by Alexis Miranda Duran
Once placed in a colonial context, multilingual music and the history of medicine share a unique relationship that not many people talk about. To begin, “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii” was a song released in January 2025 by Benito Martinez Ocasio, a popular latin artist known as Bad Bunny. Appearing on his album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, this song dives deeper into the history and politics of his Puerto Rican homeland than many of his previous songs. While primarily communicating a political message, this song also reveals broader methods of America maintaining its colonial power through the biomedical exploitations of Puerto Ricans and Hawaiians alike. I gained interest in this multilingual and multimodal connection with history, medicine, and Bad Bunny’s music because in my first English Composition class, my peers and I were tasked with interpreting an art form that could span across different modalities but could somehow be related back to bioethics and or medicine. Being a big fan of this new song and just history in general, I knew I could successfully bridge this connection to the biomedical abuses that the US established all across the Global South, specifically on these islands.
In the West, academic scholarship revolving around the interconnection between colonial history and Latin American music like Bad Bunny’s is limited, however, scholars primarily from diasporic and Latin American communities have many works that tied Bad Bunny’s work to these colonial and imperialist histories. For instance, Skye Gonzalez of Pace University in New York, wrote her thesis on how Bad Bunny’s music was a “Platform for Anticolonial Protest” and a form of “Advocacy for Indigenous Sovereignty” (Gonzalez). While these works similarly speak on the resistance to Western imperialism through Bad Bunny’s words, medical exploitations are not talked about as much, especially of those committed on the two islands
Bad Bunny sings not only about his home of Puerto Rico, but also about another victim of colonization and imperialism – Hawaii. Many of the songs released by Bad Bunny have largely been focused on his homeland of Puerto Rico, the small island that has gone through decades of exploitation as colonial powers like the United States attempt at maintaining their control in the region. Bad Bunny wants to display the sorrows of his homeland and Hawaii because the effects from what many perceive to be forgotten history are still greatly impacting the islands today, especially with the lingering effects of gentrification and loss of cultural ties becoming more and more apparent.
In this piece, I wish to display the ways that Bad Bunny uses his lyrics and sound to produce an overarching idea about the exploitation of the Puerto Rican and Hawaiian people, especially in relation to the colonial and biomedical abuses committed in these regions which were primarily done in the name of eugenics and political control. In both islands, US health officials promoted unethical biomedical research protocols and detrimental public health measures that have diminished the populations of Hawaii and Puerto Rico in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, respectively. Generally speaking, many latin artists and other musicians of the Global South sing more about the exploitation of their countries than those more part of Western society; however, Bad Bunny uniquely sings about and ties together two historically oppressed nations who happen to also be victims of scientific exploitation. His music already being placed in a multilingual stage helps to bridge the connection between the indigeneity of Puerto Rico and Hawaii that is at a constant assault by Western colonial powers.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the United States and the West in general were the sponsors of many colonial and imperialist projects that maintained the control of vulnerable populations across the Global South through almost any means necessary. In the late nineteenth century, the US annexed the native lands of Hawaii while conducting experimental research with little to no care for the health of the indigenous populations there. Similarly, in the mid to late twentieth century, the US annexed the island of Puerto Rico and in an attempt to control the fast increasing population of the island, they implemented laws and experimental drugs/operations that violated the bodily autonomy of Puerto Rican women and again significantly decreased the population of the island.
To expand on the colonial similarities shared between these two islands as Bad Bunny sings of, one can analyze the biomedical abuses that have been carried out that have continued to perpetuate the conditions that they are in today. For instance, Anique Jones of Chapman University has conducted research showing how in the mid to late 19th century, Puerto Rican women were subjected to a mass sterilization campaign that was funded by the US, as well as the coercive abortion pill trials that manipulated primarily unknowing women to be test subjects for a new drug they had little to no information about (Jones). Approximately one-third of Puerto Rican women were sterilized, with thousands of women being coerced to undergo the procedure (Jones). Similarly speaking, native Hawaiians were also subject to tactics that have also drastically reduced their populations. As noted in Kerri Inglis’ work from the University of Hawaii, a disease known as leprosy was ignorantly spread throughout Hawaii as the US allowed for the entry of foreign travelers to occupy the lands of the immunity-lacking native populations (Inglis). These native Hawaiians were met with long incubation periods that allowed for a dramatic decline in their populations which was promoted by the willful ignorance and lack of care for the pain felt by infected Hawaiians. As Americans were conducting research on the disease, Inglis described how even “if a treatment did not halt the bacteria it was deemed of no value, even if it gave temporary relief to the patient” (Inglis). Hawaiians were seen as test subjects plain and simple, and its intentionality in and of itself demonstrates just how destructive the scientific and medical fields were towards the colonized when at the hands of the oppressive powers like the United States.
Given this history of colonial and biomedical abuse, one can connect back to “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii” with a deeper understanding of the connection between Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Looking at the specific factors within Bad Bunny’s lyrics, his personification of Puerto Rico, symbolism regarding the native “coqui” frogs that the island is famous for, and comparison to Hawaii, it can be used to reveal the colonial and biomedical crimes committed by powerful nations like the United States on these vulnerable regions and how scientific racism was used to heavily expand upon these colonial and imperialist projects.
