators of the "Bad Bunny Syllabus"—demonstrate Bad Bunny's place in a long tradition of infusing joy and protest into music and honor the many, evolving forms of daily resistance to oppression and colonialism that are part of Puerto Rican life.
Contents
Introduction. "¿Quién Tú Eres?": Understanding Bad Bunny and Resistance in Puerto Rico 1
1. Las Cosas Están Empeorando: Puerto Rico in the Era of "Soy Peor" 14
2.¿"Estamos Bien"? Hurricane María and Unnatural Disaster in Puerto Rico 37
3. "El Pueblo No Aguanta Más Injusticia": Bad Bunny and el Verano Boricua 59
4. "¿Por Qué No Puedo Ser Así?": Bad Bunny and Gender Politics 80
5. "El Mundo es Mío": Bad Bunny Beyond el Borinquen 107
6. "Puerto Rico Está Bien Cabrón": The Party Is the Protest 129
7. Singing in Non-English: Bad Bunny Lost in Translation 156
8. "Nunca Antes Hubo Uno Como Yo": Bad Bunny, Coachella, and Latino Belonging in the United States 179
9. "Prende una Velita": Continued Hope, Continued Resistance 200
Conclusion. "Seguimos Aquí" 220
Acknowledgments 231
Notes 235
Bibliography 287
Index
