What Bad Bunny means to Puerto Ricans

0:00For weeks, the island of Puerto Rico has been under the thrall of Bad Bunny.

0:09He's performing 30 sold-out concerts in San Juan this summer. He wants his residency to galvanize his homeland and let his Puerto Rican fans see him perform, whether or not they actually still live in Puerto Rico. Yarimar Bonilla is a political anthropologist at Princeton. She's been to more than one concert this summer. Oh, I get emotional. It's almost like forgiving. I think for those in the diaspora, it feels like we've been forgiven. You know, it's like a recognition that we left unwillingly and that we've never forgotten this place, that we are still part of it. At the beginning of this year, Bad Bunny released a new album that was his most Puerto Rican and most political record yet.

0:50The instrumentals often reference older styles of folk music from the island, and some lyrics criticize gentrification and overtourism. When Bad Bunny came to NPR's tiny desk this year, he spoke with NPR Music's Ana Maria Sayre about the importance of preserving cultural tradition.

1:11One always lives in fear of losing something, he told me. When you're afraid of losing something, what you do is take care of it even more, protect it, defend it. Consider this. Bad Bunny's residency has been a homecoming for a global superstar. It's also been a homecoming for many Puerto Ricans who left their island in search of greater opportunities and came back to see him perform.

1:42From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro.

1:52It's Consider This from NPR. Bad Bunny's 30-concert residency in Puerto Rico this summer has become an immense source of local pride. For many young people, these shows have rekindled a determination to stay and make a life on the island. NPR's Adrienne Florido reports.

2:09Adrian Florido:As soon as she landed back on the island, Michelle Garcia Mercado felt at ease. She doesn't get to come home too often, but she was not going to miss Bad Bunny's concert. Oh my God, like I feel at home, I feel at peace, I feel like happy for the first time. in months. She's one of hundreds of thousands of people who've left Puerto Rico in recent decades in search of opportunity. She remembers boarding the plane to Orlando three years ago. I was like, I can't believe I'm doing this because I was like, I was trying to stay here for like the longest time. But Puerto Rico is not an easy place for young people right now.

2:45Adrian Florido:Its economy is weak. Good jobs are hard to find. Housing's gotten so expensive as gentrification and tourist rentals of swallowed up units. There are constant power outages. A lot of people give up trying to make it here. Garcia's family on the island, like so many, has been hollowed out. My brother left three years before me. My youngest brother and my mother left two years before me. They don't want to leave, but they did not feel like there was a future here.

3:16Adrian Florido:Bad Bunny's concert series has been a reason to come home. for Garcia and for many people who, like her, never really wanted to leave. She had a blast at the show.

3:34It's a love letter to Puerto Rico and the culture, and especially to the people that have left. The concert's titled No Me Quiero Ir De Aquí, I Don't Want To Leave Here.

3:51Adrian Florido:For three hours, San Juan's biggest concert arena pulsates with the rhythms and traditions of Puerto Rican culture, the things that make life here so rich, despite the struggles. There's bomba drum music that was first danced by enslaved Africans along the island's coasts.

4:11Adrian Florido:Musica jibara, peasant music that came from the rural mountains.

4:20Adrian Florido:There's plena.

4:25Adrian Florido:Salsa.

4:31Adrian Florido:Reggaeton house party.

4:37Adrian Florido:It's visceral joy.

4:42Adrian Florido:And yet, all around, people are crying, kissing their friends, their fathers, their grandmothers. It's the nostalgia, the sorrow of so many families that have had to say goodbye to the people they love. And then, Bad Bunny speaks to the 18 ,000 people in the arena, those who still live here and those who don't.

5:09Adrian Florido:For those of us who've had to leave but dream of coming back, he says, to those of us who are still here, we don't want to leave, we're still here.

5:26Adrian Florido:This song, in the rhythm of Plena, has become an anthem on the island. It's just about wishing you'd taken more photos of the people you've lost.

5:37Adrian Florido:Yarimar Bonilla is a political anthropologist at Princeton. She's been to the concert more than once this summer. Like many Puerto Ricans, she found great success in the States. But also, like many of them, she's long felt guilty about leaving. Bad Bunny's message, that where you live doesn't make you any less Puerto Rican, has been like a bomb for her soul. Oh, I get emotional. It's almost like forgiving. I think for those in the diaspora, it feels like we've been forgiven. You know, it's like a recognition that we left unwillingly and that we've never forgotten this place, that we are still part of it.

6:13Adrian Florido:But her favorite parts of the concert are the defiant ones. Many young people are no longer just accepting that they'll have to leave to find opportunity. Many are putting up a fight to stay, getting politically active, protesting the sorry state of affairs. Bad Bunny's songs reflect that, too. When he says, They won't force me out of here. I'm not moving. Tell them, this is my home. This is where my grandfather was born. And then everyone's saying, Yo soy de P. ¡F***ing R!

7:06I'm honored that almost all my family had to go.

7:10Adrian Florido:I'm blessed that most of my family has not had to leave, she says. She's 23. She wants to pursue her musical career in Puerto Rico.

7:25Adrian Florido:But she has worried that she might have to leave. Her mother, Joyce Figueroa, says, look around at this plaza.

7:37Adrian Florido:It's frozen in time, she says. The Catholic Church was destroyed by an earthquake five years ago. It's still not been repaired. The city hall just finally being repaired eight years after Hurricane Maria damaged it. The town library closed for lack of funding. It's hard to convince your children that they should want to stay and build a future here, she says. She and her daughter and their whole family went to Bad Bunny's concert together. They cried and cried.

8:14Adrian Florido:It was an amazing feeling, Galatia says. She's been learning Bad Bunny songs on her cuatro.

8:28Adrian Florido:Bad Bunny is making young people so proud to be from here, her mother says.

8:37And when you're proud of your homeland, you try a little harder for it, she says.

8:44Adrian Florido:You fight just a little harder to stay. Adrienne Florido, NPR News, San Juan, Puerto Rico. This episode was produced by Catherine Fink, Elena Burnett, Liz Baker, and Mark Rivers, and featured reporting from Ana Maria Sayre. It was edited by Patrick Jaron Watanon and Gigi Duban. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. Thanks to our Consider This Plus listeners who support the work of NPR journalists and help keep public radio strong. Supporters also hear every episode without messages from sponsors. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

9:24It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.