Back home in Bolivia, I’m on aux. As my mom’s co-pilot, I’m preoccupied with curating our drive, and I take great pride in my song choices. It was during one of these car rides that I stumbled upon Bad Bunny’s newest release, “DeBí TiRAR MáS FOToS,” and after playing the first tunes, I realized I picked a good one.
This album acts as a love letter to his Puerto Rico, balancing a celebration of heritage with political commentary that underscores both grief and nostalgia.
The first track, “NUEVAYoL” follows the familiar melodies of “Un Verano En Nueva York,” a classic salsa song, and as my mom gently drummed her fingers to the beat tune on the car’s steering wheel, I understood. Bad Bunny, by sampling traditional Latin American sounds, transcends not just genre, but borders too, connecting his listeners to a diaspora the media fails to mention.
The third track of this album “BAILe INoLVIDABLE” (“Unforgettable Dance”) embodies this music appreciation that raised a majority of Latinos. This song reflects the love Latin Americans have for their countries, forced to leave them but never able to forget them. As the song goes, “No, no te puedo olvidar / No, no te puedo borrar / Tú me enseñaste a querer / Me enseñaste a bailar.” I can’t forget you; I can’t erase you; you taught me how to love; you taught me how to dance. Through these lyrics, Bad Bunny sings about the imprint our homelands have on us, because even when they’re riddled with economic crises and political instability, they are still the places that taught us how to be human and we can’t ever truly strip ourselves from them, no matter how hard we try.
Bad Bunny further explores these political themes in tunes like “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii,” calling Puerto Ricans and Latinos alike to defend their land. He urges his people to hold on to their flags and their culture, so that what was done to Hawai’i isn’t done to them.
Puerto Rico and Hawai’i share many similarities, as both used to be their own islands which then became part of the United States, and are now subjected to the transformation of their once independent culture into that of American culture. Accompanying this album, Bad Bunny released a short film depicting this phenomenon taking place in Puerto Rico, as Americans begin to take over and completely alter the landscape of this Caribbean island.
“Sometimes young people can think, and I used to think this when I was a kid, this type of music is for old people, that’s my abuelita’s or my grandpa’s music,” Bad Bunny told The New York Times in an interview. “But when you grow up, you start to appreciate it and understand it more,” he continued. In this way, this album incorporates the music of our “abuelitas” and “abuelos” to celebrate the Latino identity and reclaim it.
In recent years, people’s appreciation for Latin American culture has grown, while their tolerance for our people has only decreased. To have an album that so loudly celebrates our culture and brings to light our struggles is monumental. As Bad Bunny expressed in an interview for Billboard en Español, “Este proyecto es de todos los que nos sentimos orgullosos de ser de Puerto Rico y de ser Latinos.” This project is for everyone who feels proud to be from Puerto Rico and to be Latino.
For many Latinos, “DeBí TiRAR MáS FOToS” isn’t just a sentiment of nostalgia, but a bittersweet ache for everything we had to abandon in pursuit of life in the States. Though Latin America is a beautiful place, it’s also deeply troubled. Many of us who were born and raised there know better than anyone that given the chance to start a new life somewhere that promises more stability, we will take it. However, that doesn’t mean that we won’t miss our homes or our cultures because, as Bad Bunny expresses in this album, we do. We miss and love it with every part of our tired spirits, heavy from carrying the guilt that accompanies our escape. That’s the reason this album, more than just connecting me back to my roots, spoke to my soul.
Bad Bunny told the Times: “When you are far, sometimes you can see better, you can appreciate more.” At its core, “DeBí TiRAR MáS FOToS” gets to this quality in which you don’t truly know who you are or what you had until it’s gone. I didn’t know how to appreciate my Bolivian identity until I was thousands of miles away from it. But sometimes, all it takes is distance to realize that what you had and who you were was everything you ever needed.
Listening to this album, I knew it wasn’t really meant for me. Despite the fact that Bad Bunny is singing in Spanish and playing into traditional Latin American sounds, he had Puerto Rico at heart. But part of the beauty of this album is that even as the songs are replete with Puerto Rican slang and Caribbean melodies my Bolivian ears have only ever heard in ballrooms at a distant relative’s weddings, the songs still resonate with my experiences growing up in Latin America.
These songs had me revisiting the music my parents used to play during family Sunday barbecues; those melodies my grandmother swayed to as she sang along in her seat, or even those songs that my mom would force my dad to dance to in the middle of our living room. In reality, I believe that the purpose of “DeBí TiRAR MáS FOToS” was to achieve exactly that; to reach into the roots and unearth those uncomfortable feelings of nostalgia most of us who have left Latin America feel when reminiscing. It hurts to think back, but it’s so important to do so. As Bad Bunny sings in the title track “DtMF,” “Debí tirar más fotos de cuando te tuve.” I should’ve taken more pictures of when I had you. While we still have our land, we should preserve them, if not with our actions, at least by remembering it. With the current Bolivian government’s insidious intent to rule forever and with everyone moving away like me, everything there might be unrecognizable soon. So before it fades, I should probably take more pictures.
