Honestly, every time I see an appreciation post about hit my dash about him is pretty cool (but I think it means I need to follow more latines lmao)
Personally, I don’t think the largely American userbase of tumblr needs to know who a Latino is for a Latino to stay winning, but IF YOU GONNA LEARN, YOU GONNA LEARN TODAY.
Adding on a few things I didn’t see highlighted about him: Bad Bunny is also an activist – in addition to advocating for rights of LGBTQIA+, he also supports BLM as well as the Puerto Rico independent movement!!!)
[One of the BLM murals in PR funded by BB’s foundation.]
This is HUGE huge huge huge for the country, and Latin America in general, where the community still struggles with issues of colorism and racism and a general internalized hatred for a lot of their African ancestry/culture.
By no means is he the most important figure advocating for rights of Afro-Latine people, but his contribution – being arguably the most popular artist right now in LatinAm (possibly the world) – is incredibly powerful!
I can also prattle on about its significance considering reggaeton and a lot of his other musical stylings are from the Afro-Latine community in general, but I’ll leave that to someone more eloquent and educated.
Also very important, and the main reason he’s the only celebrity I pay attention to, is his love for our country. It both fills and breaks my heart. To be an advocate for Independence of Puerto Rico is to know true patriotic suffering, because the uphill climb is so steep, dangerous and unfulfilling – but we do it anyways, because we love our culture and our land.
[Note the pale-blue (azul celeste) color of the flag he wields is the original Puerto Rican flag before the US enforced the darker blue version. The original blue is symbolic to our independence.]
Puerto Rico is a US colonized territory and has been struggling with the effects of that for centuries (literally suffering.) Increased poverty, people having to lose their homes/move to the US in waves of diasporas, yt people buying our land to make profit, let alone the continued “touristification” of our country – just to name a few things. The gentrification is so large-scale it’s literally getting people killed and frankly, it’s hard to get people to give a shit about a little island full of struggling POC.
But Bad Bunny actually talks about that. His songs speak out against this mindset and injustices, reminding the listeners that Puerto Rico is FOR PUERTO RICANS and in spite of the struggle to live on our battered home and how many colonizers come to tear at it: “Esta es mi playa, este es mi sol, esta es mi tierra, esta soy yo” IT’S US. IT’S OURS. FUCK YOU. And this sentiment of wanting to protect and love your land is shared with our Lantine cousins across borders.
He also has a non-profit organization called Fundacion Good Bunny that often supports the children of Puerto Rico. Recently as of last Christmas they donated tons and tons of toys to kids living in poverty.
He also comes home to protest with people on the streets for our causes.He also helped bully our last governor out of office (ya had to be there.)
This is all just to name a few things, since I feel like the few foreigners/non-Hispanics that DO know about him just thinks he makes party music to get high to lmaooo
But I cannot stress enough…Bad Bunny isn’t just iconic, he IS an icon.
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