Hawaii! Or, ‘What happened to Bad Bunny’ … Hey!

By Gregorio Igartúa

Special to The Star

The already well-known artist “Bad Bunny” (Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) composed a song titled “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii.”

Like his other songs, this one has also enjoyed acceptance among the public who likes his music. But, when you analyze its content you can discover how unfounded and contradictory it is, with the incorrect facts on which it is based. The truth is that they must be evaluated in order to rationally determine their lack of certainty and veracity. Hey!

The analysis is important if one considers that several pro-independence leaders have proclaimed to the people not to let «what happened to Hawaii happen to Puerto Rico.” Hey! Let’s see then what, according to the song, happened to Hawaii and what happened to Puerto Rico, and let’s consider history. Hey! The song refers incorrectly to the reason for the emigration of Puerto Ricans to Hawaii and the reasons for it at the beginning of the 20th century. At that historical time several thousand Puerto Ricans moved to Hawaii looking for a better life. This move coincided with the change of sovereignty in Puerto Rico and with that of Hawaii, both acquired by the United States. Hawaii became a state of our nation by the free will of its people (1959), and with the consent of its people, it was gradually assimilated to be like a state before becoming one.

And what does Don Benito Bad Bunny refer to in his song?: that the jíbaro who has left Puerto Rico looking for a better life in Hawaii, New York, or Orlando, left crying and left not voluntarily but because they kicked him out of Puerto Rico, hey!; it is not known until when he left, hey! that in Puerto Rico they are taking away the rivers, the beaches and the neighborhoods from the Puerto Ricans, hey!; let them hold on to their flag, and don’t ever forget it. Hey!

That all those who have left dream of returning. Hey! Don’t do to Puerto Rico what happened to Hawaii. Hey! One may wonder, then, where the crowds that filled the beaches on July 4 in Puerto Rico came from. Who in Puerto Rico does not have family members who voluntarily moved to the states and did not return?

Don Benito Bad Bunny, the Bad Rabbit in Spanish, is an independentista. But as Don Luis Muñoz Marín said, with a “revolution of spirit inside.” Without going into the details of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) violations regarding the content of some of his songs, the approaches to his Hawaii song demonstrate how incredible the reason for no reason is sold as being completely incorrect. Hey! In both cases, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, the citizens voluntarily preferred to be American citizens, and one became a state and in the other, the majority wants to be a state. The American citizens of Puerto Rico have voluntarily become almost a state, something he criticizes. Hey! There are 5 million Puerto Rican Americans residing in the states. In Hawaii there is a population of 30,000 inhabitants of Puerto Rican descent who do not want to return, even with the ticket paid for by Benito, who can pay for it and doesn’t. In fact, they have preserved their culture for more than a century. Hey!

So, if we refer to invasion, those who have invaded the most are the Puerto Ricans by moving to the States and giving concerts for the nation. In Puerto Rico the doors are not closed to those who want to return. We all want the flag of Puerto Rico and the United States, because we accept the federalist system as that of the states with the nation.Hey! Let Benito know, we are Americans, not pro-Americans (LMM).

Furthermore, the citizens of Hawaii have better salaries and a per capita income double that of those of Puerto Rico, because in the case of the latter there are citizens like Benito el Conejo Malo who continue to insist on delaying equality in democracy and maintaining the unequal economic treatment that has us bankrupt. Meanwhile, Benito continues to earn thousands of dollars from the American citizens of Puerto Rico and from tourists from the states that visit us (or they invade us … capitalism to the maximum). Hey! Benito with his great successes arrogantly tries to be a politician, but with his contradictions he is just another one -- Calle 13, Alexandria Ocasio, Nydia Velázquez, Luis Gutiérrez and Rubén Berríos, etc. -- who want independence for Puerto Rico but statehood for themselves with their residence in the states. Hey!

It is not what happened to Hawaii, nor is it what happened to Puerto Rico, it is what happens to Benito Bad Bunny or Benito El Conejo Malo. Hey! Why don’t they come back? Hey!

Gregorio Igartúa is an attorney and a longtime advocate of statehood for Puerto Rico.