Puerto Rico State News

Puerto Rico’s rainforest center reborn: in pictures

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:00:02 +0000

After two devastating hurricanes, El Yunque national forest has built a new visitors center that hosts a vibrant arts festival

Trump’s ‘Brute Force Imperialism’

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:57:31 +0000

From saber rattling over Greenland to war with Iran, the Opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie argues, treating the world like a game of Risk has left America in its weakest position since World War II.

Gabbard testimony on Puerto Rico voting machines raises questions about role of Venezuela conspiracy theory

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 17:50:56 +0000

National intelligence director said voting machine seizure was requested by US attorney in Puerto Rico – who’s been trying to revive 2020 election conspiracy theory

When the US director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, testified on Thursday that her office seized voting machines from Puerto Rico, she said it was at the request of the office of the US attorney in Puerto Rico. Left unsaid was that the prosecutor, as the Guardian previously reported, has been the center of a push by Donald Trump supporters to revive a long discredited conspiracy theory purporting to link Venezuela to Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat.

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the conspiracy theory maintains, controlled electronic voting machines worldwide and remotely manipulated results in 2020 to deprive Trump of a presidential victory.

Willie Colón obituary

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 20:24:46 +0000

New York-born Puerto Rican trombonist, singer, bandleader and exponent of salsa credited with nearly 40 albums

In the late 1960s, a fresh Latin music style blasted out from New York City, spurred on by an adventurous new record label. Salsa was a blend of Cuban and Puerto Rican influences, fused with R&B and jazz, and the finest salsa exponents recorded for Fania Records. The Nuyorican (New York-born Puerto Rican) trombonist, singer and bandleader Willie Colón, who has died of respiratory issues aged 75, played a key role in promoting and transforming the new style, and went on to sell more than 30m albums. Siembra, his 1978 collaboration with the Panamanian singer-songwrter Rubén Blades, was one of the most adventurous and successful albums in the history of salsa, selling more than 3m copies.

Fania Records was founded in New York in 1964 by Johnny Pacheco, a celebrated bandleader and flautist from the Dominican Republic, and Jerry Masucci, a former divorce lawyer. They knew their market and proved expert in recognising new talent. Colón was signed to Fania when he was 15, and on the advice of Pacheco he teamed up with the singer Héctor Lavoe. Their first album, El Malo (1967), was a hit, selling more than 300,000 copies, helped by astute marketing.

Willie Colón was an explosive energy source who took salsa into the stratosphere

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 12:29:31 +0000

With his gangster image, Colón ruffled the feathers of the musical establishment, but thrilled millions of fans as he displayed the raw rhythmic possibility of salsa

Willie Colón, who has died in New York at the age of 75, was many things: master blaster of Nuyorican salsa; Puerto Rican superstar; actor in Mexican soap operas; an activist and, later, a reactionary in New York politics. These are just a few of the myriad accomplishments of a musician who always seemed to be in a hurry to move on, make new music and get into a spat with a fellow salsero or political opponent. Colón was an energy source, a musician as loud and vibrant – and sometimes infuriating – as the city he lived and died in.

While to Nuyoricans – Puerto Ricans living in New York – Colón was a legend, to many Anglo New Yorkers he barely registered, perhaps noted by a few for playing with David Byrne during the singer’s adventures in Latin American music. He was nominated for 10 Grammys but never troubled the US Top 40, yet across much of Latin America he was arguably the most celebrated brass player of the past six decades, winning the Latin Grammys’ musical excellence award in 2004. Colón was to salsa what Elvis Presley was to rock’n’roll – the fearless teenager whose loose, fast, rough interpretation of the music he heard on the streets helped create a genre that grew into the dominant Latin dance music.

‘One of the legends’: Bad Bunny joins tributes to US salsa pioneer Willie Colón

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 10:45:13 +0000

Puerto Rican rapper speaks at concert of Colón’s influence after trombonist, vocalist and composer dies aged 75

Tributes have poured in from stars including Bad Bunny for Willie Colón, the pioneering trombonist, vocalist and composer who died on Saturday aged 75.

