Mayra V\u00e9lez Serrano drove to work Wednesday along Puerto Rico\u2019s Highway 18, one of the island\u2019s busiest freeways. It would\u2019ve been a normal drive \u2014 had it not been for a new, giant billboard that left her \u201cabsolutely floored,\u201d said the political science professor at University of Puerto Rico at R\u00edo Piedras.<\/p>\n
There, in Spanish on a black background, was a stark message: \u201cAnyone who votes for the New Progressive Party (PNP), does not love Puerto Rico,\u201d a bold attack on the island\u2019s dominant party since 2017. To V\u00e9lez Serrano it encapsulated Puerto Ricans\u2019 long-held frustrations over the island\u2019s two-party political system \u2014 one that is threatening to crumble during the Nov. 5 gubernatorial elections.<\/p>\n
The unsigned ads spotted hanging over some of Puerto Rico\u2019s most-transited routes soon fueled a frenzy of headlines and gossip \u2014 which only crescendoed after Bad Bunny, one of the biggest superstars in the world, announced he had bought them to show his love for his homeland. His ads \u2014 some of which said that voting for PNP was voting for corruption \u2014 were the latest twist in a long-brewing spat that has once again placed the musician front and center of the island\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so used to seeing political ads made by the parties or super PACS, but nothing like this,\u201d V\u00e9lez Serrano told The Washington Post. \u201cThis was the visual epitome of how there\u2019s an important segment of the population that does not trust the traditional parties, is fed up by the ongoing crisis and is looking for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PNP did not comment when reached by The Post.<\/p>\n
#BadBunny is buying billboards saying that a vote for the Statehood party (PNP) in #PuertoRico is a vote for corruption. <\/p>\n
.@cpipr just released this investigation https:\/\/t.co\/IUtFGexA5u pic.twitter.com\/QOKneO3l2Y<\/p>\n
\u2014 Erica G. for Class President (@EG10029) September 24, 2024<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Puerto Rican politics don\u2019t align neatly with the Democrats vs. Republicans dichotomy of Washington. Instead, the island\u2019s two main parties, the PNP and the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), are divided over Puerto Rico\u2019s status \u2014 the former pushing for statehood and the latter for the island to remain a self-governing commonwealth of the United States. A smaller third party, the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), advocates for independence.<\/p>\n
That system was \u201cstable for half a century, with the two biggest parties getting approximately 95 percent of the vote in each election,\u201d said Am\u00edlcar Antonio Barreto, a professor of cultures, societies and global studies at Northeastern University. But the past decades \u2014 marked by economic stagnation, corruption scandals, a fiscal crisis and a troubled response to a devastating hurricane \u2014 have \u201ccreated a melee and left the political scene in flux,\u201d Barreto said.<\/p>\n
In recent years, the question of the island\u2019s status has taken a back-seat in the minds of voters, who are more concerned with the issues related to the cost of living, the state of the economy and the quality of life, he added. That\u2019s why new, smaller parties \u2014 such as Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana, which focuses on social justice and battling corruption and the ultraconservative Proyecto Dignidad \u2014 have been able to emerge and gain ground.<\/p>\n
For the first time in more than seven decades, polls have the \u201cAlianza,\u201d a coalition made up by the PIP and Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana, garnering about 20 percent of the vote in the upcoming gubernatorial race. Its candidate, Juan Dalmau is trailing behind PNP\u2019s Jenniffer Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n, who also serves as the resident commissioner of Puerto Rico, a nonvoting member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The PPD\u2019s gubernatorial candidate is polling third.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an older cohort of voters in Puerto Rico that are still loyal to the traditional parties \u2014 there\u2019s a lot of identity politics at play,\u201d Barreto said. \u201cBut this is not how young people feel. There is also a lot of disenfranchised, disaffected voters lashing out, and the way they\u2019re doing so is to vote for the nontraditional parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
That cohort of younger, frustrated voters is what V\u00e9lez Serrano calls \u201cthe crisis generation\u201d \u2014 those born in the 1990s and 2000s, who V\u00e9lez Serrano says \u201chave never seen economic growth and have only experienced Puerto Rico falling into decay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the ones who\u2019ve seen dwindling opportunities, forcing them to migrate to the mainland,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd Bad Bunny is part of this crisis generation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old Bad Bunny \u2014 whom Barreto and V\u00e9lez Serrano described as a \u201cmuch more vocal Taylor Swift\u201d \u2014 has for years used his platform as one of the most popular artists in the world to raise awareness about Puerto Rico\u2019s plight. In 2019, he was a constant presence in the protests that led to the ouster of Gov. Ricardo Rossell\u00f3 (PNP). In 2022, the music video for his song \u201cEl Apag\u00f3n\u201d \u2014 named after the rolling power outages that have plagued the island since Hurricane Maria in 2017 \u2014 doubled as an 23-minute documentary about Puerto Rico\u2019s power grid failures, colonialism and gentrification.<\/p>\n
During an interview with Puerto Rican YouTuber El Tony earlier this month, Bad Bunny spoke out against voter apathy in Puerto Rico and called on people to register.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really care about Puerto Rico,\u201d the singer said in Spanish as he swallowed back tears. \u201cIt\u2019s good to go out on the streets to protest, to let ourselves be heard as people, but I think that the biggest act of protest is to vote against the people who have led us to this mess on Nov. 5.\u201d<\/p>\n
