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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/01/how-music-took-down-puerto-ricos-governor/?utm_term=.9da988eb60c9">https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/01/how-music-took-down-puerto-ricos-governor/?fbclid=IwAR1pYVlPbhDjvM8RkUT8G2sHOuMY1mf9aKu7eEztbcuoj2vRiJedXxtYMcw&utm_term=.d9bc655af820</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">How music took down Puerto Rico’s
governor</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Verónica Dávila and
Marisol LeBrón August 1 <br>
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<h2 data-pb-field="subheadlines.basic">Underground music
overcame censors to gain popularity and political
power.</h2>
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<p data-elm-loc="1">On July 24, Puerto Ricans made
history when, after nearly two weeks of massive
public protests, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/us/rossello-puerto-rico-governor-resigns.html">Ricardo
Rosselló finally resigned as governor</a>. Puerto
Ricans found increasingly <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/us/puerto-rico-governor-ricky-renuncia.html?ref=nyt-es&mcid=nyt-es&subid=article">creative</a>
ways to gather people in the streets to demand this
change. They protested on horses, motorcycles, jet
skis, kayaks, yoga mats and by banging pots. Yet it
was the young people dancing provocatively on the
steps of the oldest cathedral in the New World to
the <a
href="http://wayneandwax.com/academic/marshall-musica-negra-reggaeton-latino.pdf"><i>boom-ch-boom-chick-boom-ch-boom-chick</i>
of reggaeton beats</a> that may have finally
forced Rosselló out of office.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="2">This “<a
href="https://vimeo.com/350139441?ref=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR3JNBUwH_V503FB_ZkSOvg-B67qxicGu42-hq0yX5XLa9cLFZJ-6nugyvw">perreo
combativo</a>,” as dubbed by queer, trans and
non-binary youth, used perreo, reggaeton’s dance
style, to create a sensuous and liberated communal
space that generated political power. After
Roselló’s resignation, people on social media said:
“El Perreo ganó” (perreo won) and “Sin Perreo No Hay
Revolución” (There’s no Revolution Without Perreo),
pointing to reggaetón’s dance as the knockout blow
to the corrupt governor.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="3">Yes, some of these comments were
tongue-in-cheek, playing on the irony of music that
arose from black and low-income communities
unseating the highest elected official in Puerto
Rico. But they were also tapping into the longer
history of reggaeton and perreo, forms that have
always been political. Through reggaeton, Puerto
Ricans have expressed political critique, resisted
state censorship and criminalization, defied racism
and misogyny — and now fueled collective action.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="4">Since the 1990s, when it emerged
as an “underground” musical form, rappers used their
lyrics to denounce social inequality, racism, police
violence, marginalization and the hypocrisy of the
Puerto Rican elite. Underground rap often took aim
at the abuses and corruption of the government and
exposed the harsh realities of vulnerable young
people, especially those living in public housing.
For instance, songs like Eddie Dee’s “<a
href="https://youtu.be/mhmBjLZsKjk">Señor oficial</a>”
(Mr. Police Officer), Ivy Queen’s “<a
href="https://youtu.be/1_pCKfRqd0A">Somos raperos
pero no delincuentes</a>” (We are rappers but not
criminals) and Daddy Yankee’s “<a
href="https://youtu.be/mSXPXru-v7w">Abuso oficial</a>”
(Police abuse) criticized associations between
underground music and criminality, as well as the
stigmatization of poor Afro-Puerto Ricans.
Unsurprisingly, this, along with sexually suggestive
lyrics, made underground music a target of police
and government officials.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="5">Indeed, it is deeply ironic that
Ricardo Rosselló could not withstand the power of
the people’s<i> </i>perreo intenso, given that his
father, former governor Pedro Rosselló, played a
major role in criminalizing underground rap as part
of his anti-crime initiative, <a
href="http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality/marisol-lebron-puerto-rico-war-poor">mano
dura contra el crimen</a> (iron fist against
crime). From 1993-2000, as part of that initiative,
Rosselló deployed the Puerto Rican police department
and National Guard to raid and occupy public housing
and other marginalized communities as part of the
fight against drugs and violence.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="6">Through both rhetoric and practice
associated with mano dura, people living in
economically and racially marginalized communities
were conceived as dangerous and in need of state
intervention. Poor dark-skinned young men who
dressed with an urban diasporic aesthetic were
presumed to be violent criminals or drug dealers and
encountered constant police surveillance and
harassment. As a musical and cultural expression
born from the experiences of low-income communities,
which were framed as criminal by Pedro Rosselló’s
administration, underground rap came to be regarded
as one more node in a vast criminal enterprise
threatening the “decent and hard-working” people of
Puerto Rico.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="7">When underground music started to
move above ground, the genre became an object of
intense state scrutiny. In 1995, police launched a <a
href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1405/chapter-abstract/167800/Policing-Morality-Mano-Dura-StyleeThe-Case-of?redirectedFrom=fulltext">series