With more than 30m albums sold, multiple platinum records and 11 combined Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations, Colón is among the most successful salsa artists of all time.

Spanish-speaking Bad Bunny stirs lost Latin identity among Brazil’s music fans

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 08:00:26 +0000

Puerto Rican singer sells out concerts in Portuguese-speaking Brazil with breakthrough ‘anti-American agenda of emancipation’

There is a saying in Brazil that Brazilians realise they are Latin only when they travel to the US or Europe.

Among the many reasons for this is that the largest country in Latin America is also the only one in the region where Portuguese is spoken rather than Spanish.

Bad Bunny set for first lead acting role in historical drama Porto Rico

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:18:16 +0000

The Grammy winner will star alongside Edward Norton and Javier Bardem in a film inspired by an early 20th century revolutionary, directed by rapper Residente

Fresh off his victorious Super Bowl half-time show, Bad Bunny will take on his first lead acting role. The rapper and sometime actor will star in Porto Rico, a love letter to his home of Puerto Rico directed by the veteran rapper René “Residente” Pérez Joglar.

As announced by Deadline, the film boasts a starry cast including Viggo Mortensen, Javier Bardem and Edward Norton, as well as executive producer Alejandro G Iñárritu, director of Birdman and The Revenant.

Bad Bunny and the Art of Protest

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 20:53:55 +0000

Wesley Morris and Sasha Weiss discuss Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime show and protest art more broadly.

Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:39:45 +0000

We weren’t prepared for the emotional roller coaster Bad Bunny Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio took us on.

At the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny challenged the meaning of ‘America’

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:28:50 +0000

The Puerto Rican star’s vision of American identity moved beyond colonial tropes to span an entire hemisphere

By now, many of us have a favorite part of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time performance. It’s a dense, rich set that invites rewatching to take in every thoughtful, exuberant detail – even though it’s barely 14 minutes long.

My most beloved part occurs a little more than nine minutes into the homage, when the cuatro puertorriqueño appears. The stringed instrument has its own moment in the spotlight, shown in the talented hands of the cuatrista José Eduardo Santana just before Ricky Martin performs.

‘Made me feel proudly American’: stars react to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 16:48:41 +0000

While Trump has attacked the Grammy-winning Puerto Rican star, celebrities have come out in force to support the half-time show

As blue, red and white fireworks filled the sky at the end of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show, a message filled the screen in all capitals: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

It was the enduring statement from a 13-minute spectacle that invited an estimated 135.4 million viewers into Bad Bunny’s world, with richly textured references to politics, history and Puerto Rican culture. The artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio transformed the pitch of the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, into his own love letter to the island, with cinematic set pieces including sugarcane fields, a house party, and a lively wedding ceremony featuring a surprise performance by Lady Gaga.

‘A statement about power shifting’: why Bad Bunny wore Zara for his Super Bowl show

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 16:16:49 +0000

Puerto Rican musician transformed high street fashion into a symbol of cultural power and accessibility

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show review – a thrilling ode to Boricua joy

Of the many cultural flashpoints in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time performance on Sunday, one that few observers saw coming was his decision to wear two outfits by the Spanish high street brand Zara.

As the most-watched event on US television, the Super Bowl half-time show is a marketing moment as much as a musical one. From Rihanna’s pregnancy reveal to Kendrick Lamar’s show-stealing jeans, the 13-minute showcase has long doubled as a luxury fashion parade.

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show: Takeaways and Best Moments

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:21:18 +0000

Popcast’s immediate thoughts after Bad Bunny took the stage for a tribute to his native Puerto Rico.

The New Way Trump Allies Are Offering Access to the President, and the Flood of U.S. Ammo to Mexican Cartels

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:00:24 +0000

Plus, Super Bowl and Olympics highlights.

