A month after his beginnings, the sixth solo studio album by Bad Bunny, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos”, continues to trigger conversations surrounding the colonial heritage of Puerto Rico and his right to self -determination.
Nicknamed “The most Puerto Rican album of all time”, “ The disc was published with 17 informatives visualizers This described the key moments in Puerto Rican history. Each episode was written by Professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who used his own university book, “Puerto Rico: a national history», As a reference.
From the initial wave of colonization by the Spanish crown in 1508, in the American occupation of Puerto Rico of 1898 and the financial crisis in progress, the history lesson provided in “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” aroused a more public public interest surrounding the past, the present and the future of Puerto Rico. Méléndez-Badillo told the That he considers the album of the superstar “a great learning tool on what is happening in Puerto Rico”.
“It was the vision (by Bad Bunny) who thought of bringing Puerto Rican history into the conversation with music,” said Melenndez-Badillo.
For those who seek to engage more deeply with Puerto Rican history and culture, here are five essential pounds (and related texts) written by Puerto Rican authors.
Panora Picó: a picó
(Markus Wiener Publishers)
Eminent Port Ridian Historyn Fernando Picó, pioneer of Latin American studiesInitially published his revolutionary book from 1986 in Spanish at a time when the rich cultural history of the island had rarely been told. From the geological formation of the archipelago in the 21st century, the critical text of Picó extends to subjects ranging from native culture, Spanish colonial domination, nationalist movements and class structures.
In its 2006 English edition in the English language, Picó updated chapters to include social and political movements, including the fight to withdraw the American navy from Vieques Island from 1999 to 2003. Research was the stories of ordinary people, which changed the current culture of the island. As the late academic wrote in his preface, “we are all tired of the stories written from above and from the outside.”
Related reading: “Make land never-in-one: race and right in the creation of Puerto Rico” by Mónica A. Jiménez
“ War against all Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in the American colony '' by Nelson Antonio Denis (2016)
In “War against all Puerto Ricans”, the author, lawyer, filmmaker and former representative of New York State, Nelson Antonio Denis, locate the history of the 1950 Puerto Rican Revolution in the wider context of the American military occupation – and the continuous struggle of the island for self -determination. The book plunges into the formation of the nationalist party of Puerto Rico, their famous former president Pedro Albizu Campos and the series of uprisings which led to its second arrest.
Thanks to oral stories, personal interviews and declassified FBI files, Denis explores turns like the Ponce massacre – a peaceful civil demonstration in 1937 which became fatal – and the uprising of Utuado which led to the bombing of two Puerto Rican cities by the American army. “It's not a nice story,” writes Denis in the preface.
Related reading: “Puerto Rico in the Americans Caesar J.
AFROMS of disaster:
Published by academics Yarimar Bonilla and Marisol Lebrón, “Afrtshocks of Disaster” is a compilation of poems, tests and photos of the survivors of Hurricane Maria. The book was published in 2019, two years after the storm killed thousands of people on the island. (The exact number of death remains unknown.)
The Scholar duo compares the fallout to the replica of an earthquake, relating the days, the months and the years after the initial disaster. The anthology examines the social and historical impact of the hurricane on the Puerto Rico debt crisis, as well as a changing identity of the Riccans Puerto after the post-twist exodus of the island.
Related reading: “Ricanstruction: Remining & Reconstractive Puerto Rico” by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez.
“ The Taste of Sugar: A Novel '' by Marisel Vera (2020)
Although a work of historical fiction, “the taste for sugar” is based on a series of real events that marked Puerto Rico forever, including American control of the island in 1989, a devastating tropical storm and subsequent push for workers in Hawaiian sugar.
Moved by events from the past, the writer Marisel Vera states his scene on the eve of the Spanish-American war. When the Hurricane of San Ciriaco of 1899 brought a devastation to the small coffee farm of a young couple in the mountains, by stripping them of their only source of income, they had no other choice than to work in sugar plantations in Hawaii – which attracted around 5,000 other islanders with the promise of the American dream.
Related reading: “We animals” by Justin Torres.
“ Down these average streets '' by Piri Thomas (1967)
Piri Thomas' memories highlight the Afro-Latin and diasporical experience in the United States before the civil rights movement. Born from Puerto Rican and Cuban parents during the great depression and raised in New York Spaniard, Thomas' identity as an individual with dark skin was challenged by family members, who refused to recognize his African blood.
The deceased writer also explained how he was involved in the activity of the criminal gangs and the drug consumption which finally led him to shoot a cop and to be sent to prison. In the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, he began to face elements of his education, which led him to a greater level of self -acceptance. “Down these medium streets” was finally honored by the New York Public Library as a “teenager book”.
Related reading: “When I was Puerto Rican” by Esmeralda Santiago.
Are you looking for more learned works?
The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College Presents a plethora of academic work as the largest university research institute, library and archive dedicated to Puerto Rican experience in the United States.
THE Puerto Sylabus Rico Also gives a contemporary overview of the Puerto Rican debt crisis in progress and more.
Are you looking for more books in Spanish?
The printer is an independent poetry press and a printing studio and a poetry press based in the city of Isabela.
Editor of emerging education is an independent publisher dedicated to emerging content on the island. It is located in Cabo Rojo.
The screen is a publishing company of Lajas and Mexico City interested in an original rewarding content that goes beyond the surface.
