“Esta es mi tierra/Esta soy yo”: Teaching US colonialism and Puerto Rican resistance through Bad Bunny

Abstract

We woke up, on October 20, 2023, to a flutter of emails from students and colleagues: "Did you see Jimmy Fallon?" "OMG Bad Bunny wants to take our class!"While we were sleeping, international superstar Bad Bunny (Benito Martínez Ocasio) had discussed our classes on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.Between talking about Bad Bunny's new album Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana and his hosting gig on SNL, Fallon asked, "There's actually college courses teaching about you….'Bad Bunny: Race, Gender, and Empire in Reggaetón at Wellesley College.Bad Bunny and Resistance in Puerto Rico at Loyola Marymount University.Did you ever think that you were going to be taught [in] a course at a school?"Bad Bunny chuckled."Nooooooooo.That's a very crazy thing.Todavía no lo creo…Some day people came to me like, 'Yeah, I'm taking this class about you.'And I'm like, 'What?Really?' I don't know, it feels weird.I would love to take one of those classes because I think I would get an A."Our classes had been mentioned in other outlets too, from NPR to Vanity Fair, but this was the first time that we had heard Bad Bunny himself discuss them.This unique media exposure amplified questions that we had received since we each began our courses: What, exactly, do you teach in this class?Why is Bad Bunny, a reggaetonero who sings a genre often accused of promoting violence and misogyny, worthy of university study?At only thirty years old, Benito Martínez Ocasio of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, has become one of the biggest Puerto Rican cultural icons of all time.The reggaetón artist began uploading his songs onto SoundCloud in 2016.By 2023, Bad Bunny had become the most streamed artist globally three years in a row.His critically This is a quote from Bad Bunny's 2022 song "El Apagón."The lyrics translate to "This is my land/ This is me."

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