Jorell Melendez-Badillo’s Puerto Rico: A National History is a fascinating and vividly told history of Puerto Rico.
Aníbal González-Pérez wrote of the book:
“Gripping… convincing… richly imagined… A harrowing, compelling read.”
In his own words, here is Jorell Melendez-Badillo’s Book Notes music playlist for his book Puerto Rico: A National History:
As a former singer in a punk band, music has been crucial in my intellectual and scholarly trajectory. It has provided me with a compass rooted in a D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) ethos, and it has also provided me a way to express some of the ideas that permeate my written work.
The writing of Puerto Rico was accompanied by some of the songs that I have provided here. I have decided to select a song that resembles the ethos of each one of the book’s chapters. The eclectic mix of sounds, from salsa to punk, and from boleros to rap, encapsulate the plurality of experiences, sounds, and cultures that compose the Puerto Rican nation, which is the topic of the book.
Prologue – “I Am Never Coming Back Here.”
Song: “Lluvia con sol” by Orquesta El Macabeo
El Macabeo is a Salsa group originally formed by members of the Puerto Rican punk community. Echoing the ethos of the book’s prologue, the song’s lyrics jestingly document the complex realities that Puerto Ricans live through every single day. For many people in the Caribbean, the experience of driving through a rainy, yet sunny day without wiper blades or a/c in the Caribbean heat is a powerful metaphor of Puerto Rico’s collective existence. The festive tone add to the irony of the song’s profound meaning, a perfect harmony of some of the themes that I sought to document throughout Puerto Rico.
Chapter one – Consolidating the Colonial Project
Song: “Obao Moin” by Roy Brown and Aires Bucaneros
Originally a poem written by the nationalist poet Juan Antonio Corretjer, the song marked a generation imbued in the Latin American protest song. The poem captures the violent thrust of the Spanish conquest, providing powerful imageries of blood-flowing rivers from the exploitation of Indigenous peoples, enslaved African-descent people, and white peons. I listened to several versions of this song as I began writing and thinking about chapter one where I recount the insurrection led by Agüeybaná II.
Chapter two – Revolutionary Winds: From Reform to Revolution
Song: “Blacklight Shine” by The Mars Volta
In the book’s second chapter, I discuss the ways that Spain’s colonial project was consolidated in the Puerto Rican archipelago. There was, however, resistance, which took various forms. This song by the Mars Volta, whose main guitar player, Omar Rodríguez-López, was born in Puerto Rico, begins with beating drums that give way to a song about long-term resistance. The dizzying guitars provided me with a musical soundtrack to piece together vastly different historical events over several centuries of history.
Chapter three – Revolutionary Winds: From Reform to Revolution
Song: “Borinqueña revolucionaria” by Lizbeth Román
By the nineteenth century, several historical processes had given way to revolutionary fervor. In 1868, Puerto Ricans in the archipelago and abroad organized the Lares Revolution. The song was originally by Lola Rodríguez de Tió and is considered Puerto Rico’s first and true anthem by many people. For the writing of the book, the song served as an archive of revolutionary fervor, anger, and how Puerto Ricans imagined other futures.
Chapter four – Imagining the Great Puerto Rican Family
Song: “En el juego de la vida” by Daniel Santos
I first encountered this song in a performance video titled “Río Piedras Memories Part 1” by the queer Dominican artist, writer, intellectual, and musician Rita Indiana. The song evokes the trope of racial democracy that nineteenth century intellectuals articulated but adds a more sinister twist by noting that there are limited options for people regardless of their class positionalities. Santos was also a very vocal advocate for Puerto Rican independence.
Chapter five – Chronicle of a War Foretold
Song: “As the Darkness Falls” by Maxene Cyrin
What people often overlook about the writing process for historians is that we need to read vast corpuses of literature and sources to craft our narratives. Part of my reading practice entails sitting in silence before opening a text, and then—when the option is available—to play instrumental music. This is one of my favorite songs to read to, and the title and song ethos reminded me of the themes explored in the chapter dealing with the U.S. occupation of Puerto Rico.
Chapter six – Foundations of U.S. Colonialism in Puerto Rico
Song: “This is Not America” by Residente
I often find myself telling students to rethink their use of the word “America” to refer solely to the United States. Following that same line, and replying to Childish Gambino’s “This is America,” Residente offers a meditation of the legacy of U.S. intervention in the region. As chapter six demonstrates, the end of the war of 1898, when Puerto Rico became a colonial possession of the United States, marked a turning point in the geopolitical history of the region.
