Professors’ Debut Book Linking Bad Bunny to Puerto Rican Resistance Movements

Wellesley College Professor Petra Rivera-Rideau and Loyola Marymount University Professor Vanessa Díaz presented their book P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance on March 2 at Wellesley College's Alumnae Ballroom. The work ties the artist's career to political pushback on the island.

The professors created the first and second courses about the performer in the United States. In 2023, they launched the Bad Bunny syllabus website with resources that connect his success to Puerto Rican politics. Each chapter in their book is themed and titled with one of Bad Bunny's songs.

Díaz shared how one of her students helped the artist learn about the courses. "'Send me your syllabus right now. I'm about to meet Bad Bunny.' I was so weirded out, and I was like, 'Do you mean the website or the PDF, but are you joking?' I think to myself, it's April 1, this is an April Fool's joke," Díaz said to The Swellesley Report.

The authors use the musician as a way to teach Puerto Rican history. They believe understanding his growth requires knowledge of the island's past. Their book aims to teach people about the role of youth and art in pushback movements.

The first chapter focuses on "Soy Peor," a song from his early SoundCloud days. The authors interviewed De La Ghetto, another Latin trap artist, about how the genre grew during Puerto Rico's debt crisis in 2016.

Chapter two looks at "Estamos Bien" and its connection to Hurricane Maria. During his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he spoke English and called out Trump for neglecting Puerto Rico during the hurricane. He then performed "Estamos Bien," which means "we will be alright."

"He's not a superstar at this point. The risks he's willing to take as a new artist really show he is going to be showing up for his homeland," said Rivera-Rideau to The Swellesley Report.

The performer has also advocated for LGBTQ communities. After the murder of Puerto Rican trans woman Alexa Negron, he appeared on Jimmy Fallon wearing a shirt that said "they killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt" in Spanish.

His 2018 music video for "Caro" pushed Rivera-Rideau to create her class after 75% of her students wrote papers about it. The video shows him getting his nails painted, a reference to being denied entrance to a nail salon in Spain. He swaps places with a model to create an androgynous couple, and later gets kissed by a man and a woman.

The presentation ended with a book signing.