Seahawks Win Super Bowl, and Bad Bunny Shines at Halftime Show

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:55:59 +0000

The Seattle Seahawks beat the New England Patriots on Sunday to become the Super Bowl champions. Bad Bunny performed the first mostly Spanish-language halftime show.

Bad Bunny Delivers a Love Letter to Puerto Rico at Super Bowl Halftime

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 04:47:18 +0000

His performance featured a sugar cane field, a wedding seemingly officiated onstage and a New York-style street scene, along with appearances by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.

Bad Bunny’s Sign Language Interpreter Will Make Super Bowl History, Too

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 18:09:46 +0000

Puerto Rican Sign Language is not the same as American Sign Language. Celimar Rivera Cosme will uniquely capture the rapper’s slang for the game’s deaf viewers.

How Bad Bunny Gives Voice to Puerto Rico’s ‘Crisis Generation’

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 13:07:04 +0000

Young Puerto Ricans say the star has opened the world’s eyes to their challenges, and to the island’s fraught territorial relationship with the U.S. government.

Bad Bunny gives Super Bowl viewers two choices: crash out or tap in

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 12:00:31 +0000

The claim that music sung in Spanish will alienate viewers ignores the fact that many people would rather join the fun than risk being left out of it

The morning after the 3 January US military action in Venezuela, in which Nicolás Maduro was captured, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily closed airspace in parts of the eastern Caribbean, and my stay in St Kitts stretched into an unexpected extra week. At the mercy of the systems that determine which corridors open and when, and who gets routed where, an overwhelmed customer service agent suggested I charter a boat to nearby St Maarten, fly to Amsterdam, and then stitch together a series of flights to avoid the affected airspace. I understood the Caribbean, then, less as a string of proximate islands and, instead, as a set of routes connected by powers elsewhere.

Power doesn’t just regulate airspace, it also governs cultural transmission – who gets broadcast, who gets heard, and on what terms. That’s why the handwringing over the Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, and the characterization of his almost exclusive use of Spanish in his music as an intrusion, feel so disingenuous. The drama isn’t about understanding the lyrics. Rather it’s a claim about Bad Bunny and his music as fundamentally un-American, stemming from a fear of feeling left out, or the more colloquially known fear of missing out (Fomo).

Bad Bunny Fans Are Ready for ‘Benito Bowl’

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 10:02:45 +0000

For some viewers, the Super Bowl game is simply a prelude to a historic halftime show.

‘It’s become more about politics than music’: what will Bad Bunny bring to the Super Bowl?

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 10:03:00 +0000

Grammy-winning Puerto Rican star is in the center of US culture wars before leading this weekend’s half-time show

A few days after Christmas 2022, Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican reggaetonero, appeared without warning on one of the most unlikely of stages: the roof of a Gulf Oil gas station in San Juan. To a massive crowd singing every word, he performed a surprise concert, along with friend and collaborator Arcángel, that was part hype-y music video shoot, part exultant post-tour homecoming, and part pointed critique. He ended the set with El Apagón (“The Power Outage”), a clubby protest anthem about local displacement and the rolling blackouts that have plagued Puerto Rico, a US “commonwealth” (read: colony), since Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Bad Bunny sang it from a roof on Santurce’s Calle Loíza, a thoroughfare in a former working-class Black neighborhood now dotted with Airbnbs. But you do not need the full context to get the show’s contagious energy. Though I have never walked Calle Loíza, nor do I speak Spanish, the gas station show is still my favorite concert to rewatch via online fan clips: electric, organic, genuinely popular. In terms of reach, critical acclaim and longevity, Bad Bunny rivals – and sometimes outsells – the likes of Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Drake, though it is hard to imagine those peers appearing so unguarded, so public, as he does on that roof.

Fans race to learn Spanish before Bad Bunny's Super Bowl half-time show

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 23:42:50 +0000

The Puerto Rican singer’s highly anticipated Super Bowl half-time show has inspired non-Spanish speakers to study Puerto Rican dialect and slang

Bad Bunny is expected to perform the Super Bowl half-time show on Sunday entirely in Spanish – which has inspired fans to quickly learn the language.