Chapter seven – A Turbulent Decade
Song: “La máquina patinaba” by Mima
By the turn of the twentieth century, Puerto Rico had a highly functioning train system that connected people across the main island. This was later replaced by highways after the arrival of the car and its hegemony over the landscape. Originally a plena, a traditional musical style in Puerto Rico used to share contemporaneous stories and histories, the song documents the mechanical failures of the train. I chose this song because it serves as a powerful metaphor to the challenges that the U.S. colonial government and Puerto Ricans faced in the 1930s. While progress had been promised during the early days of the twentieth century, it was clear by the 1930s’ that la maquina patinaba (the machine skid).
Chapter eight – The Populist Moment
Song: “Me repito” by Orquesta el Macabeo
While many in Puerto Rico were dreaming of a glowing future at the mid twentieth century, the reality was vastly more complicated. At a moment when Puerto Rico was rapidly industrializing, crafting a new constitution, and establishing the Commonwealth, it seemed as if people, like the song notes, lived fast without taking off. “The worst part,” also notes the song, “is that I know how the story ends.”
Chapter nine – The Great Migration
Song: “Pa’lante” by Hurray for the Riff Raff
An integral part of the book’s main argument is that we need to conceptualize the diaspora as part of the Puerto Rican nation. Playing with Pedro Pietri’s poem “Puerto Rican Obituary”—which I also used in this chapter— Hurray for the Riff Raff delivers a heart-wrenching song about the longing for home and the beauty and pain of the Puerto Rican experience. The song’s title is also an homage to the Young Lords’ iconic phrase, “Pa’lante.”
Chapter ten – The Cold War and the New Push for Independence
Song: “Creyente a lo imposible” by El Hijo de Borikén and EL S. Vidal Quintero
The Cuban Revolution created a ripple effect in the Americas. Inspired by its example, the Puerto Rican independence movement redoubled its efforts through a myriad of tactics that include the creation of political parties or armed guerilla organizations. These efforts were not simple carbon copies of the Cuban example, but were rooted in a longstanding pro-independence tradition that stands to this day, as this song documents.
Chapter eleven – The Road to Collapse
Song: “Quitate de la vía Perico” by Ismael Rivera and Cortijo y su Combo
In this iconic song, Ismael Rivera, and Cortijo y su combo, talk about how a train ran over Perico—who happened to be deaf. The song can be understood as a metaphor—building on the above referenced MiMa song—of Puerto Rico as a skidding train running over a person that was unaware of the danger that was surrounding them.
Chapter twelve – Broken Promises and Ongoing Resistance
Song: “No funciona” by Juventud Crasa
This song by Puerto Rican hardcore punk legends Juventud Crasa has been deeply influential for me. The first piece I ever published, in a now-extinct newspaper, borrowed this song’s title: No funciona (It doesn’t work). The song is an echo of a generation that has lived through the trauma of fiscal collapse, austerity measures, and colonial neglect.
Chapter thirteen – The Night Everything Went Silent
Song: “Huracán” by Esotérica Tropical
Hurricane María became a turning point in Puerto Rico’s current history. This chapter documents the harsh realities that Puerto Ricans faced for months on end. This song served as the perfect backdrop when writing the chapter for it overturns the narrative of resilience and instead serves as an archive of the anger that people felt during and after the disaster.
Chapter fourteen – The Storm after Maria
Song: “Afilando los cuchillos” by Residente, Bad Bunny, and iLé
Stormy winds and a frail infrastructure were not the only problems that Puerto Ricans were facing. Rampant corruption, an unelected fiscal oversight board, and the staggering number of people dead after the hurricane due to governmental neglect created the conditions for a social explosion. The tipping point took place after a Telegram chat, including the governor and his inner circle, was leaked. In it, they not only mocked Hurricane María’s dead, but they also articulated racist, sexist, homophobic, and fatphobic comments. The reaction was a potent popular uprising. Artists joined the movement, and this song was the product of the Summer ’19 protests.
Chapter fifteen – Broken Memories and Future-Oriented Histories
Song: “El apagón” by Bad Bunny
After the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló things did not change for the better. A new host of foreign investors arrived to the archipelago in droves to take advantage of the country’s tax breaks. In the process, Puerto Ricans have resisted for it eerily reminded them about one of the chat’s participants, Edwin Miranda, who joked about a wonderful future of a Puerto Rico without Puerto Ricans. Bad Bunny’s “El apagón” addresses these themes without losing sight of the importance of pleasure and joy in the creation of a future Puerto Rico.
Acknowledgements
Song: “Back from the Moon” by Big Eyes
Writing a book is not an individual endeavor—it takes a community. Throughout my time working on this project, I had a community of people, starting with my wife and daughter to dear friends in Puerto Rico and the United States, that held me and inspired me in many ways. And while at times writing a national history seemed daunting, we did it. As the book gets published, I must fly back from the moon.
Jorell Meléndez-Badillo is assistant professor of Latin American and Caribbean history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of The Lettered Barriada: Workers, Archival Power, and the Politics of Knowledge in Puerto Rico.