\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \n\tBad Bunny decided to interrupt his European tour to return home to Puerto Rico and participate in the protests. \u201cMy people need me!!! And I need them,\u201d he declared in the caption for a video he posted on Instagram on July 15, 2019. Later that year, at an event at Harvard University, Bad Bunny said he didn\u2019t think twice about canceling his tour dates to participate in the protests. He felt it was his civic duty as a Puerto Rican and wanted to witness something so historic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tOn July 18, in a caption below an Instagram video, he proclaimed: \u201cYOU\u2019RE EITHER WITH THE CORRUPT ABUSIVE GOVERNMENT OR YOU\u2019RE WITH THE PEOPLE!! THERE IS NO IN BETWEEN!!! WE WON\u2019T REST! WE WON\u2019T QUIT! WE CAN\u2019T FORGET! THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT NOW! THIS IS DECADES! BUT THE ASSHOLE RICKY ROSSELLO [sic<\/em>] FILLED THE CUP! AND NOW HE WILL FEEL THE FULL FURY OF OUR PEOPLE! THIS IS HISTORIC!\u201d The fury of Bad Bunny and all Puerto Ricans had reached a breaking point. The pride of Puerto Rico was at stake.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cA m\u00ed me hizo Puerto Rico,\u201d the artist declared in the accompanying video he posted to Instagram. Puerto Rico made me. \u201cThis isn\u2019t about revolutionaries, this is about everybody, all Puerto Ricans, have to go out to the street no matter their race, their religion, their political ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWith fists up and flags waving, Bad Bunny, along with Puerto Rican musical artists Residente, iLe, and Ricky Martin, among others, showed their solidarity in the struggle from the back of a white pickup truck that carried a very large amplifier. Dressed all in black with his then-signature (pre-pandemic) mask, Bad Bunny stood atop the amplifier and brandished a Puerto Rican flag that included a light blue triangle, a version widely acknowledged as a pro-independence flag. This image of Bad Bunny became one of the most iconic of the protest and made Bad Bunny the most visible celebrity figure who participated. On July 22, the date of the largest protest that drew nearly one-third of the archipelago\u2019s entire population, Bad Bunny was present again, proudly waving the same flag, alongside Residente, musician Ednita Nazario, boxing champion Tito Trinidad, and other prominent Puerto Rican figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe streets of Old San Juan filled with creative hand-painted protest signs, melodic chants simultaneously demanding and celebrating the resignation, and countless mini-concerts and dance parties featuring everything from bomba, to plena, to reggaet\u00f3n. But there were also vast numbers of police in riot gear who were quick to act aggressively toward the protesters.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBad Bunny posted to Instagram, \u201cLet\u2019s use this strength that we have taken and fight for what is right! Let us keep removing the corrupted politicians who abuse the people and build a better Puerto Rico! To the politicians you are a witness that the times where the people were blinded by your lies and manipulations have passed!!! [\u2026] PUERTO RICO!!! I LOVE YOU!!! I am motherfucking proud of you!!! Of us!!! I believe in my country! I believe in my generation! The generation of: YO NO ME DEJO!!!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOn July 25, 2019, protesters remained in the streets despite the fact that Rossell\u00f3 had already announced his impending resignation. The protesters sought to keep up the pressure to prevent people intimately involved in Rossell\u00f3\u2019s administration from succeeding him. The people did not trust anyone who had participated in Rossell\u00f3\u2019s administration. After centuries of struggle and more recent economic and (un)natural disasters, the people had reached a breaking point. This historic summer of 2019 became known as the Verano Boricua, or the Boricua Summer. It was one of the most important mobilizations in Puerto Rican history, and one that would help shape the lives and attitudes of Bad Bunny and others in his generation.<\/p>\n \n\tROSSELL\u00d3\u2019S OFFENSIVE CHATS were the last straw for Puerto Ricans who endured extreme austerity measures, government incompetence in the wake of Hurricane Mar\u00eda, and a series of catastrophic financial deals that made life on the archipelago untenable. In response to Rossell\u00f3\u2019s disregard for Puerto Rican citizens prior to the release of the chat, the feminist group La Colectiva Feminista en Construcci\u00f3n (known locally as La Cole) mobilized its members and their collaborators to spark the beginnings of these protests. For several years prior to the Verano Boricua, La Cole had already been organizing around many issues that affected ordinary Puerto Ricans, from the imposition of La Junta to the inadequate government response to Hurricane Mar\u00eda, to the devastating impact of gender-based violence on the archipelago.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tMembers of La Cole are widely recognized as the key organizers who drew the masses to the streets. La Cole spokesperson Zo\u00e1n D\u00e1vila-Rold\u00e1n told the New York Times<\/em> that the uprising of 2019 was a \u201clong time coming.