A day after the interview aired, hundreds of college students went to a voter registration event at the University of Puerto Rico at R\u00edo Piedras. In a bleak reminder of the ongoing crisis, the entire school lost power. The next day, though, about 300 students returned and registered to vote, local outlet El Nuevo D\u00eda reported.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s still unclear how much of an effect Bad Bunny\u2019s actions will have in the elections. Last month, Somos M\u00e1s, an engagement nonprofit, released data revealing that 75 percent of all newly eligible voters under age 21 had not yet registered to vote. The deadline to do so, Sept. 21, has already passed, although there is an effort to extend that window.<\/p>\n
The ACLU on Tuesday filed an emergency lawsuit to push the voter registration deadline to Oct. 6 \u2014 the latest time frame allowed under Puerto Rican law \u2014 given the power outages, the flawed rollout of an online registration system and staffing shortages that have plagued the registration process, the group said.<\/p>\n
The problems with voter registration prompted five members of the U.S. House to send a letter Wednesday to the Department of Justice, calling on the agency to send federal poll monitors to oversee the PNP-controlled Commission on Elections\u2019 compliance with voting rights laws.<\/p>\n
Though the ads themselves might not be enough to mobilize voters, V\u00e9lez Serrano said they\u2019re still poignant in how they capture Puerto Ricans\u2019 frustrations \u2014 especially those of younger people, who \u201cfind themselves stuck between staying in the country they love or looking for better opportunities elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00c1lvaro Carrillo, 24, is among the thousands of Puerto Ricans that have left the island in recent years, settling in New York City after graduating from college. His long-term goal is to return to \u201cthe home I desperately love\u201d once he gains the experience and skills \u201cthat will help me contribute to Puerto Rico\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Bad Bunny\u2019s billboards, Carrillo sees \u201ca wake-up call not only for the PNP, but for the United States in general, about the legitimate frustrations people have \u2014 frustrations and concerns that must be taken seriously or our diaspora will keep on growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Party members of the PNP, however, appear to have taken the beef with Bad Bunny \u201cquite personally,\u201d V\u00e9lez Serrano said.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month at the party\u2019s convention, Gonz\u00e1lez-Col\u00f3n walked out to Daddy Yankee\u2019s song \u201cDura (Remix).\u201d And in what appears to be a clear dig at Bad Bunny, she pointed at her ears and started to dance when the song\u2019s lyrics of \u201cme como al conejo\u201d \u2014 I eat the bunny \u2014 resounded inside Puerto Rico\u2019s biggest indoor arena.<\/p>\n
@edgar_robles_14 Evidencia que @JGO_FanPage_TikTok \u266c sonido original \u2013 Edgar Robles <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
More surprising still, V\u00e9lez Serrano said, was the PNP\u2019s reaction to Bad Bunny\u2019s billboards. The party filed a complaint with the Office of the Electoral Comptroller pointing that the ads were published without the required tag identifying who paid for them. (The ads would later appear with a line saying they were paid by Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio, Bad Bunny\u2019s legal name.)<\/p>\n
Shortly after, a member of the party came up with what\u2019s been described online as a \u201ccounterattack\u201d: An ad urging people to vote en mass on Nov. 5 \u201cPARA QUE BENITO _AME.\u201d The missing letter \u201cm\u201d would make the message read \u201cso Benito can suck it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, this is a legislator paying for an ad that alludes to what we refer to in a derogatory way as a humiliating act to attack a private citizen,\u201d V\u00e9lez Serrano said. \u201cIt\u2019s shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contraataque a Benito. @trschatz51 publica billboards. pic.twitter.com\/oBYRRymZs6<\/p>\n
\u2014 Rafael Len\u00edn L\u00f3pez (@LeninPR) September 25, 2024<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In San Juan, 25-year-old Eduardo Alvarado was not exactly shocked by the response from a party he said \u201cis just not attuned to what we Puerto Ricans want and need.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this shows that they\u2019re scared and that they\u2019ve realized that we\u2019re incredibly frustrated by what\u2019s been going on \u2014 the corruption, the lack of opportunities, the economic crisis,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cYou\u2019d think that they\u2019d be more focused on showing their government plan and trying to solve people\u2019s problems, but instead they\u2019re beefing with a celebrity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even before the ads popped up, Alvarado was already planning on not voting for PNP \u2014 but the party\u2019s response, he said, cemented his choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to vote for a party that doesn\u2019t seem to care about our everyday problems and that has to reduce itself to putting up a sign telling Bad Bunny to suck it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adriana Usero contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Mayra V\u00e9lez Serrano drove to work Wednesday along Puerto Rico\u2019s Highway 18, one of the island\u2019s busiest freeways. It would\u2019ve been a normal drive \u2014 had it not been for a new, giant billboard that left her \u201cabsolutely floored,\u201d said the political science professor at University of Puerto Rico at R\u00edo Piedras. There, in Spanish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10286,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}