“Una Velita” is not just a requiem for those killed in Hurricane Maria, but also a battle cry for change and solidarity
A couple of weeks ago, we marked the 7th year anniversary of Hurricane Maria.
A Category 5 hurricane, it was one of the strongest ever recorded to hit the Caribbean and the U.S. But the aftermath of the hurricane, just like we are now seeing with Hurricane Helene, lasted for months beyond the initial landfall.
In his latest song “Una Velita,” Caribbean artist Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known by his stage name Bad Bunny, calls out political corruption and energy inequality in his native Puerto Rico, and asks us all to remember the ones who were lost due to the disaster.
This is happening on the heels of several other Puerto Rican artists including Nicky Jam and Anuel AA coming out to support former president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who opposed disaster funding for Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria and didn’t want “a single dollar going to Puerto Rico,” according to an article in the Washington Post in 2019. Much of this is to the dismay of their many fans and even some previous collaborators.
But Bad Bunny’s political advocacy for Puerto Ricans is unsurprising given his 2018 performance of his song “Estamos Bien” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon about a year after the storm, which was meant to remind the audience about issues on the Caribbean archipelago post-Hurricane Maria.
The new song “Una Velita” has a solemn but somewhat hopeful tone. It begins with a traditional folkloric melody followed by a chorus of voices singing about the warning signs or an incoming storm. The dark skies, rain, and intense winds described in the song was probably what many people experienced in the Caribbean in 2017 as Hurricane Maria made landfall on September 20 over Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour.
The weeks that followed included catastrophic flooding that damaged wildlife areas and infrastructure. People in the mainland, including me and my own family, struggled to get a hold of our family who lived on the island. I remember my dad staring at his phone, hoping to get a message from his siblings, most of whom live in Puerto Rico.
The visual video for the song feels like a reminder of what it was like for those who had to struggle through the storm. The video features a single image with a solitary candle placed on top of a table decorated with a lace doily while another source of light flickers in the background, creating a serene but somewhat haunting effect. Near the candle lies a pair of glasses, an image of the Virgin Mary, and a bottle of prescription medication, perhaps in memory of the older and chronically ill people who suffered the most in the months after Hurricane Maria. (A 2021 study shows that more than three-fourths of the deaths due to the hurricane occurred among those who were 65 or older.)
“No olviden la viejita de allí, que vive sola, hay que irla a ayudar,” Bad Bunny sings, which translates to, “Don’t forget the old woman who lives alone over there, we have to go help her.”
But through the lyric “Recuerden que to’ somo’ de aquí, al pueblo el pueblo le toca salvar,” Bad Bunny also reminds us that it is up to the people to save each other.
This is because government officials on the island as well as from the mainland largely failed in their duty to take care of the people of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of the hurricane.
“More than 30 percent of surveyed households reported interruptions to medical care, with trouble accessing medications and powering respiratory equipment being the most frequently cited challenges. In the most remote areas, 83% of households were without electricity for this entire time period,” said a Harvard University press release.
According to U.S. Census data, the median age of someone living in Puerto Rico is about 45 years, several years higher than the overall U.S. median, which is around 39 years. About 24% of the population in Puerto Rico also identifies as disabled, compared to 13% of the U.S., which means many Puerto Ricans were left especially vulnerable from the disrupted access to medication and medical care after the storm passed.
So, for many, that little candle that wards off the darkness next to the religious icon was a small comfort in the moment.
In the song, Bad Bunny sings that he’ll never forget the almost 5,000 that “they” (referring to government officials) let die in the aftermath.
Initially, the official number of deaths from the hurricane was thought to be less than 100. But independent investigations that followed found that the number was likely to be in the thousands, with estimates ranging from a little under 3,000 to over 4,600 deaths.
Bad Bunny’s political commentary and advocacy for Puerto Ricans has ramped up leading up to this year’s election. Not too long ago, he was spotted in NYC holding a book titled “Guerra Contra Todos los Puertorriqueños: Revolución y Terror en la Colonia Americana” by author Nelson Antonio Denis, which translates to “War Against All Puerto Ricans: War and Terror in the American Colony” in English. The book outlines the 1950 revolution in Puerto Rico against U.S. imperialism that led to everything from assassination attempts to gunfights across several towns on the island.
Bad Bunny also recently revealed on social media that he paid for several billboards across Puerto Rico encouraging people to vote against the PNP (or El Partido Nuevo Progresista), the New Progressive Party that advocates for statehood instead of independence of the island. These billboards also critiqued LUMA Energy, the private electricity provider that manages the archipelago’s grid. In “Una Velita,” Bad Bunny references the palm tree that symbolizes the PNP, warning politicians that the tree will eventually be toppled.
“A vote for the PNP is a vote for corruption,” one of the billboards read. “A vote for the PNP is a vote for LUMA,” another said.
For anyone who has followed Bad Bunny’s career, this new song (and the billboards) aren’t very surprising. He has critiqued former president Trump and has called out bad policy in Puerto Rico for years. In 2017, he performed on stage wearing a T-shirt that said “eres Twitero o eres presidente?” which translates to “Are you a tweeter or are you a president?”
The political comments continued as his career took off. His first album x100pre included the song “Estamos Bien,” which means “we’re ok.”
“After one year of the hurricane, there’s still people without electricity in their homes,” he said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon a year after the hurricane. “More than 3,000 died and Trump is still in denial… but you know what, estamos bien.”
The song’s lyrics include a section where Bad Bunny thanks God that he is healthy even though there’s no power at home. But issues with electricity and power have continued for the island. Since the 2017 hurricane, the patched-up grid has not been improved. Power surges have damaged appliances, and Puerto Ricans often have to go days without reliable electricity.
Many have taken to protesting outside of electric company LUMA’s offices. Many protests have included residents piling up their messed up appliances to emphasize the economic stress these outages have caused them.
“LUMA pal carajo,” Bad Bunny said on stage in Puerto Rico in 2022, which means “LUMA go to hell.” This was during a concert for his fifth studio album’s release. That album included a song titled “El Apagón” or “the blackout.” In that song, he also threatened to slap Pedro Pierluisi, the governor of Puerto Rico and former coal lobbyist, and asked Americans and others who have bought beachfront properties on the island to get out. Even the music video for the song was filmed as a documentary featuring those concerned about the island’s future.
His 2023 album may not have been as political, but perhaps “Una Velita” was meant to serve as a reminder to his listeners that he hasn’t forgotten the island or the impact of Hurricane Maria. And he hopes that his listeners haven’t either. “We’ll never forget that,” he sings.
But remembering the past doesn’t preclude looking towards a hopeful future, and so he ends this song with “I'm waiting for the sun to come out, for the sun to come out. The sun will come out.”