Seguimo Aquí: Bad Bunny Powerful Puerto Rico Residency

We are still here. After everything that has happened to us, we are still here. Bad Bunny residency in Puerto Rico is a memory of a lifetime. I will never forget seeing one of Puerto Rico’s breakout stars placing the island on the map. Here’s my takeaway from one of the best residencies I have been to.

Bad Bunny proves the Caribbean and Latin diaspora are interconnected 

As a Virgin Islander, it is tough not to feel a connection to Puerto Rico. The U.S. Virgin islands and Puerto Rico have deep and long-established ties that appear in each respective island today. What a lot of people tend to overlook is that because the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are literally neighbors, the Virgin Islands were also drastically affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. When the Virgin Islands were struck by Hurricane Irma about a week before the landfall of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico was the first place to send aid. That level of friendship is never overlooked or forgotten, so it hurts to see how both territories have been neglected and unable to support one another to their full capacity as a result of colonialism and the storms.

The Caribbean exists outside of the colonizer’s hold 

Before Columbus set out to explore the “new world”, “West Indies”, “Caribbean”, whatever slave master reference you prefer, these beautiful chains of islands were home to people and cultures that still exist today. Despite everything that had happened, indigenous Taino people across the Caribbean resonate deeply with the messages presented in Bad Bunny’s No Me Quiero Ir de Aqui Puerto Rico residency. 

We are still here

The Caribbean today is a hugely political landscape. From Puerto Rico to Cuba, from the ABC Islands to Hawaii and the Philippines, we share a deep pride in our homelands and in who we are today—despite everything. We’re still here, seguimo aqui.