of record store raids</a> resulting in the
confiscation of hundreds of CDs and cassettes, as
well as the arrests of several employees for selling
“obscene” material that supposedly encouraged
promiscuity and drug use. <a
href="https://nacla.org/news/reggaeton-nation">Politicians
and police tried to censor perreo</a> as well,
arguing that the dance was pornographic and led to
the corruption of impressionable women and children.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="8">These repressive measures inspired
artists and fans to fight back, using music to call
attention to political corruption permeating the
government. Eddie Dee in his song, “<a
href="https://youtu.be/4_XDRnxaGOo">Censurarme</a>”
(Censor Me), for example, rapped that even though
underground artists were criminalized and labeled as
delinquents, no rapper had been accused of
corruption, fraud and the rape of a minor like the
former president of the Senate, Edison Misla
Aldarondo.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="9">And, so, despite a concerted
effort by religious figures and conservative
politicians to censure and criminalize reggaeton and
perreo, the genre exploded during the 2000s and
began its journey into the mainstream and the
recognizable pop dominating the airwaves today
worldwide. And reggaetón’s political ethos continued
after it crossed over. For example, <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acOk35Crs7Q">Ivy
Queen</a> has promoted women’s bodily and sexual
autonomy during perreo dances and beyond, while Tego
Calderón has used his music to decry racism,
xenophobia, social inequality and poverty in Puerto
Rico.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="10">Prominent reggaeton and trap
artists frequently joined demonstrators in the
streets during the protests. <a
href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/latin/8523379/puerto-rican-artists-ricky-martin-residente-bad-bunny-governor-resignation-protests">Residente</a>,
<a
href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/7/23/ile_puerto_rico_protest_anthem">iLe</a>
and <a
href="https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49013761">Bad
Bunny</a>, in particular, alongside pop star <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/07/28/want-democratic-accountability-look-ricky-martin-not-robert-mueller/?fbclid=IwAR0LRqUHivxJkM80nZTjx26-nemDBlGl8bXfIT2jT9WnX8gk8iV0lAML2k4&utm_term=.b4d288841201">Ricky
Martin</a>, played a vital role in amplifying the
call of the <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/Colectiva.Feminista.PR/">Colectiva
Feminista en Construcción</a> for the National
Strike on July 18, one of the largest demonstrations
to take place in Puerto Rico’s history. In addition
to the presence of artists at the protests, people
also used reggaeton lyrics as chants. For instance,
demonstrators frequently used a popular line from “<a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgZcLdDR7qw&list=RDQgZcLdDR7qw&start_radio=1">En
la Cama</a>,” Daddy Yankee’s 2001 hit featuring
Nicky Jam to call for Rosselló’s resignation. When a
protester shouted “Yo quiero la combi completa” (I
want the whole combination), which in the original
makes reference to the various parts of a woman’s
body, the crowd chanted in response <a
href="https://twitter.com/marie01_31/status/1151688037736341506?s=20">“Qué?
Ricky renuncia, puñeta!”</a> (What? Ricky, resign,
damnit!).</p>
<p data-elm-loc="11">But the very open embrace of
reggaeton’s often highly sexual dance itself has
also emerged as an important act of defiance in a
country where conservative, misogynistic, homophobic
and transphobic sentiments are expressed even by its
head of state. Perreo, unlike other Caribbean
dances, allows women to lead and control, to
determine the intensity of the dance and to select
how much or little contact she wants with her
partner. It also defies society’s respectability
politics and breaks taboos toward sex by allowing
people to revel in their sexuality and opening up
conversations about consent.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="12">Recognizing these radical roots
and potential, feminist and LGBTQ collectives in
Puerto Rico have been organizing reggaeton dance
parties for over two years. La Colectiva Feminista
en Construcción, the feminist collective that
initiated the protests in La Fortaleza, organize a
yearly celebration “<a
href="https://www.facebook.com/events/375846082989687/">Si
no puedo perrear, no es mi revolución”</a> (If I
can’t dance reggaeton, it’s not my revolution).
Other LGBTQ groups have been organizing similar
events at <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/Elhangarensanturce/">El
Hangar</a>, a queer and trans-friendly venue in
Santurce, all geared toward the intersections
between perreo as an anti-colonial practice and
queerness as a defiant identity.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="13">When Rosselló’s resignation
message, which was broadcast on Facebook Live, had
ended, protesters in the streets rejoiced and
celebrated. In addition to victoriously chanting
“Olé, Olé, Olé,” they <a
href="https://www.facebook.com/sharon.tossas/videos/10157438206650522/UzpfSTY0ODk2MTg3MzoxMDE1Nzk4MTU0Njk4MTg3NA/?q=te%2520bote&epa=SEARCH_BOX">joined
to sing the ultimate reggaeton breakup revenge
song, “Te Boté”</a> (I Dumped You). That night,
triumphant and feeling the power of their collective
action, Puerto Ricans sang “Te Boté” not only
because they got Rosselló out of their lives, but
because they knew their future would be better
without him.</p>
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