P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance

Join the Center for Latino and Latin American Studies for "P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance," with authors Professor Vanessa Díaz and Professor Petra Rivera Rideau for a virtual book talk at noon, Nov. 4, 2026.

Global superstar Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, like many other Puerto Ricans, has lived a life marked by public crises — blackouts, hurricanes, political corruption and oppression, among others — that have exposed the ongoing impacts of colonialism in Puerto Rico. Offering a portrait of the past and future of Puerto Rican resistance through one of its loudest and proudest voices, "P FKN R" draws on interviews with musicians, politicians and journalists as well as ethnographic research to set Bad Bunny and Puerto Rican resistance in a historical, political and cultural context. Authors Vanessa Díaz and Petra Rivera-Rideau, creators of the “Bad Bunny Syllabus,” demonstrate Bad Bunny’s place in a long tradition of infusing both joy and protest into music and honor the many evolving forms of daily resistance to oppression and colonialism that are part of Puerto Rican life.

Register today. A Zoom link will be emailed a day before the virtual talk.

With funding support from the Graduate Colloquium Program.

Vanessa Díaz is associate professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University and the author of

"Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood." Petra R. Rivera-Rideau is associate professor of American Studies at Wellesley College and the author of "Remixing Reggaetón: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico" and "Fitness Fiesta! Selling Latinx Culture Through Zumba."