Bad Bunny Symposium

Fans reacted to rumors around Bad Bunny’s personal life. What on the surface was celebrity gossip, underneath exposed important discussions on what it meant to be the world’s biggest celebrity and a Puerto Rican man. Vanessa Díaz, Assistant Professor of Chicano/a and Latino/a Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Laura G.…

The panelists, including Jade Power-Sotomayor, Asst. Professor of Theatre and Dance at the University of California-San Diego, Jossiana Arroyo, Professor of Latin American and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures at the University of Texas-Austin, Elyse Veloria, PhD student at Duke University, Alexandra Sánchez Rolón, PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania,…

Jonathan Rosa, Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, and Yarimar Bonilla, CENTRO Directora, joined together in a closing keynote where they examined how debates on language and racial identity exposed the colonial contradictions of Puerto Rico and the modern world.

CENTRO’s Directora, Yarimar Bonilla, and Latin Grammy Award winning director of “Callaita” and “El Apagón” music videos, Kacho López Mari, had a conversation about developing visual narratives for Bad Bunny’s music and performances and their relationship to emerging cultural politics in Puerto Rico.

Katelina Eccleston, Reggaetón con la Gata, Suzy Expósito, Los Angeles Times, and Nina Vázquez, Hasta ‘Bajo Project, joined Jillian Baez, Associate Professor of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies at Hunter College, to speak about their experiences covering Bad Bunny, reggaetón, and dembow, as well as their experiences using social media…

Musicians and composers Miguel Zenón, Angélica Negrón, Guarionex Morales, and Daniel Alejandro Tapia of Orfeón San Juan Bautista, along with musicologist Wayne Marshall, who was an Assistant Professor of Liberal Arts and Science at Berklee College of Music, gathered with moderator Sabrina Ortiz-Vázquez, Assistant to the Director of Arts &…

Bad Bunny had been known for dressing in drag for his music videos and expressing support for the trans community in Puerto Rico, making him appear as an outlier in the genre of reggaetón—a genre notorious for its machista and homophobic stereotypes. However, he was not the first or only…

Petra Rivera Rideau, who was an Associate Professor of American Studies at Wellesley College and CENTRO Director of Public Humanities Cristel Jusino Díaz, delivered the Opening Keynote, which served to situate Bad Bunny within the three decades of history of reggaetón.

José Laguarta, CENTRO Research Associate, writer Carina del Valle Schorske, and Carla Santamaría, Assistant Professor of Latino and Puerto Rican Studies at Brooklyn College, joined moderator Cristel M. Jusino Díaz, CENTRO Director of Public Humanities, to discuss how Bad Bunny had used his platform to bring attention to social and…