In October, the Puerto Rican singer – born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – kicked off the 51st season of Saturday Night Live expressing pride over the achievement in Spanish, after which he said in English, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!”

Trump set to pardon ex-Puerto Rico governor after ‘political prosecution’

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 20:48:20 +0000

Wanda Vázquez Garced, who accepted plea deal over campaign finance violation, endorsed Trump in 2020

Donald Trump reportedly intends to pardon Puerto Rico’s former governor Wanda Vázquez Garced, who was indicted in 2022 on federal corruption charges surrounding her earlier gubernatorial campaign.

In addition to Vázquez, Trump plans to pardon her co-defendants including Julio Martín Herrera Velutini, founder of Britannia Financial Group; as well as Mark Rossini, a former FBI agent who served as a consultant for Herrera, according to CBS, which first reported the development on Friday.

NFL will not reconsider Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show despite Trump backlash

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 18:18:34 +0000

Commissioner says backlash is inevitable, defends pick
Bad Bunny set to perform in Spanish at Levi’s Stadium
Trump previously called choice ‘absolutely ridiculous’

The NFL will not drop Bad Bunny as its Super Bowl half-time headline performer, commissioner Roger Goodell said on Wednesday.

In doing so, Goodell reaffirmed a decision to put the Puerto Rican artist on the league’s biggest stage, something that led to criticism from Donald Trump and some of his supporters.

Argentina soccer game moved from Chicago due to Trump’s immigration crackdown

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 20:50:24 +0000

Friendly against Puerto Rico moved to Fort Lauderdale
Game will now take place at Chase Stadium

A soccer match between Argentina and Puerto Rico, originally scheduled for next week in Chicago, has been relocated to Florida amid the immigration crackdown in the city, a person familiar with the decision told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

The friendly match was supposed to be played on 13 October at Soldier Field in Chicago but will be moved to Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, the home stadium of Argentina and Inter Miami star Lionel Messi.

Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird review – Mars Volta bromance looks for time out

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 06:00:03 +0000

Exhaustive documentary tracking the sweet fraternity between Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala goes a little sour

Love, apparently, is going through a Scientology initiation ceremony. That’s what At the Drive-In and Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López finally agrees to in order to convince singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala to work with him once again – even though it was the latter who asked to reconcile after dissolving the second of these outfits in 2012. Nicolas Jack Davies’s wearing documentary charts this intense friendship and creative collaboration from their early days as afro-haired Puerto Rican dervishes on the largely white 1990s Texan punk scene, through the vicissitudes of their numerous musical outlets.

“If this ever gets weird” is their day-one promise to each other: that they will dissolve whatever band they are working on if it threatens their relationship. It has definitely got weird by the time a frazzled Bixler-Zavala jealously criticises his running buddy’s side projects on social media. And then later, suspecting Rodríguez-López of being a “suppressive person” (to use the lingo of the Church), he forces him to get his thetans checked. At this point, the pair have already weathered two cycles of exhilaration and disillusionment with their two main groups – as well as the fatal overdose of Mars Volta creative galvaniser Jeremy Ward.

The pill, Puerto Rico and the patriarchal medical system | Letters

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 16:15:14 +0000

Rebecca Siddall responds to an article on attitudes to the contraceptive pill and reflects on medical misogyny

Your article on contraception misinformation does not consider the long history of medical misogyny (Online misinformation putting women off contraceptive pill, study finds, 13 September). I am a PhD researcher studying the cultural discourse on contraception. I’m also a young woman within the age range and online culture that you talk about, and within my work I explore this space critically.

Effectively, it is wrong to assume a value-neutral background when researching attitudes to contraception, a medical technology that is only available to us now through historical injustices enacted upon women, especially women of colour.