To start, Bad Bunny sings about how broken the island is and feels through its personification. He sings about how Puerto Rico is “aguantándose llorar,” (holding back tears) and repeats that the shores are “alcohol pa las herida’” (alcohol for the wounds) as “hay mucho que sanar” (there is a lot to heal) (Martinez Ocasio). Here, he establishes the pain that his home has endured and creates a more personal connection as he personifies the island as this feminine entity that is in a depressive and emotionally lacking state. Seeing how Puerto Rican women were met with coerced sterilizations, which many commonly referred to as La Operación, and violated their bodily autonomy, this connection to Puerto Rico as a feminine entity gives yet another reminder of the wounds the island, and specifically the women of Puerto Rico will forever hold. We are also told right off the bat that Puerto Rico is at a bad place, and taking a look at the title “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii” (What Happened to Hawaii) we can see how his home island is not the only victim to the exploitations by the hand of colonial powers.
Additionally, Bad Bunny sings about the ultimate forms of displacement that Puerto Ricans go through as they are driven out of the island saying how, “Se oye al jíbaro llorando, otro má’ que se marchó / No quería irse pa Orlando, pero el corrupto lo echó” (You hear the jíbaro crying, another one who left / He didn’t want to go to Orlando, but the corrupt man kicked him out) (Martinez Ocasio). Jíbaro, a term commonly used in Puerto Rico, refers to those who live in the countryside known for their resilience and strong pride, and he wants to exemplify the effects of American colonization on the island, as people are leaving in droves from the homes that they can no longer afford. He continues to build the similarities between Puerto Rico and Hawaii as the natives in Hawaii were also expelled from their lands due to the US essentially making them a tourist attraction and gentrifying Hawaii to the point where the natives became more of a second thought whenever any problems arose on the island.
Adding on, the medical exploitations against the Puerto Rican and Hawaiian peoples are interconnected to the sorrowing message that Bad Bunny passionately sings about. He sings about colonial forces wanting to, “quitarme el río y también la playa” (take away the river and the beach from me) and that they want “al barrio mío y que tus hijos se vayan” (my neighborhood and they want your children to leave) (Martinez Ocasio). When Bad Bunny sings of the US wanting the Puerto Rican children to leave, one can connect back to the fact that the US wanted to minimize the Puerto Rican population through coerced sterilizations and unethical abortion pill trials. The biomedical atrocities that were committed against these people fit in line with the words he sings about as a main motivator for these campaigns was for personal benefit of the United States, and to use the people of these islands as subjects to improve the livelihoods of Westerners, with those of the peripheral south being left out yet again. The United States saw these islands as expendable populations from their list of colonial projects when conducting these campaigns and Bad Bunny pointed out the material motivations for why they were conducted in the first place, to steal and control the lands of Hawaii and Puerto Rico through inhumane and immoral means.
Bad Bunny also repeats throughout the song, “Que no quiero que hagan contigo lo que le pasó a Hawái” (I don’t want them to do to you what happened to Hawaii), displaying how while both islands have gone through decades of oppression and unethical biomedical research methods, Hawaii has gone through such a dramatic shift in regards to maintaining their native culture and Puerto Rico is speeding up to join them as an almost fully gentrified and culturally lost space (Martinez Ocasio).
However, there is a sense of hope that Bad Bunny makes very clear: the oppressed must maintain pride and fight back to regain the basic rights that were stripped from them. He uses the sound of coquis in small moments throughout the song to show the strong pride and resilience he and the Puerto Rican people feel for their homeland (Martinez Ocasio). These frogs emphasize just how strong Bad Bunny’s relationship is to his homeland and how important it is to preserve one’s cultural ties when external imperialist forces attempt at diminishing them. He also sang about how Puerto Ricans and Hawaiians should not, “suelte’ la bandera” (let go of the flag), again demonstrating that while their homelands have been victim to several unethical biomedical research campaigns, one must stay strong for a better future and tell these stories through as many mediums as possible, to educate those who see this as forgotten history.
To reflect, this song establishes the historical shared experiences that both Hawaii and Puerto Rico share, and it is because of these experiences, specifically the scientific campaigns, that the islands will be forever connected through anticolonial ideals.
All in all, scientific research in regards to medicine was one of the main tools used to establish and maintain the colonial projects of the United States, especially that of Hawaii and Puerto Rico. Bad Bunny uses his lyrics and sound to emphasize the colonial abuses faced by the two islands and the close relationship they truly share. Bad Bunny’s “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii” is not just a message connecting back to the colonial history of Hawaii and Puerto Rico and its detrimental biomedical effects on the people there, it is a symbol of hope for a future where these islands are no longer haunted by the past and also one to make sure such inhumane acts never happen again, especially to the most vulnerable – the colonized.
Work Cited
Gonzalez, Skye L., “A Love Letter to Puerto Rico: Reggaetón as a Platform for Anti-Colonial Protest andBad Bunny’s Advocacy for Indigenous Sovereignty” (2025). Honors College Theses. 394. https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/honorscollege_theses/394
Inglis, Kerri A. ““Cure the dread disease”: 19th Century Attempts to Treat Leprosy in the Hawaiian Islands.” The Hawaiian Journal of History, 2009, https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/d705c0fa-6d21-4ae6-8d9f-2e463c6e08ef/content. Accessed 18 November 2025.
Jones, A. Y. (2025). The eugenic sterilization of Puerto Rican women: A case of US interests and religious/spiritual freedom [Master’s thesis, Chapman University]. Chapman University Digital Commons. https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000659
Martínez Ocasio, Benito A. “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii.” YouTube Music, https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=KMqquh3E4NE&list=QPCH2-Oj7mDG_EEtVzEadic0r2EdlyY9Tsu.