Puerto Rico’s Place in Pop Culture

On today’s show, guest host Carlos Dávalos is in conversation with historian Jorell Meléndez-Badillo about Puerto Rico’s role in global pop culture, solidified by Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance. Meléndez-Badillo has worked with the artist on several projects, including the half-time show, and he shares what the public discourse around the world’s oldest colony means for the future of Puerto Rico Studies. 

Meléndez-Badillo says that Puerto Rico is the most important place in the world because of its relationship to the Atlantic, Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. Bad Bunny’s performance showcased the vitality and complexity of the country and its “beautiful, deep, and profound culture,” says Meléndez-Badillo. He uses the term “nation” to refer to Puerto Rico, though this is a contentious term given Puerto Rico’s complicated legal relationship to the United States 

He describes the boom of cultural production coming from the Puerto Rican archipelago and diaspora: the salsa rhythms born in New York City, la plena and la bomba styles derived from Puerto Rico’s Afro-Caribbean legacy, to reggaeton which emerged in working class neighborhoods in Puerto Rico. Even the ocean and environment of the Caribbean has a musicality to it, says Meléndez-Badillo.

They also discuss Meléndez-Badillo’s process of collaboration with Bad Bunny, including on the historical vignettes he wrote for the artist’s concert residency. When dealing with complex, difficult topics like colonialism, Meléndez-Badillo says that it’s OK for people to feel uncomfortable and that history can help us understand what’s happening in Puerto Rico and in the US writ large. He wants to see a future where Puerto Rican studies thrives and provides a lens into issues like gentrification and labor.

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo is an associate professor of Latin American and Caribbean history, and the co-director of the Puerto Rican Studies Hub at UW-Madison.

Featured image of Jorell Meléndez-Badillo.

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