Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

This presentation will feature a curated playlist of music that was produced in Puerto Rico during the "#RickyRenuncia" protests in the summer of 2019. The music produced during the protests documents a shift in the terms of Puerto Rican post-hurricane political activism.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation will feature a curated playlist of music that was produced in Puerto Rico during the weeks of the "#RickyRenuncia" protests, also referred to as "Telegramgate" and "RickyLeaks".

In July 2019, over a million people conducted a series of island-wide protests demanding the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rosselló. The protests were in response to a series of scandals associated with Rossello's administration responsibility in hurricane disaster profiteering, the FBI arrest of the Secretary of Education on corruption charges, allegations of influence peddling at Puerto Rico's Department of the Treasury and at the Governor's Cabinet, mismanagement of the public debt, and to a string of neo-liberal policies.

This playlist represents a sample of the extraordinary amount of music that was produced in support of the protest movement. My presentation will contextualise this set-list in relation to broader traditions of Puerto Rican protest music and musical responses to Puerto Rican colonialism. The music produced during the #RickyRenuncia protests represent a shift in the terms of Puerto Rican protest music from a narrative associated with romantic-nationalist traditions to a more nuanced message that acknowledges the heterogeneous character of the Puerto Rican franchise. This shift is illustrative of changing dynamics on the island's post-hurricane political activism.