\u201d The chats were the final straw in a \u201cculmination of decades of grievances with the island\u2019s leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAmong Puerto Ricans that summer, there was a dramatic sense of pride and indignation, hope and worry. The many crises Puerto Rico has experienced over the last several years all stem from the archipelago\u2019s colonial status. Puerto Rican singer and activist Ileana Cabra Joglar, better known as iLe, told us that the chats made it impossible for people to ignore the corruption that has long plagued Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans were sick of business as usual, and they were not afraid to take the streets. As iLe recalled, the massive crowds in the Verano Boricua protested in creative and fun ways. From yoga sessions in front of the governor\u2019s mansion, to catchy slogans chanted alongside rhythmic cacerolazos (banging pots and pans), to bomba dancing and drumming, to perreo combativo on the steps of the cathedral in Old San Juan, Puerto Rican protesters utilized innovative tactics as the days of the protest wore on.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tPuerto Rican celebrities\u2019 participation gave important visibility to the protests, especially in the US mainstream media. For instance, on that day Puerto Rican journalist N\u00faria Net published an article in Rolling Stone<\/em> titled \u201cWhy Bad Bunny Wants Puerto Rican Youth to Take the Streets.\u201d While the article used Bad Bunny as a hook, the bulk of the reporting was about the protests themselves and the scandals surrounding Rossell\u00f3 and his administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tArguably the hypervisibility of these celebrities overshadowed the work of groups like La Cole, but there is no way to know if the media would have given organizers this attention without celebrity involvement. The artists themselves made it clear that the protests were never about them. Instead, like all the other Puerto Ricans protesting that July, they wanted to bring attention to the injustices Puerto Rico has suffered and to create change collectively. Ren\u00e9 P\u00e9rez Joglar, better known as Residente, told the New York Times<\/em>, \u201cPeople are there because they are upset, not because they want to see artists.\u201d Artists helped draw the attention of the international media that, more often than not, otherwise usually ignored Puerto Rican matters; however, in Puerto Rico, the crowds amassed to protest, not to see the celebrities.<\/p>\n \n\tYoung people, celebrities or not, played a huge role in making the protests successful. This generation\u2014Bad Bunny\u2019s generation\u2014took to the streets to show the government and the world that enough was enough.<\/p>\n \n\tINTERESTINGLY, IT WAS music, and reggaet\u00f3n in particular, that unified Puerto Ricans during the protests. It was profoundly palpable that, on the streets, people necessarily felt frustration, anger, and indignation alongside joy, love, and pleasure, often to the beat or chants of reggaet\u00f3n hits. In our interview with iLe, she explained the role of music in Puerto Rican culture: \u201c[M]usic in Puerto Rico is an act of resistance and we vent a lot through music, whether it be the movement in dance, but also plena, bomba, those are also our ways of letting off steam and uniting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAnother thing that these artists contributed was the song that would become the unofficial soundtrack of these historic protests. Released at 9 a.m. on July 17, 2019, \u201cAfilando los Cuchillos\u201d was the piercing musical critique of the Puerto Rican government that the people wanted and needed as the mass protests continued. Whereas songs like \u201cEn La Cama\u201d were recycled for the protest, \u201cAfilando los Cuchillos\u201d was created precisely for this moment, documenting not just the artists\u2019 feelings but also what was happening in the streets of Puerto Rico in real time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn his verse, Bad Bunny directly addresses the chats, calling attention to Rossell\u00f3\u2019s mocking of the dead from Hurricane Mar\u00eda and his rampant homophobia. Bad Bunny repeatedly calls for Ricky to leave, and notes that the whole world will hear of his corruption and immorality:<\/p>\n \n\tY que se enteren to\u2019s los continente\u2019 \n\tBad Bunny\u2019s lines show that the audience for the rap was not only the Puerto Rican protesters but really the entire world. Like their ability to attract mainstream media coverage, these artists would use their star power to draw global attention to Rossell\u00f3\u2019s incompetence and corruption. By expressing the anger and frustration of Puerto Ricans as Bad Bunny did in his bars, the creation of \u201cAfilando los Cuchillos\u201d brought further attention to the protests.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n
Que Ricardo Rossell\u00f3 es un incompetente
Homof\u00f3bico, embustero, delincuente
A ti nadie te quiere, ni tu propia gente
And let all the continents know
That Ricardo Rossell\u00f3 is incompetent
Homophobic, liar, delinquent
Nobody loves you, not even your own people<\/em><\/p>\n