In October of 2023, I had the pleasure of delivering a Hispanic Heritage Month lecture on Bad Bunny and Latinx theology for the Aquinas Center at Emory University. The event drew many enthusiastic students into conversation about Bad Bunny’s representation of various themes intersecting our Latinidad and our Catholic tradition. Clearly, the students at Emory are fans of Bad Bunny.
A recipient of various awards and a prestigious recognition as Spotify’s most listened to artist worldwide for three consecutive years, from 2020 to 2022, Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio (alias Bad Bunny) has captivated the hearts and minds of young persons around the world. Benito was raised in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, where he worked as a bagger at a grocery store before being catapulted to the international stage. His success is probably due to his incredible music-making skills as well as engagement in topics that are relevant to young people today.
In addition to the numerous Latinx theological and liberatory themes in his music and videos, I argue that Bad Bunny can teach us important things about Catholic ecclesiology—specifically about the dynamic between ressourcement and aggiornamiento.
Emblematic of the Second Vatican Council, ressourcement and aggiornamiento represent a tension within the Church between “returning to the source” (ressourcement) and “updating to keep with the signs of the times” (aggiornamiento). During conciliar deliberations, debate arose about the meaning and scope of each of these concepts; and these questions have yet to be fully addressed in our contemporary Church.
Bad Bunny’s reguetón music reflects a constant balance and integration of these two concepts. Ressourcement is present in his incorporation of traditions and cultural norms of Puerto Rico as well as his continuous sampling of classical reguetón songs from pioneer artists. Through his music, young Puerto Rican listeners can learn about their history and heritage in addition to the origins and development of reguetón as a genre. Aggiornamiento is present in Bad Bunny’s fearless engagement with contemporary controversies, namely those around matters of corruption in Puerto Rico and questions of sexual oppression. This engagement is reflected in lyrics, visuals and live performances.
For Bad Bunny, there is no ressourcement without aggiornamiento. Through the integration of both dynamics, he adeptly captivates his audience by simultaneously giving voice to their cultural traditional identity and their contemporary struggles.
Perhaps, among the many examples of this dual dynamic in Bad Bunny’s work, the greatest example of this integrated dynamic of ressourcement and aggiornamiento is seen in the lyrics and music video for his song, “El Apagón” [“The Blackout”]. Ressourcement is seen in the various references to historical and cultural figures in Puerto Rico, in the musical beats derived from Afro-Caribbean Bomba music and in the idioms found throughout the song. The music video features images from the various cultural references and different Puerto Rican people lip syncing to the song. Aggiornamiento is seen in the engagement with contemporary political and economic issues such as the constant post-hurricane blackouts and the government-sanctioned gentrification by millionaire U.S. Americans. Both issues are tackled in a 16-minute mini-documentary incorporated into the music video. Perhaps most interestingly, Bad Bunny is not afraid of highlighting a queer identity in his music and videos: “El Apagón” also showcases gay flags and queer people vogueing at a party. Thus, Bad Bunny combines the quest for economic and political liberation with a vision for sexual embodied liberation as well.
There are other notable examples where Bad Bunny infuses traditional culture with forward-thinking contemporary issues. The music video for “Titi me Preguntó,” where an archetypical aunt is asking Bad Bunny if he has a girlfriend and if he is getting married, contains a critique of compulsory heteronormativity with a scene depicting him getting kidnapped and forced down a wedding isle to marry the perfect bride coming down from heaven. The music video for “Yo Perreo Sola,” samples beats from classical reguetón but the lyrics contain a contemporary message about women’s self-sufficiency. More interestingly, in the video, Bad Bunny performs in drag, again queering gender and donning the “female persona” to convey a feminist message. In the song “Antes Que Se Acabe,” he samples the late Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado’s tag line “que reciban de mi siempre paz, mucha paz. Pero, sobre todo, mucho mucho mucho mucho amor” [may you receive my peace, lots of peace. But, above all, lots lots lots lots of love], along with messages about living in the moment, anti-racism and connecting with nature. The song “Baticano” (which is a Puerto Rican pronunciation of “Vaticano” [Vatican]) features a segment of a traditional preacher’s sermon shaming the congregation by saying “Dios te está mirando, Dios te está escuchando. Eso es lo que le estamos enseñando a nuestros hijos” [God is watching you and listening to you. That’s what we are teaching our children], which are phrases commonly heard in Puerto Rican culture. In response, Bad Bunny criticizes the hypocrisy of religious leaders on matters of sexuality and reminds them that they, too, are humans with sexuality that should be expressed without judgement. The music video for Baticano features Bad Bunny as a vilified Frankenstein’s monster (presumably for his sexual expressions), gloomy satanic figures watching over him and, at one point, a father prevents a kid from watching the TV screen where two men kiss. The aforementioned pastor is also depicted as a puppet with strings.
In sum, Bad Bunny’s art, which strikes a balance between the rhythms and themes of traditional reguetón and the contemporary questions facing Puerto Rican and Latinx persons, serves as a reminder for the Church of the need to make tradition relevant. To do so, the Church must be willing to listen and engage with all Catholics throughout the globe. In other words, the balance between ressourcement and aggiornamiento is a crucial part of the Synodal journey. The current polarization in the U.S. Church, which is mostly focused on ressourcement without aggiornamiento, will continue to alienate many young Catholics unless it learns to strike a proper balance between past, present and future.
Considering the increasing levels of teenage disaffiliation from the Church, Catholic leaders would be wise to listen to public figures who have managed to captivate contemporary youth and learn from their methods. Bad Bunny’s unique art, grounded in culture but looking toward the future, presents a prime example of such reflection. This method presents an opportunity for the Church, not to reject tradition, but to update it and keep it relevant.
Bad Bunny’s reguetón is a music for today! In the same way, the Church must become a Church that lives for today. It must become a Church that not only honors tradition, but also deploys it in the service of our contemporary understanding of humanity and society. It must become a Church for right now.
Ish Ruiz is the Provost-Candler Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Catholic Studies at Candler School of Theology, Emory University.