What We Can Learn about Democracy from Bad Bunny
This blog was written by Zindy Marquez for Latinx Heritage Month.
In February, on the most-watched stage in American entertainment, a Puerto Rican artist turned a football field into a sugarcane field and held up a football that read: “Together, we are America.” This Latinx Heritage Month, we can learn a few things from Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, otherwise known as Bad Bunny, on how to build a thriving, multiracial democracy.
Benito and his music have had a global impact with people from all different cultures and identities. Benito was named Global Top Artist of 2025 by Spotify with more than 19.8 billion streams, becoming the first artist in history to claim the #1 global spot four times.
In 2026, he took to two large stages: first, at the Grammy Awards, where he won Album of the Year and made history with the first Spanish-language album to win this category; and second, at the Super Bowl halftime show, in which his headlining set was sung almost entirely in Spanish.
What Benito has done so well throughout his career is his ability to bring Puerto Rican culture to global stages, capturing the diversity of Latine people making all feel seen without losing the ability to tell the truthful history of Puerto Rico or holding those in power accountable. At every step of the way, he has kept the history of how colonization has harmed Puerto Rican people at the center of his art through songs like “La Mudanza,” where he talks about flying the original Puerto Rican flag in honor of those who died for doing so in the past, “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii,” where he calls out gentrification on the island, and “El Apagón,” where he highlights the mass power outages communities struggle with due to continued mismanagement of the island.
The United States continues to wrestle with many enduring impacts of centuries of systemic racism and has never truly reckoned with its past. At a time when leaders are doing everything they can to erase our nation’s history, we can learn from Benito to speak truth to power.
Benito also accomplishes this by singing only in his native language. His authenticity teaches us something important: too often, unity and democracy are framed as a “melting pot” where belonging is earned by assimilation and removing difference. It’s exactly the narrative our current leaders are trying to spread — that increasing diversity is a threat. Benito offers a different vision: one where everyone shows up entirely themselves, believes the system has room for them as they are, and nobody is persuaded to participate in a way that asks them to leave their language, their roots, or their history behind.
The United States is far from truly inclusive democracy. Despite the fact that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, they lack voting representation in Congress and cannot vote in presidential elections. Recent developments such as the gutting of the federal Voting Rights Act, censorship of U.S. history in education, and rollbacks of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are driving us further away from our vision of a multiracial democracy.
Benito teaches us through culture and music that communities must continue telling their stories, honor their culture, and hold people in power accountable. In this environment, growing apathetic is easy, but we must stay engaged. America is only a multiracial democracy when all its people can participate as full citizens. We must continue to demand fair representation — because we are here, we are activated, and we are not going anywhere.
In the words of Benito in “La Mudanza” - “de aquí nadie me saca, de aquí yo no me muevo, dile que esta es mi casa.”
It is fundamentally American to be vocal about our government and demand better. With just three weeks to go until Election Day, the best thing we can all do in the face of increasing threats to voting rights is to exercise our right to vote.
Make a plan to vote this Nov. 3. Make your voice heard in honor of those who fought and died for the promise of our democracy.
The fight is not over – let us learn courage, resistance, and persistence from Benito.