Join Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Departments of Music, Theater and Performance Studies and Modern Thought and Literature, for 'P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance' - a book talk with Drs. Vanessa Díaz and Petra R. Rivera-Rideau.

The backlash was swift when the NFL announced Bad Bunny would perform at Super Bowl LX. The global superstar’s status as a Spanish-speaking Latino and his statements about ICE made him a natural target for conservative outrage; some online commenters called for Bad Bunny’s deportation before the February game. (As a Puerto Rican, Bad Bunny is a U.S. citizen.) One week before the Halftime Show, Bad Bunny made history by becoming the first-ever Spanish-language artist to win the Grammy for Album of the Year, for his latest album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. Global superstar Bad Bunny’s record-breaking success is due in large part to his unapologetic championing of his homeland and the intimate connections he maintains in Puerto Rico. 

Born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Bad Bunny has lived a life marked by public crises—blackouts, hurricanes, political corruption and oppression—that have exposed the ongoing impacts of colonialism in Puerto Rico. Offering a portrait of the past and future of Puerto Rican resistance through one of its loudest and proudest voices, P FKN R draws on ethnographic research and interviews with journalists, politicians, and the pop star’s close collaborators to set Bad Bunny and Puerto Rican resistance in a historical, political, and cultural context. Authors Vanessa Díaz and Petra Rivera-Rideau—creators of the “Bad Bunny Syllabus”—situate Bad Bunny in the long tradition of infusing joy and protest into music.

P FKN R honors the many, evolving forms of daily resistance to oppression and colonialism that are part of Puerto Rican life.

VANESSA DÍAZ is Associate Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University and the author of Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood.

PETRA R. RIVERA - RIDEAU is Associate Professor of American Studies at Wellesley College and the author of Remixing Reggaetón: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico and Fitness Fiesta!: Selling Latinx Culture through Zumba.

The authors have written about Bad Bunny for the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Washington Post, and elsewhere. Their “Bad Bunny Syllabus” has been covered by the New York Times, Boston Globe, NPR, Vanity Fair, and The Tonight Show.