
Throughline How Bad Bunny took Puerto Rican independence mainstream
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Feb 12, 2026 Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, historian of Puerto Rico who made DTMF’s history visualizers. Vanessa Díaz, Latino/a studies professor and co-author analyzing Bad Bunny’s cultural power. Carina Del Valle Schorske, journalist who profiled Bad Bunny and observed his performances. They trace reggaeton roots, Hurricane Maria’s aftermath, 2019 protests, DTMF’s independence imagery, and tensions between resistance and commercialization.
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Music As Puerto Rico's Archive
- Bad Bunny's music makes the world look at Puerto Rico and serves as an archive of its current moment.
- His songs blend local focus with global reach, reflecting Puerto Rico's crises to international audiences.
1996 Tax Change Shaped A Generation
- The end of Section 936 in 1996 triggered factory closures and mass job loss in Puerto Rico.
- That economic shift set the stage for the long fiscal crisis that shaped Bad Bunny's generation.
PROMESA And La Junta's Power
- PROMESA created an unelected fiscal oversight board with power over Puerto Rico's elected branches.
- Puerto Ricans call it la junta and it deepened austerity, cutting pensions, hospitals, and schools.



