Global reggaeton star Bad Bunny almost never reveals his feelings outside of his songs. But the artist recently surprised fans and critics – during an interview, he urged voters in his native Puerto Rico, who are increasingly indifferent to the upcoming elections in the US territory, not to downplay the importance of the election.
“I really care about Puerto Rico and I don’t know if it has weight … I want to cry and everything,” the singer said in Spanish as she tried to swallow her tears to stop herself from crying. “It’s good take to the streets to protestto make ourselves heard as human beings, but I think the biggest protest is to vote on November 5 against the people who got us into this mess.”
Bad Bunny made comments under extensive interview Posted on Labor Day with Puerto Rican YouTuber El Tony.
Since then, clips of the interview have become the source of countless memes on social media, from people posting what they’ll be wearing on election day to fan rants reflecting some people’s displeasure with the political party currently in power.
It also appears to have an early impact in empowering disenfranchised voters disenchanted with local party politics and encouraging newly eligible young voters to register to vote before September 21.
“Voting is very important, especially if you are young. “Don’t let other people decide the future of where we live, where we grow up,” Bad Bunny, 30, said in an interview Monday.
The day after the interview was posted online, college students at the University of Puerto Rico held a voter registration event on the Rio Piedras campus, and when all the school lost power, it was a reminder of Puerto Rico’s new normal: one of widespread. there are power cuts only longer and more repeated in recent years Since 2017, it has been constantly rebuilding its hurricane-damaged power grid.
Hundreds of students who participated in the event could not participate register to vote on Tuesday after being cut off, but organizers urged people to come back on Tuesday. About 300 students became newly registered voters and dozens more updated their existing voter registration with their last address.
Several voting rights and civic activism organizations shared videos and photos on social media showing long lines of people at various voter registration events on various college campuses.
Bad Bunny’s comments come days after Somos Más, a non-profit organization based in Puerto Rico. released the data It finds that 75% of all new voters under the age of 21 are not yet registered to vote.
The numbers are consistent with a general decline in new voter registration and voter turnout since 2012, which experts attribute to both increased elections, according to the organization. Lack of trust in Puerto Rican government institutions and population loss.
In the last 15 years, more than 700,000 working-age Puerto Ricans have been forced to migrate to the US mainland. Due to the economic turmoil stemming from Puerto Rico’s financial crisis The largest public debt restructuring in US historyand devastating natural disasters 2017 Hurricane Maria and a A series of earthquakes in 2020.
Against this backdrop, Puerto Ricans have become increasingly critical of the partisan lines that have deeply divided local voters for more than five decades, resulting in significantly lower voter turnout in the past two election cycles.
In 2016, there was Puerto Rico record low voter turnout 55%73% to 89% is an unusual milestone for an island known for its high voter turnout. Voter turnout remained at 55% 2020 election.
Traditionally, most people have supported either statehood New Progress Party or People’s Democratic Partysupports the existing territorial status. A smaller percentage of “independents” support it Puerto Rico Independence PartyDefending independence from the United States
But the rise of independent candidates and emerging political parties, e.g Citizens’ Victory Movementworking on an anti-colonial ideology and The merit of the projectIt emerged as a result of growing distrust of local government institutions, which are supporters of Christian democracy and have been run by establishment parties in recent years.
This year, members of the Puerto Rican Independence Party and the Citizens’ Victory Movement united under a new coalition called the Alianza de Pais in an attempt to challenge the establishment parties.
Desperate for change, young voters who only know Puerto Rico in crisis are more open and support new, emerging candidates than older voters.
“It’s not going to change overnight, but at some point we’re going to have to start rebuilding Puerto Rico,” Bad Bunny said as he urged people to to register to vote.
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