This week’s social debate seems, on this occasion, to revolve around the controversy surrounding the huge Spanish-language music phenomenon. We are talking, of course, about the Casita of Benito Martínez Ocasio, Bad Bunny: a segment of his concert in which several public figures (until recently mostly women) dance live in front of the cameras.
The event has been criticised by conservative feminists such as Paula Fraga (are the women in the audience who appear in it – Marta Ortega, Ester Expósito and others – being objectified?) but defended by journalists such as Ana Requena and Alejandra Martínez. They argue that there is a deliberate attempt to shine a light on feminism’s contradictions in order to instrumentalise it and, in particular, to scrutinise the women who attend the concerts of a genre which, although less and less, is still disparaged today: reggaeton.
At the heart of the controversy, though overshadowed by the ideological clash, is the physical building itself. And, like every detail of the touring project ‘Debí tirar más fotos’, it carries a strong, identity-affirming message linked to Boricua, or Puerto Rican, identity.
The Caribbean island belongs to the United States as a self-governing, unincorporated territory – an issue addressed in the tracks on ‘DTMF’ and in Bad Bunny’s public discourse. In practice, this means that its citizens have fewer rights than US citizens living in the states: they have no vote in presidential elections and no voting representation in Congress, and several activists campaigning for the island’s independence have been imprisoned.
