The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
From censored to celebrated
Wesleyan coordinator shares reggaetón’s influence in CT
HARTFORD — Historian Nina Vázquez is convinced that reggaetón is culture. She is passionate about sharing the impact of the genre on Puerto Rican culture on the island and in the diaspora.
“Reggaetón has so much history,” she said. “And it’s important to educate people on what it truly means for Puerto Ricans.”
Vázquez is a lifelong reggaetón fan and listed Arcángel, Villano Antillano and Bad Bunny as some of her favorite artists. She was born and raised in Aguada, Puerto Rico and moved to Meriden when she was 13 years old. She became interested in the history of reggaetón as a graduate student at the University of Connecticut. She enrolled in a hip-hop history course where she wrote a final paper on bilingualism and hip-hop.
“If he can have a course on hip-hop, then why isn’t there a course about reggaetón, and the history of Puerto Rican issues and politics?” she asked.
Vázquez started taking reggaetón seriously when she graduated from UConn in 2021. She got a job as a university assistant at Central Connecticut State University for the Upward Bound Program, and taught students in the program Black and Puerto Rican History through hip-hop and reggaetón music.
While at CCSU, Vázquez reached out to the Hasta ‘Bajo Project, a project which preserves the history of reggaetón and its cultural material through physical and digital archives and museums.
Vázquez is currently a coordinator at Wesleyan University for Upward Bound where she coordinates the summer programming. She taught a six-week reggaeton course in Summer 2023 and plans to bring it back this summer.
“I wanted to do something cool for the kids and what’s cooler than learning about reggaeton?” she said. “They loved it.”
Reggaetón culture as Connecticut culture
Vázquez showcased Connecticut’s significant influence in shaping the genre at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History on Thursday.
The museum invited Vázquez to share her expertise on the genre and is part of the museum’s initiative to celebrate all cultures in Connecticut.
Vázquez “strives to make Puerto Rican history accessible, and we are so happy and honored to have her here,” said Director of Cultural Sustainability Kate Schramm.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 298,000 Puerto Ricans live in Connecticut, making Connecticut one of seven states with the largest Puerto Rican populations.
Many Puerto Ricans in Connecticut live in cities, especially Hartford, according to the Puerto Rican Studies Initiative at the University of Connecticut. A little over a third of the city was Puerto Rican, which has the highest Puerto Rican population in Connecticut. Other cities and towns with a high Puerto Rican population are New Haven, New London, Waterbury and Meriden.
Because of this high Puerto Rican population, Vázquez explains that Connecticut was influential in contributing to the reggaetón genre.
“Bad Bunny is coming to Hartford next week,” she said. “Why? Because that’s his market and there is a huge population of us.”
History of reggaetón
Many associate reggaeton with current Puerto Rican artists Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro and Tainy. While Vázquez is a fan of those artists, she said it was important to teach the origins of the genre.
She explained that the genre originated in the 1990s in Carolina and San Juan, Puerto Rico from reggae, hip-hop, reggae in Español, Salsa and Bomba. It comes from the underground scene of Puerto Rico such as the projects, barrios and underground clubs.
During the early years of reggaeton, the genre was censored and banned on the island.
“Police would raid neighborhoods where they thought music was being made,” Vázquez said. “They would destroy cassette tapes. This was because many artists would write about their lives which included violence, drugs and just what they were exposed to.”
Expanding the influence
In 2016, Bomba Radio became assessable to Connecticut residents, which was huge for the Puerto Rican population.
“With Bomba, Puerto Ricans were able to stay connected to their culture and have music available to them at any time,” she said.
The aftermath of Hurrican Maria in 2017 led to a large influx of Puerto Ricans, who are still listening to reggaeton.
Magaly Cajigas, board member of Puerto Rico United Inc. in New Haven, attended the event and shared her experience with the genre.
She remembers that beloved reggaetón artist Jose Alberto Torres Abreu, known as Yomo, performed at the 2022 New Haven Puerto Rican Festival. Even though organizers were concerned about the potential kind of crowds that might attend, she explained that they wanted to broaden the idea of what counts as Puerto Rican culture.
“A sponsor was wanted to incorporate reggaetón to the lineup and at first there was people worried about the type of music, but we realized, you can’t celebrate Puerto Rican culture without reggaetón,” she said. “There were around 15-20,000 there to see him. It was huge.”