Bad Bunny says he left US out of world tour due to fear of Ice raids at concerts

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 03:45:14 +0000

Puerto Rican rapper says he and his team were ‘very concerned’ that Ice agents might target his performances

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Bad Bunny says he excluded the US from his forthcoming world tour due to fears that, as a prominent Latino musician, his fans would be subjected to immigration raids.

In an interview with i-D magazine on Wednesday, the three-time Grammy-winning musician was asked whether he was skipping the US “out of concern about the [mass deportations of] Latinos”.

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The Guardian view on the ‘war on drugs’: Donald Trump is turning a failed metaphor into a more dangerous reality | Editorial

Sun, 07 Sep 2025 17:30:26 +0000

The strike on a speedboat allegedly containing Venezuelan drug traffickers may be performative, but sets a frightening precedent

More than five decades ago, Richard Nixon launched a “war on drugs”. The drugs won. Now Donald Trump is turning a failed metaphor into a worse reality.

On Tuesday the US president claimed that the military had killed 11 drug traffickers from Venezuela, posting footage of the strike that US officials said took place on a speedboat in international waters in the Caribbean. The administration supplied no evidence for its claim that the boat contained Tren de Aragua members, or drugs, and gave varying accounts of its destination. It also warned that there was more to come, with the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, arguing that intercepting boats had not curbed the drugs problem: “What will stop them is when you blow them up.” Earlier this year, Mr Trump secretly ordered the use of military force against cartels internationally.

Young adults in Puerto Rico are struggling financially. Here's what that means and why some return

Sun, 10 Nov 2024 13:27:00 +0000

More than half of adults ages 18 to 29 in Puerto Rico are financially fragile compared to older generations on the island, and young adults in the U.S.

Trump's closing campaign message is hampered by distractions, disconnect

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 16:14:00 +0000

Donald Trump's campaign has faced backlash for several controversial remarks in the final days of his campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Harris plays cleanup on Biden 'garbage' comment

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:39:00 +0000

A racist joke about Puerto Rico that Tony Hinchcliffe told at a rally for Donald Trump is an issue in the Republican's campaign against Kamala Harris.

Trump rally comedian workshopped racist Puerto Rico line at NYC comedy club the night before

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:46:00 +0000

The comments have drawn intense anger and reignited the criticism over Trump's handling of Hurricane Maria's devastating aftermath in Puerto Rico.

Harris rejects Tony Hinchcliffe's racist remarks about Puerto Rico at Trump MSG rally as 'nonsense'

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 17:31:00 +0000

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris said GOP nominee Donald Trump is "fixated on his grievances, on himself and on dividing our country."

My dream was to own a home in Puerto Rico—at 37, I bought an oceanfront condo: Take a look inside

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 12:15:00 +0000

"Financially Lit!" author Jannese Torres shares how she achieved her dream of owning a home in Puerto Rico, where her family is from.

Hurricane Ernesto aims for Bermuda after leaving many in Puerto Rico without power or water

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 11:15:00 +0000

A hurricane warning was in effect for Bermuda, with Ernesto expected to pass near or over the island on Saturday.

Ernesto becomes a hurricane after pummeling northeast Caribbean and knocking out power in the region

Tue, 13 Aug 2024 13:45:00 +0000

Ernesto strengthened into a hurricane on Wednesday, dropped torrential rain on Puerto Rico and threatened to strengthen into a major storm en route to Bermuda.

Puerto Rico After Maria – The Media & The Reality

Sun, 29 Oct 2017 22:18:29 +0000

Puerto Ricans came together to help residents of neighbor islands in the Caribbean who got hit by Hurricane Irma; as we were still lending a hand, Puerto Rico had a few days to prepare for the most devastating hurricane in a century. It’s been a month now since Maria hit, most likely you will not […]

The post Puerto Rico After Maria – The Media & The Reality appeared first on Puerto Rico.

Tourism in Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria – A Month After

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 21:22:32 +0000

The post Tourism in Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria – A Month After appeared first on Puerto Rico.