CULTURA | LA MATRIA

This Nuyorican Appreciates Benito

And yes, it’s complicated

Credit: Marisol snapping a picture of me near la casita en el Choli (Borinquen 20 Sep 2025)

Mientras uno está vivo, uno debe amar lo más que pueda.
~ Jacobo Morales, actor, escritor, poeta puertorriqueño

Note: original article published in español at El Adoquín Times (25 Sep 2025).

I’m a fan of Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, albeit, a conflicted one. On the one hand, there are his seemingly pro-feminist songs (“Ella Perrea Sola”), his support of our trans community (in February 2020, wearing a T-shirt “They Killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt”), and his immense love for our matria.

Then there’s the other side: lyrics sexualizing women (in a country where machismo is very much alive), his mansions across the ocean in colonizer country (but wait, ‘No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí ??), and his silence on Palestine.

Like I said, it’s complicated.

Still, when my friend, Rosamary, surprised me with a ticket for Bad Bunny’s last residency concert, I was ecstatic! So, I put on my flor de maga (shout out to Marisol), and prepared to experience what hundreds of thousands had enjoyed over the previous 30 shows: so many moments, INoLVIDABLES!

I confess that by not knowing most of his songs — nor did I know all those rappers at the seemingly…